Guest Post by Linda Raybern
Has your congregation ever participated in a “Noisy Offering”? Linda Raybern from Valley Presbyterian Church in Green Valley, AZ describes the tradition in her congregation, and how they have managed to donate $1800 to the Presbyterian Giving Catalog!
I am a member of Valley Presbyterian Church‘s Mission Committee. Mission is a very big part of our church, as are many other ministries. VPC tries to embrace the needs of Christ’s children, young and old.
Every month that has a fifth Sunday we have a noisy offering for Mission. We ask the congregation to bring all their change. We have tin coffee cans and make a lot of noise as the cans are passed around to receive the change. We have lots of laughs as the cans are passed around. It is a wonderful time of joy in giving.
The Mission Committee voted for our Advent project to be Refugee baskets from the Presbyterian Giving Catalog. We also voted to take the monies from the noisy offering and then make up any difference up to eighteen hundred dollars.
The Mission Committee advertised the Advent project by putting information in the Sunday bulletins, on the website, e-blasts, and our pastors’ Sunday morning announcements Well, we made eight hundred dollars from noisy offering and the rest of the monies came from Mission’s funds. All the monies are from the loving spirit of giving from VPC members.
VPC via The Mission Committee has at present, 19 charities we give yearly to and have special offerings and giving needs like our Advent project throughout the year. At the end of each year we have no monies left for Missions as VPC gives all the finds away to the needy. And so, at the start of each year Christ’s work starts again.
Our congregation is a older one, as Green Valley is a retirement community, but the giving heart of our congregation is loving and is also generous with their time and efforts to the needs of VPC and our community.
In accordance with Christ’s examples and the members of the Presbyterian Church’s many selfless acts of giving through the years VPC believes in mission as strongly today as did the spirit of giving and mission work of so many Presbyterians throughout the centuries.
The mission work of Christ is still very much alive and well, not just at VPC – but in the hearts of so many around the world. It is not the riches of the pocket, but the spirit of Christ in the hearts of his children that make mission possible everywhere in whatever form it is given.
Christ’s Blessings,
Linda Raybern
Thank you for sharing, Linda! To share your stories with Special Offerings, email specialofferings@pcusa.org.