I recently visited a church and the service ended–but they didn’t have an offering. I was dumbfounded. How does this work? Then I looked more closely at the bulletin and noticed a note saying people could give on-line or put their giving into one of the boxes in the hallway.

Hmmm… I started to mull this over. Certainly there’s no problem with this. I really saw it as a move of trust in God. People would have more of an opportunity to forget, plus visitors wouldn’t pitch in a few dollars. They would have to depend upon God to prompt people to not forget and not have the offertory to remind them. God would have to come through for them!

Then I started thinking of how Larry and I have begun having an automatic withdrawal done for our giving for missionaries. That way we don’t forget. Wonderful technology!

But then I started thinking of it a little different. By us not being involved in giving, were we diminishing our dependence on hearing God? Obeying God? Depending upon God? Was the opportunity of turning our attention to God and asking, “I’m about to make my payments to the missionaries we support, Lord, is there anything you want us to do different this month?” Technology diminishes the privilege of seeking His will. Of course, we can still do that with automatic withdrawal, but will we be more lax because we aren’t reminded?

Hm, I’m still mulling this over. Something to think about…