Traditionally, we have never received an offering on our midweek service… basically, I felt once per week was plenty, and God always provided for us financially in abundance.
For some time, I had been trying to think of a way to bring a stronger focus on missions in our church, and one evening a new convert came and asked me if we could do offering on Wednesday, too, because he “loves offering time”. So I decided to begin bringing an offering each Wednesday specifically for Missions.
Taking Acts 1:8, I have broken it down into 4 “areas” of missions. Since there are typically 4 weeks in a month, I can cycle through these areas week by week and highlight a segment of each area as we do it. Jesus said we’d be witnesses in: 1) Jerusalem, 2) Judea, 3) Samaria, and 4) The uttermost part of the earth. I matched those areas up like this…
1. Jerusalem = Local church missions/outreach
2. Judea = Michigan Home Missions
3. Samaria = National Home Missions (Christmas for Christ)
4. Uttermost = Foreign Missions
Each midweek during offering, I highlight that week’s area, and specifically promote a particular segment of that area. For example, week one I might highlight one of our church’s ministries or evangelism efforts. Week two, I highlight one of our Home Missionaries in the state, and talk about their family, city, revival reports, etc. Week three is typically a Metro missionary or HMD ministry, and Week 4 is a foreign missionary.
All of the funds taken on a particular week go directly into that area’s offering. If a month has 5 weeks in it, we just do Jerusalem again.
This has been very successful for our church, and helps to both raise funds for ministries and bring awareness for missions to our members.