Giving Attitudes

Worship outside the United States is always fascinating to me. This project is easier than usual because the services are conducted in English, though it is a second language for all but one woman and us. There are more similarities than differences in what I'm used to at Central in Cincinnati. They use the same hymnal, but, as we do, have all the songs on PowerPoint so that books are unnecessary. Communion is before the sermon, and the communion talk is very scripture-based.

When giving the prayer before taking contributions, the gentleman leading the prayer said that we should be "cheering givers." In the next sentence, he corrected it to "cheerful givers," but his slip of the tongue made me think. It would be terrific if we could also be cheering givers--cheering God for his blessings, cheering God for his Son, cheering each other on in our Christian walks. We do want to glorify God in our lives, but "glorify" is kind of a "churchy" word. Maybe we could get more enthusiastic about living for God if we looked at it as cheering God!