3 They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. 4 So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing 5 and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done.”

6 Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, 7 because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work. Exodus 36:3-7

These verses are a ministry worker’s dream passage. They would love to be able to minister and turn away too many gifts.

I actually had a missionary friend do that. We offered to give but he and his family were well funded, and he kindly turned away additional funding.

On the one hand, I’m grateful that my missionary friend was honest about it, but I’ve since lost track of that family and what they were doing. The finances were part of the connection I had with them.

We also tried to volunteer for a Vacation Bible School but the church said they had plenty of volunteers already.

Those kinds of things don’t happen often, but they are nice problems for ministries to have.

Unfortunately because of the coronavirus pandemic, I think many churches are suffering financially. They have the opposite concerns; church leadership needs people to give just as they did when they were all meeting together. As the shelter-in-place suggestion continues, church funding will continue to diminish. Ministry will continue to take place but in different and more subtle ways.

Now is probably a good time to continue your giving to the local church. Over the next few weeks leadership will be taking a much harder look at ministry and essentials, but they also need your support now.