A church in north China's Shanxi Province hosted a live television interview about offering.
On the evening of April 28, Yaodu District Church in Linfen City, Shanxi Province held an online interview titled "Talks by Pastor’s Desk: Offering Is the Path to God’s Blessing".
During the interviews, four pastoral co-workers focused on the theme of "Blessing and Offering", sharing over the course of five different sessions covering the topics "What Is Blessing", "Discussion on Being Blessed", "Understanding of Offering at Different Life Stages", "Tithing" and " Wholehearted Devotion”.
What Is Blessing
Opening by talking about the "blessing" in daily life, Pastor Wang Shuai led guests to discuss the meaning of God’s blessing.
Talking about "blessing/good fortune" in the context of the traditional Chinese culture, Rev. Huang Hailin first explained the connection between blessings and personal achievements in traditional concepts. Next, Deacon Li brought up his own opinions about attaining blessings by relying on human beings or relying on God. Based on the life on earth and the eternal life in the future, Pastor Tian Pengshuai compared the two ways of pursuing blessings adopted by non-Christians who "live in the present" and the Christians who "look for eternity".
Pastor Huang briefly summarized the views of these co-workers that in the secular concept, in pursuit of blessings people often paid more attention to the results rather than the pathway to obtain blessings. While, in faith, the primary principle of Christians' pursuit of blessings would be through the right path of offering.
Deacon Li and Pastor Wang Shuai advised that blessing in Christ not only referred to "receiving from God", but also "offering and giving back to God". When our focus shifts from ourselves to God, considering offering and giving to God as being blessed, we experience the beauty and wonder of our intimacy with Him, which at the same time would enrich and mature our own lives. Therefore, giving is an important way, as Christians, to express our gratitude and witness God’s blessings.
Discussion on Being Blessed
As it went deeper into the topic, Wang invited four believers who served in grassroots positions such as church fellowship, choir, and logistics, for onsite interviews to learn about their views on serving and offering.
In the video interviews, a female believer named Li Yanli, who had been dedicated to the renovation and construction of the church for many years, believed that "offering was righteousness". Another female believer called Wei Bin, who came from a pastoral family and inherited the family tradition of serving, perceived that "they could experience God’s calling and grow their knowledge about Him through offerings." A male believer Liu Xiaochun, who worked heartily in the church and served at the grassroots level, thought that “his life grew and matured in devotion”. A female believer Wang Shenghua, who served in the choir, was convinced that “everything she had was given to her by God, so giving was a way of repaying God."
Their answers were different from one another since their religious experience and serving positions varied. However, all the staff members mentioned an important point in their interviews, that was, being blessed by giving. Furthermore, they all agreed that the more you served, the more you find yourself indebted to God.
Understanding of Offering at Different Life Stages
Based on the previous video interviews, the host Pastor Wang Shuai introduced the theme of the third session "The Understanding of Offering at Different Life Stages”.
In regard to this topic, Rev. Huang first proposed that with the continuous growth of personal spiritual life, Christians should continue to deepen their understanding of offering and their relationship with God, which would bring more different expressions of faith. The two basic elements of giving are gratitude and faith.
Next, Deacon Li added that offering was also a manifestation of the power of faith. Later, he used the example of Jacob's vow to God at Bethel to show that believers were often weak when it came to offering, and that they considered it to be a burden. Such weakness was related to their faith in life.
Li indicated that God delighted in offerings, so He did not judge by the size of sacrifices, nor did He despise man’s weakness before Him. Therefore, Christians needed to know that we were very limited before God, but His love and compassion towards them were unlimited. Thus, how much they gave didn’t matter, but their willingness mattered. In giving, they got to know both God and ourselves better, which would help them receive greater blessings.
Afterwards, Pastor Tian compared the different attitudes of the Israelites towards their own houses and the holy temples in the Old Testament, to the bearings of many dedicated believers in the church today, with which he explained the different stances towards giving in the different stages of spiritual life.
In order to help believers sort out the teachings on offering in the Bible, Rev. Huang introduced the development and evolution of giving according to the timeline of the biblical records.
In the Old Testament, offerings were mainly manifested in the form of sacrifices. Whether it was an animal or a grain sacrifice, each one required actual material offerings. However, after the return of the Israelites from captivity, many prophets called for the reconstruction of the temple as an offering, which was the climax of the evolution of offerings. Later in the New Testament era, although there was no clear requirement, the Lord Jesus highly valued believers’ offerings. The poor widow who took out two small brass coins and the child who offered five barley loaves and two fish both received praise before Jesus. In the days of the apostles, Paul also encouraged believers to be willing to give to God. Nowadays, as we sacrifice, we would love the church even more and also be more intimately connected with God in love and faith.
As for many believers' incomplete understanding of offerings, these pastors reminded us that offerings were not to fill what was lacking by God or the church but to experience God's actions more deeply through them. Thereinafter, it was very important to give offerings willingly to the Lord.
In addition, the pastors also advised believers not to regard offerings as charity to God, or as a bargaining chip in exchange for His grace.
Tithing
These pastors pointed out that tithing was taught in the Bible as the share we should pay, and an expression of our care for the church. Many Christians often had a misunderstanding of giving, thinking that when the church was asking for money when bringing up "tithing". In fact, the original intention of giving was to help believers find a way to respond to the Lord’s grace. In Malachi 3:10, we see that God also cares about our weaknesses, so he encouraged us to try tithing, believing that God would " throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so many blessing onto us."
Wholehearted Devotion
In the final session, three full-time evangelists Huang, Wang, and Tian respectively shared their correct understanding and exhortation on wholehearted devotion based on how they were called to serve and started their spiritual journey.
Many laymen were very envious of the full-time pastors in the church, thinking that only being them could be considered entirely serving God. As to this viewpoint, the three full-time pastors suggested that every pastor needed to go through many battles against weakness when embarking on the path of full-time service. However, as the path of service went further and deeper, they felt more comforted and uplifted in serving.
Nevertheless, wholehearted devotion didn’t just mean giving up everything and only serving in ministry full time. Every layman could also devote whole-heartedly to his own work and life by actively obeying God’s will, living out Christ’s life of giving himself for us, and highlighting Christ’s passion and grace, which could all become a wholehearted devotion.
At the end of the live broadcast, summarizing the entirety of the interviews, Wang stressed that offering did not mean simply giving. As believers' spiritual life continues to grow, they would have more burdens for the church, which would be naturally followed by their willingness to offer. As they continued to give, they accumulate wealth for the blessing of eternal life. Therefore, an offering was the path to blessing. No matter what stage of life they were at, they should do their best to devote themselves and restore a relationship of love and faith with God in His grace. God didn’t mind how much they gave but cared more about their heart of giving.
- Translated by Shuya Wang
4月28日晚，山西临汾尧都区基督教会举行了“教牧桌边谈——蒙福的途径：奉献”的线上访谈活动。活动特邀该堂黄海林牧师、田鹏帅传道、李长斌执事作为嘉宾参与访谈，王帅传道主持。
在当晚的访谈中，四位牧者同工围绕“蒙福与奉献”主题，从“什么是蒙福”“蒙福大家谈”“不同生命阶段对奉献的理解”“十一奉献”以及“全身心的奉献”五个环节进行了分享交流。
什么是蒙福
访谈开场，王帅传道从日常生活中的“福气”为引语，带领大家展开了关于蒙福含义的探讨。
黄海林牧师首先结合中华传统“福”文化，向大家阐述了传统观念中福气与个人成就的联系；李执事则从靠人得福与靠神得福的角度提出了自己的见解；田传道则基于地上生命与将来永恒生命，对比了“立足当下”的非基督徒与“放眼永恒”的基督徒两种群体对于福气追求的异同。
围绕各位同工的观点，黄牧师简单进行了小结：在世俗观念中，人们对福气的追求往往更加看重结果，而忽略得福的途径；而在信仰中，基督徒追求蒙福的首要原则，则是应当正确认识蒙福的途径——奉献。
李执事与王传道劝勉：基督里的蒙福不仅指“从神得着”，更是指“向着神的付出与回馈”，当我们关注焦点从自身转移至神的身上，将为神付出、摆上视为蒙福时，我们便会在感受与神关系的美好奇妙的同时，令自己的生命更加丰盛成熟。因此，奉献是我们基督徒表达感恩与见证福气的重要方式。
蒙福大家谈
随着话题的深入，王帅传道以外景采访的形式询问了4位在教会团契、诗班、后勤等基层岗位服侍的弟兄姊妹，了解大家对于服侍与奉献的看法。
采访视频中，多年来坚持为教堂装修建设做出奉献的李艳丽姊妹认为“奉献是理所应当的”；而出身牧者家庭，继承服侍家风的卫彬姊妹则认为“在奉献中体会到神的呼召，也在奉献中增进神的认识”；在教堂任劳任怨，扎根基层服侍的刘晓春弟兄认为“自己的生命在奉献中成长成熟”；诗班服侍的姊妹王胜华姊妹则认为“自己的一切都是神所赐的，因此奉献是回报神恩赐的方式。”
尽管由于信仰经历、服侍岗位各异。大家的回答不尽相同。但是，接受采访的同工们都不约而同地提到了重要的一点，即在奉献中蒙福，而且，大家也一致认为，越侍奉，越发现自己向着神的亏欠。
不同生命阶段对奉献的理解
结合视频采访，主持人王帅传道引出了第三环节的主题——不同生命阶段对奉献有着不同的理解。
基于这一话题，黄牧师首先提出，随着个人灵命的不断成长，基督徒对于奉献的认识，以及与神的关系也会不断地加深，随之带来更加不同的信心表达。而奉献的两个基本要素，正是感恩与信心。
随后，李执事补充道：奉献同时也是信仰力量的体现。随后，他以雅各在伯特利向神许愿的例子，向大家表明：面对奉献，我们时常会软弱，认为奉献是一种负担。而这样的软弱就跟我们信仰生命有关。
李传道指出，神喜悦奉献，祂不以奉献的大小多寡为论断，祂也不嫌弃人在神面前的软弱。因此，我们需要知道，自己在神面前是十分有限的，但神向着我们的爱与包容是无限的。因此，奉献无关多寡，而是自己的心意。在奉献中，我们更认识神也更认识自己，也会帮助我们得着更大的祝福。
接着，田鹏帅传道又以旧约中以色列人对自己的房屋与圣殿的不同态度，以及当今教会中许多热心奉献的弟兄姊妹作为对比，阐述了属灵生命的不同阶段对于奉献摆上的不同态度。
为了帮助大家梳理圣经中对于奉献的教导，黄牧师按照圣经记载脉络向大家介绍了奉献发展演变的历程：
在旧约中，奉献主要以献祭的形式体现，不论是牲畜祭还是素祭，都需要实际物质的摆上；而到了以色列人被掳回归后，许多先知呼吁重建圣殿进行奉献，这达到了奉献演变历程的高潮；而在新约时代，虽然对于奉献没有明确的要求，但是主耶稣是十分看重信徒的奉献的，不论是穷寡妇的两个小钱，还是奉献五饼二鱼的小孩子，都在耶稣面前蒙了恩典；使徒时代，保罗也鼓励信徒，应当甘心乐意为神摆上；回到现在的教会中，随着我们的付出摆上，我们就会更爱教会，与神的爱与信心关系也更加亲密。
对于许多信徒对于奉献的片面理解，诸位牧者传道也向大家发出了提示，奉献并非是为了填补神或教会的缺乏，而是借着奉献更深的经历上帝的作为。因此，甘心乐意地为主摆上十分重要。
另外，牧者也向大家发出提醒，不要将奉献视为对神的施舍，也不要将向着神的奉献当作交换恩典的筹码。
十一奉献
几位传道指出，十一奉献是圣经所教导的，是我们当纳的份，这是我们对教会顾念的表示。许多基督徒常常对奉献存在着理解的偏差，认为就是教会提“十一奉献”就是要钱。实际上，谈奉献的初衷是希望大家能够找到回应主恩典的方式。在玛拉基书3章10节中，神也顾念我们的软弱，因此鼓励我们尝试进行十一奉献，相信神会“敞开天上的窗户，倾福与我们。”
全身心的奉献
在最后的环节中，黄、王、田三位全职传道分别结合自己受呼召走上服侍道路的心路历程，向大家着重分享了关于全身心奉献的正确认识以及劝勉。
许多平信徒对于教会中全职服侍的传道人十分羡慕，认为只有做传道人才能算是为主全然的侍奉。对于这一观点，三位全职传道提出了自己的看法，他们表示，每位传道人走上全职侍奉的道路时，同样需要经历许多的软弱争战，但是，随着侍奉道路的进深，也越能在侍奉中得到安慰与造就。
但是，全身心奉献并不仅仅指抛下一切，全职做服侍工作，每位平信徒在各自的工作生活中也可以做到全身心的奉献，通过积极遵行神的旨意，活出基督舍己服侍的生命，彰显基督的荣美形象，这样都可以成为全身心的奉献。
在直播尾声，王帅传道对整场访谈进行了总结，他指出，奉献不仅仅意味着单纯付出，随着我们灵命不断成长，我们对于教会的负担也就更多，自然而然就会有奉献的心志。而随着我们不断摆上，我们是在为永恒生命的蒙福积累财富，因此，奉献是蒙福的途径，不论大家处在什么样的生命阶段，都应当尽己所能做好奉献，在神的恩典中不断与神恢复爱与信心的关系。神不看重我们的奉献多寡，更加看重我们的奉献的心。
山西临汾尧都区基督教会举行“教牧桌边谈”线上访谈直播活动
A church in north China's Shanxi Province hosted a live television interview about offering.
On the evening of April 28, Yaodu District Church in Linfen City, Shanxi Province held an online interview titled "Talks by Pastor’s Desk: Offering Is the Path to God’s Blessing".
During the interviews, four pastoral co-workers focused on the theme of "Blessing and Offering", sharing over the course of five different sessions covering the topics "What Is Blessing", "Discussion on Being Blessed", "Understanding of Offering at Different Life Stages", "Tithing" and " Wholehearted Devotion”.
What Is Blessing
Opening by talking about the "blessing" in daily life, Pastor Wang Shuai led guests to discuss the meaning of God’s blessing.
Talking about "blessing/good fortune" in the context of the traditional Chinese culture, Rev. Huang Hailin first explained the connection between blessings and personal achievements in traditional concepts. Next, Deacon Li brought up his own opinions about attaining blessings by relying on human beings or relying on God. Based on the life on earth and the eternal life in the future, Pastor Tian Pengshuai compared the two ways of pursuing blessings adopted by non-Christians who "live in the present" and the Christians who "look for eternity".
Pastor Huang briefly summarized the views of these co-workers that in the secular concept, in pursuit of blessings people often paid more attention to the results rather than the pathway to obtain blessings. While, in faith, the primary principle of Christians' pursuit of blessings would be through the right path of offering.
Deacon Li and Pastor Wang Shuai advised that blessing in Christ not only referred to "receiving from God", but also "offering and giving back to God". When our focus shifts from ourselves to God, considering offering and giving to God as being blessed, we experience the beauty and wonder of our intimacy with Him, which at the same time would enrich and mature our own lives. Therefore, giving is an important way, as Christians, to express our gratitude and witness God’s blessings.
Discussion on Being Blessed
As it went deeper into the topic, Wang invited four believers who served in grassroots positions such as church fellowship, choir, and logistics, for onsite interviews to learn about their views on serving and offering.
In the video interviews, a female believer named Li Yanli, who had been dedicated to the renovation and construction of the church for many years, believed that "offering was righteousness". Another female believer called Wei Bin, who came from a pastoral family and inherited the family tradition of serving, perceived that "they could experience God’s calling and grow their knowledge about Him through offerings." A male believer Liu Xiaochun, who worked heartily in the church and served at the grassroots level, thought that “his life grew and matured in devotion”. A female believer Wang Shenghua, who served in the choir, was convinced that “everything she had was given to her by God, so giving was a way of repaying God."
Their answers were different from one another since their religious experience and serving positions varied. However, all the staff members mentioned an important point in their interviews, that was, being blessed by giving. Furthermore, they all agreed that the more you served, the more you find yourself indebted to God.
Understanding of Offering at Different Life Stages
Based on the previous video interviews, the host Pastor Wang Shuai introduced the theme of the third session "The Understanding of Offering at Different Life Stages”.
In regard to this topic, Rev. Huang first proposed that with the continuous growth of personal spiritual life, Christians should continue to deepen their understanding of offering and their relationship with God, which would bring more different expressions of faith. The two basic elements of giving are gratitude and faith.
Next, Deacon Li added that offering was also a manifestation of the power of faith. Later, he used the example of Jacob's vow to God at Bethel to show that believers were often weak when it came to offering, and that they considered it to be a burden. Such weakness was related to their faith in life.
Li indicated that God delighted in offerings, so He did not judge by the size of sacrifices, nor did He despise man’s weakness before Him. Therefore, Christians needed to know that we were very limited before God, but His love and compassion towards them were unlimited. Thus, how much they gave didn’t matter, but their willingness mattered. In giving, they got to know both God and ourselves better, which would help them receive greater blessings.
Afterwards, Pastor Tian compared the different attitudes of the Israelites towards their own houses and the holy temples in the Old Testament, to the bearings of many dedicated believers in the church today, with which he explained the different stances towards giving in the different stages of spiritual life.
In order to help believers sort out the teachings on offering in the Bible, Rev. Huang introduced the development and evolution of giving according to the timeline of the biblical records.
In the Old Testament, offerings were mainly manifested in the form of sacrifices. Whether it was an animal or a grain sacrifice, each one required actual material offerings. However, after the return of the Israelites from captivity, many prophets called for the reconstruction of the temple as an offering, which was the climax of the evolution of offerings. Later in the New Testament era, although there was no clear requirement, the Lord Jesus highly valued believers’ offerings. The poor widow who took out two small brass coins and the child who offered five barley loaves and two fish both received praise before Jesus. In the days of the apostles, Paul also encouraged believers to be willing to give to God. Nowadays, as we sacrifice, we would love the church even more and also be more intimately connected with God in love and faith.
As for many believers' incomplete understanding of offerings, these pastors reminded us that offerings were not to fill what was lacking by God or the church but to experience God's actions more deeply through them. Thereinafter, it was very important to give offerings willingly to the Lord.
In addition, the pastors also advised believers not to regard offerings as charity to God, or as a bargaining chip in exchange for His grace.
Tithing
These pastors pointed out that tithing was taught in the Bible as the share we should pay, and an expression of our care for the church. Many Christians often had a misunderstanding of giving, thinking that when the church was asking for money when bringing up "tithing". In fact, the original intention of giving was to help believers find a way to respond to the Lord’s grace. In Malachi 3:10, we see that God also cares about our weaknesses, so he encouraged us to try tithing, believing that God would " throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so many blessing onto us."
Wholehearted Devotion
In the final session, three full-time evangelists Huang, Wang, and Tian respectively shared their correct understanding and exhortation on wholehearted devotion based on how they were called to serve and started their spiritual journey.
Many laymen were very envious of the full-time pastors in the church, thinking that only being them could be considered entirely serving God. As to this viewpoint, the three full-time pastors suggested that every pastor needed to go through many battles against weakness when embarking on the path of full-time service. However, as the path of service went further and deeper, they felt more comforted and uplifted in serving.
Nevertheless, wholehearted devotion didn’t just mean giving up everything and only serving in ministry full time. Every layman could also devote whole-heartedly to his own work and life by actively obeying God’s will, living out Christ’s life of giving himself for us, and highlighting Christ’s passion and grace, which could all become a wholehearted devotion.
At the end of the live broadcast, summarizing the entirety of the interviews, Wang stressed that offering did not mean simply giving. As believers' spiritual life continues to grow, they would have more burdens for the church, which would be naturally followed by their willingness to offer. As they continued to give, they accumulate wealth for the blessing of eternal life. Therefore, an offering was the path to blessing. No matter what stage of life they were at, they should do their best to devote themselves and restore a relationship of love and faith with God in His grace. God didn’t mind how much they gave but cared more about their heart of giving.
- Translated by Shuya Wang
Shanxi Church Hosts Livestreamed Interview Themed “Offering Is Blessing”
