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Church Life
Questions Concerning Church Collections (2)
G Van Rongen - published in Una Sancta Volume 50, Number 10, 22 March 2003
Development
At the end of our first instalment we mentioned the name of John Calvin, and the close relationship he saw between the offerings and the Lord's Supper: the latter is also a matter of having communion with one another, rich and poor alike.
It must be from his ideas that in many churches on the European Continent it became a tradition to have a container or bowl at each end of the Lord's Supper Table, where the participants could make a monetary donation.
Certainly, this was not the only 'church collection', for the Lord's Supper was not
celebrated every Sunday, but, in most churches, according to medieval tradition, only on Easter, Pentecost, Christmas and (but not everywhere) in the month of September.
That this was not in harmony with John Calvin's lifelong ideal to have the practice of the ancient church restored of celebrating this sacrament at least every Sunday, may be clear, yet the close relationship between it and the care for the needy was in this way maintained.
What about the Sundays on which the Lord's Supper was not administered?
We may understand that the collection had to be given another place. Initially the Dutch churches had their collection after the service, "at the door". Old church services books show us that immediately after the Benediction of Numbers 6 had been 'laid upon the congregation', the people were exhorted to be generous, which was done with the words: "Remember the poor!"
At a later stage these churches returned to the Scriptural practice expressed in the Heidelberg Catechism when it says that in the fourth commandment God requires that,
especially on the day of rest, I diligently attend the church of God, to hear God's Word, to use the sacraments, to call publicly upon the LORD, and to give Christian offerings to the poor.
That the Offerings are supposed to be taken during the service, and not "at the door", may be clear from the Heidelberg Church Order, into which the Catechism was incorporated when its fourth print was published. For that Church Order included the following regulation:
Since it belongs to the upbuilding of the Christian church that poor and needy
members of Christ are cared for, nourished and refreshed, for which purpose the early Christian church had her deacons and almoners, the alms of the people shall be gathered by means of the collection bag on Sundays and festive days.
Now we can safely presume that, because a collection for the needy was held in every worship service, whereas the Lord's Supper was celebrated four or six times a year only, many congregations decided to take the silver containers from the Table, so that today there is only a minority of congregations maintaining this tradition.
Of course, every congregation is free to maintain or re-introduce this tradition, or not to do so. However, there are some difficulties: What about the gifts of our young, non-communicant, members? Having two collections for this purpose, one at the Table and another 'ordinary' collection, is a bit superfluous.
However, in the meantime it is regrettable that in this way the relationship between the "collection for the needy" and the Lord's Supper is broken.
Which also means that quite easily we bring our Offerings as a mere tradition, without consciously expressing our gratitude for what, by His sufferings and death, our Saviour has done for rich and poor believers alike.
Purposes
So far about the question regarding the tradition of having a silver bowl or container at the Table of the Lord's Supper. We now turn to another question, asked from several sides: For which purposes shall we have collections in our worship services?
The answer may be clear from what we have explained thus far: The Offerings brought at the Table of the Lord or in services in which this sacrament was not administered, had a charitable character: their destination was the needy. The original purpose of the liturgical element of the Offerings is: to take care of those in need.
Consequence of this is that collections "for the church", let alone "for the deficit", "for the church building fund" and suchlike are not in harmony with this Scriptural tradition, restored and maintained by the Reformed churches in the course of their history. These funds must be filled in a different way.
In this way we would act in conformance with what we confess with our Catechism, that we shall
diligently attend the church of God,… to give Christian offerings to the poor.
Church and non-church purposes
To the biblical and historical material passed on in both parts of this article could be added the many places where the apostle Paul in his epistles writes about the collection for the saints at Jerusalem.
This implies that the concept of "needy" should not be restricted to the local congregation. There are "needy" members in other congregations as well. The "general question time" at Classes can also be used to get information whether the other congregations are able to satisfactorily care for their needy. There are even "needy churches", and "needy students".
All these 'purposes' can be understood as "church purposes". But what about non-ecclesiastical purposes.
Scripture also includes the rule of Galatians 6:10, where it says:
Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Here preference is given to fellow-church-members, and this rule must be obeyed in church life. However, it leaves room for showing charity to others as well. This may also be based on the Old Testament that included the instruction to show hospitality and charity to "the stranger".
Recently our churches have reached the conclusion that looking after those who are not of the household of faith doesn't belong to the duties of the deacons. In this respect their duty is only to stimulate the church-members to show this charity on an individual basis. It seems to me that there is room for difference of opinion in this respect, but this is not the place to start a discussion on that matter, because our main point is that our church collections must be of a charitable character [1].
"Especially on the day of rest"
I am well aware of the fact that these words in Lord's Day 38 of our Catechism refer to attending church: sometimes there are worship services on weekdays. However, we can apply them also to the collections: these are especially a matter of "the day of rest", a Sunday affair.
It was the Lord Jesus Himself Who strongly connected doing well to others with the Sabbath: Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath day, or to do evil? (Mark 3:4).
In his commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism Zacharias Ursinus refers to Nehemiah 8:10, where it says: Send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy unto the LORD. The Sunday is the proper way to be charitable. This again underlines the necessity to restrict the church collections to those of a charitable character.
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As for national calamities, a collection for such a purpose has a charitable character indeed. I would not exclude the possibility to arrange such a collection. In this respect I have in mind a parallel line with the fact that every synod appoints one of the churches to declare a special "day of prayer" in case of national calamities and suchlike. Herein we show to be aware of our responsibilities regarding national life: as churches we are living in a certain country, under a government, and we are part of the national community.
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