CHEERFUL GIVERS AND TAKERS
Church tells needy to take some cash
Pastor:Taking lesson from Bible
EVIN DEMIREL ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Inspired by first-century Christians in the Middle East and 21st-century Christians in Memphis, a North Little Rock church on Sunday dished out a “reverse offering,” giving away $5,000 to needy congregants. The Summit Church worshippers received cash to pay medical and electric bills, buy children’s school clothes, make a security deposit for an apartment, and replace a broken washing machine, said pastor Bill Elliff, who helped found the church 11 years ago. “We want to become a church where there’s no more need,” he said. So at the end of each of the church’s three Sunday services, baskets with small bills were laid out at the front of the sanctuary. “I told them ‘We don’t want one dime of this left,’” Elliff, 57, said. At first, members hesitated. “I had to really prod the
people about that you’ve got to get over pride about walking down here,” he said. “And don’t deprive us and deprive God of the joy of meeting your need.” After a few minutes, Elliff said, they started coming. “Man, they were just weeping. It was just a lot of joy going on,” Elliff said. “It was pretty incredible.” Some churchgoers stepped forward, not to take, but to give. By the time the last service ended, all but $3 had been given away. The Southern Baptist church, which has an average weekly attendance of 1,100 to 1,200 people, took the $5,000 out of its budget, Elliff said. It takes in $32,000 in offerings a week. Church leaders decided on the unorthodox act a few weeks ago as part of a sermon series on giving, Elliff said. The church had studied first-century Christians in Asia Minor and Jerusalem who shared money and possessions despite their own poverty. “In the New Testament, church people held all their possessions with a loose hand,” he said. “We began to think about it in the context of today’s economy,” he said. “Even in the midst of a downturn ... we should be giving more to illustrate the sufficiency of God.” News from a Memphis church originally piqued Elliff’s interest in what he called a “reverse offering.” In July, Josh Ross, a preaching minister at Sycamore View Church of Christ, gave away $3,200 of the church’s cash to his congregation. Like Elliff, Ross was inspired by the book of Acts and by the biblical concept of Jubilee, “where debts are canceled, and people come together to take care of the community.” Ross, 28, said he had heard about similar giveaways from a church in Michigan as well as churches in Ireland and Africa, which make “reverse offerings” a weekly occurrence, according to church missionaries who went there. Ross pleaded with his church members “to not deprive God of providing for their daily necessities” and “not deprive people from the joy of giving.” They gave, some dropping “checks in the baskets with the ‘Pay to the order of ’ left blank. These checks were for $50, $500, $1,000 and the memo read, ‘Acts 4,’” he wrote on his Web log. Others received, like those with hospital bills, utility bills, car insurance payments and an elderly woman who needed her windows replaced, he said. All the money, which came from donors, was given away. Sycamore View, which has an average weekly attendance of 900, has a weekly budget of $23,000. Folks who hoped for an immediate encore were disappointed, however. Ross said some went to his office later “with tears in their eyes and said ‘Yes, I do have a need and I don’t know if there’s any way you can help me anymore.’” The following Sunday, Ross told his congregants: “Look, we cannot take care of every single need that ever arises, but we can be a church that looks out for each other.” Others stopped by his office — not to receive, but to give. “What you did last week really inspired me,” they told Ross. At least one family later donated the money they had set aside for a week-long family vacation, asking that it be used to help the less fortunate, he said. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/ STEPHEN B. THORNTON Bill Elliff and a “reverse offering” basket.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STEPHEN B. THORNTON The Rev. Bill Elliff, pastor of The Summit Church in North Little Rock, encouraged worshippers with needs to come forward Sunday and take money from offering baskets like this one. Some stepped forward to give, he said.
