You know that moment in a worship service where time stands still—the pause in which the person delivering the offertory prayer walks to the stage? If you like flow, that person may be on stage already, but there is still that moment—no music playing, pause, silence, ready at the mic.

“Oh, someone is about to speak,” thinks your congregation.

It’s heightened further if that someone is not a pastor or worship leader. “Oh, it’s one of us. A lay person!,” thinks your congregation.

That’s the moment of maximum attention in your worship service.

And most weeks…

You waste it.

You waste the moment of maximum attention in your worship service.

The generic but not too necessary, “Would our ushers prepare to wait on us.”

Followed by the sincere but expected, “Let us pray,” and an offertory prayer.

Good, yes. Needed, yes. But, you can do so much better with one, simple, weekly tweak.

If you want to increase generosity in your church, you should include an offering talk with every offering.

An offering talk is a simple statement of less than 60 seconds that immediately proceeds the offertory prayer and collecting the offering. An offering talk maximizes that moment of maximum attention.

What do you say in an offering talk? What do you not say in an offering talk? Some of that is included in our Generous Giving series. You can seek to increase the confidence of your congregation. You can challenge them to or celebrate greater engagement in a variety of ways. And, if you run out of other ideas, you can always return to your why in one form or another.

An offering talk can go something like this…

“We are a church that believes in (state your value/mission/vision). And because we believe in that, we have (state your single ministry focus for that offering talk). When you give to our church you support (that week’s ministry focus). Recently, (give a brief example of that value in that ministry). Thank you for being a generous church! Let’s pray.”

No need to invite the ushers forward. You told them to walk up as the person delivering the offering talk begins speaking.

Bonus points if the person delivering the offering talk is a layperson. Double bonus if the person serves in that ministry. High score if they share a brief, personal anecdote from their ministry. All within 60 seconds.

Don’t waste the moment of maximum attention in your worship service. With a little planning you can maximize that moment with an offering talk and easily increase the generosity of your congregation at the same time.

The following posts will provide more clarity on offering talks, but you’ve got the idea. Add some intentionality and include an offering talk this week.

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