Engaging the children of your congregation with the four churchwide Special Offerings has never been easier or more important, whether you are engaging them in-person or virtually. And the Pentecost Offering is especially important for young people to engage with as it supports them and their peers!
Photo contributed by DREAAM. The Pentecost Offering supports children, youth, and young adults, just like this boy pictured.
First and foremost, the Pentecost Offering is a shared Offering, meaning 40% of what is collected stays with congregations to support children, youth, and young adults in their communities. We encourage you to include your young people in the decision on how to allocate your retained gifts. Listen to their ideas – they just might surprise you! We guarantee they will feel even more of a connection to this Special Offering if they are active participants in the decision-making process.
This year’s Pentecost Offering curriculum was written by Charlotte Nance-Allbright, a Certified Christian Educator who serves as the Director of Christian Formation and Education at First Presbyterian Church of Burlington, North Carolina. This includes an At-Home Resource for families to use in the lead up to the Offering as well as a Multi-Age Children’s Lesson designed for ages 5-10 with activities Pre-K might enjoy. Together, children and their families will:
- Celebrate the season of Pentecost and explore the Pentecost Offering guiding Scripture, Psalm 71:17.
- Discover more about the PC(USA) Pentecost Offering, how funds are distributed, and how they can support young people in their congregation, community, and world.
- Engage in serving the children at risk in their community.
Charlotte also wrote the Children’s Message for Pentecost Sunday which celebrates the birthday of the church and connects children with the purpose of the Pentecost Offering. Download the Pentecost song sheet to incorporate into worship that Sunday as well!
We are excited to be partnering with A Sanctified Art LLC in 2021. A Sanctified Art will be creating covers for the second bulletin insert for each of the four Special Offerings as well as coloring sheets. We invite you to use this “Pentecost Mandela” coloring page in the lead up to the Pentecost Offering, maybe even posting a virtual art gallery of everyone’s masterpieces on your website or social media page! Or you can take the coloring page as inspiration for window art or sidewalk chalk art at home.
One example of the six postcards available.
Finally, recognizing that this has been a remarkably stressful season for educators, parents and children, the Educate a Child Roundtable, supported by the Pentecost Offering, and the Presbyterian Giving Catalog are partnering to encourage pastors, church leaders and individuals to thank those in their congregations and communities who have been involved in education during this difficult year. We are offering six, colorful, downloadable postcard-sized sayings—such as “You inspire me” and “The world is a better place because of you”—designed to send to educators. Please join us in honoring the teachers in our lives this Pentecost Offering season.
If you use any of our materials in promoting the 2021 Pentecost Offering, we invite you to share feedback on how it was received. We are also available to answer any questions you might have about these or any other Special Offerings resource. Feel free to reach out to us at 800-728-7228 ext. 5047 or specialofferings@pcusa.org.
If we all do a little, it adds up to a lot!
Please join us in prayer
We thank you, God, that you have taught us and will teach us always. Give us courage to shine your light in the world and share your love with others. We hope the Pentecost Offering continues building a life of faith among all your children and that all children and youth know they are loved. Amen.
PS – If you don’t have many youth under 18 in your congregation, you can get creative and engage your more seasoned members in any of the activities above! Fun and learning are for Christians of every age!