April 22, 2005
by Toya Richards Hill

LOUISVILLE – From the pocket to the plate to the young people: The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Pentecost Offering is making a difference.

Consider what took place on Jan. 26 at Grandview Elementary School in Tarentum, PA. That night, volunteers from Central Presbyterian Church gathered around pretend campfires to read stories to students and their parents.

"The reading night was just an exciting kind of night," said the Rev. Stewart Pollock, Central Presbyterian's pastor, who said he enjoyed watching parents "watching their children react" to the stories.

"Everybody seemed to have a growing sense of excitement that this (reading) is something that we can do at home," Pollock said. "It was just wonderful to watch."

The "Read to Me" program, a joint effort of the church and the school, provided a hands-on reading experience for the children – as well as free books, paid for with money collected through the congregation's Pentecost Offering.

The PC(USA) offering, one of four church-wide offerings each year, benefits children at risk, youth and young adults. Of the money collected, congregations can use 40 percent as they see fit. This years offering will be collected on May 15.

The Pentecost Offering "gives congregations power," said Billie Healy, associate for mission education resources in Congregational Ministries Publishing. "It gives them the opportunity to ... use their creativity and their resources to be able to support ministries with children at risk in their communities."

"I get these wonderful stories about what these churches are doing."

Healy's office provides the materials that congregations use to promote the offering, including bulletin inserts and activities for children and youth.

The offering has "been met with a lot of energy and a lot of positive feedback," she said.

Pollack said about 175 members of his church gave a total of $372.92 in the offering in 2004, the first year his church took part.

The school had a table "loaded" with books to give away, he said, and "our seed money was something that helped that happen." The pastor added that the school has a large percentage of students from low-income families.

He said his church plans to partner with the neighborhood school again for this year's Pentecost Offering. "I think people are going to be really eager to give to it this year," he said.

Matt Henry hopes the same will be true at his church. This will be the first year First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham, MI, has collected the Pentecost Offering. A youth group there has been given the responsibility of deciding how it will be used.

The students, all of whom are in high school, have been reading the offering material and trying to work out a plan, said Henry, the Detroit-area church's director of youth ministry.

"They are going to determine which of the bulletin inserts they would like to use and what they would like to say ... to the congregation," Henry said, and the youth will be the ones who "make the choices about where the money goes and how to promote (the offering)."

Presbyterian News Service