What Do You Bring to the Table?
If you were invited to a pot-luck dinner, what would you bring? We’ve recently had a couple of those types of events at our church, and the spread of food was abundant, varied and delicious, as each person contributed what they could to make it a blessing to all in attendance.
What do you bring to the SPIRITUAL “table”?
The Unique Sound of Your Offering
During one of our worship services at church, as we were finishing the time of worship in song, and continuing to worship the Lord by contributing to an offering, there was a sound that I recognized, but was likely odd to anyone else who heard it. They may or may not have even noticed from the congregation, but it rang out loudly and unexpectedly in my ears. I didn’t know until later that the sound had come through on the livestream video.
At the time, the image produced in my head from that little noise seemed worthy of sharing in one of my blogposts / podcasts.
That moment feels like it happened a few weeks ago. But time has flown by so rapidly that I realized when getting ready to finally put this episode together that it was actually MONTHS ago! But I’m glad it didn’t get written and recorded back then, because it is even more meaningful now.
The Gift
Before going on, let me link to a quick video by which you can play a small clip of the sound itself and see if you can figure out what made that little noise. Keep in mind (and maybe comment) before going on: what do you THINK made that sound? Of course I’ll tell you later, but I’d love to see if anyone can figure it out just from watching that little clip.
The fact that it happened right as the offering was about to be collected made it resound in my spirit. It reminded me of a blogpost I had written back when the “Manna From My Father’s Hand” blog first began. It was called “What are You Bringing?”.
If you’re interested in diving in a little deeper (and by all means, check that out for a fuller understanding), here’s a link to that blogpost: https://manna.shiningriver.com/what-are-you-bringing
Suffice it to say, that post was about scriptures from Exodus (chapters 25 and 31) that dealt with the people offering physical items and their skills in making the things that God commanded (such as the Tabernacle, special clothing and items, etc.)
It also dealt with the MIS-use of skills and talents in creating things such as the golden calf (which Aaron said he had thrown the gold into the fire and “out came this calf“, LOL) in Exodus 32:24.
Later in that blogpost, it mentions the fact that Jesus referred to Himself as the “Cornerstone” or the “Capstone” in Matthew 21:42, and that Peter calls us “living stones” being built up into a “spiritual house, to be a royal priesthood” (in 1 Peter 2:4-5).
Paul talks about building with “gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw” in 1 Corinthians 3:9-17 when discussing how important it is to be careful to build on the foundation of Christ in all our teaching and other means of building up the body of Christ, so that in the end, our labor will not be burned up like wood, hay or straw.
So my question when writing those words a couple of years ago are the same as today. What are YOU bringing to be used by God to build up His body?
Words That Build Up
The moment in which that little clinking sound happened was right after a beautiful time in worship. In fact, there had been moments of sweet spontaneous worship after one of the songs, and then one of our worship team members spoke from his heart to the congregation. He may have thought that he shouldn’t have said so much, yet in watching it back, his words are quite poignant, and the fact that the little noise happened shortly thereafter was likely NOT coincidental.
So, here is that entire section of the livestream video (and I’ll link to the FULL video in the footer section below, so you can be blessed by the WHOLE worship service if you’d like).
Visible vs. Hidden Gifts
So, what exactly WAS that little clinking noise that happened as the offering was about to be collected?. Was it a coin being dropped in the plate? That’s what it sounded like in some ways.
I knew EXACTLY what it was, and was a little embarrassed that it had happened; but later thought it was a pretty good word picture, actually. See, my guitar has a little microphone inside the body of the guitar. There is a switch that I click to turn off the mic when putting my guitar down after the worship music. As the elder was praying before the collection, I had not yet turned off the guitar’s mic. And as I turned to put the guitar away, my pick fell right into the sound hole of my guitar (a common annoyance that is probably shared by most guitarists, LOL;)!
That little “clink” was the pick LOUDLY falling into the guitar as the mic amplified the sound.
That’s what reminded me of all those words about what we “offer”. For me, music is largely what I bring to the “table” of the Lord’s fellowship. That sound was like the “coin” of life being offered unto Him.
As musicians, our gifts are often highly visible. But they are by NO means more important than other gifts.
We ALL have things that we bring to Jesus for His use that could be represented by that little sound.
Hands That Bear Scars
The ultimate “gift” could never be matched by anyone … the gift of the scars on the hands of Christ, given to save our souls.
Now, several months after that video, all of those thoughts are even more profound. If you noticed in that video, there was our bass player, Jamie, also one of our pastors.
In recent weeks, he and his family have been in great need of prayer and support. Please do keep them in your daily prayers. He recently nearly lost one of his fingers in a work place accident. Praise the Lord, he was able to keep his finger, yet he is still in the healing process. Please pray for that healing, as well as for provision for his family financially and in all ways.
Jamie is a HUGE part of our body at Freedom Church. He is ALWAYS ready and eager to do whatever the Lord needs to build up His Church.
Seeing that he is our regular bass player, of course, that leaves a HUGE hole in our worship team… So the beautiful thing about the Body of Christ, is that several other young people have stepped up to the plate, offering what THEY can to fill that gap.
As Jamie was sharing in one of our recent services, expressing his gratitude to the congregation for all of their support, the Lord again brought many of the above thoughts to mind, and added to them. Here is a clip of him speaking during that more recent service (and again, I’ll link to the entire service in the footer section below).
Your Unique Contribution
Several discussions recently also moved my heart, with others who happened to mention that they didn’t think they had much to offer, or that they were not gifted. It made me think of the many times that I personally have been thankful for THEM and their various gifts. Things that THEY have that are TOTALLY different from the things that others bring to the table. For some it is their gifts of delicious lovingly-prepared food, hospitality, beautiful decorations, support for those less fortunate, heartfelt prayers and I could go on and on.
Please don’t discount the gifts that God has given to you. He can and will use you to bless His body in so many ways, and NONE of them are insignificant. You are uniquely and wonderfully made by the hand of the living God.
If your giftings seem to “fly under the radar” of life, that is often a really GOOD thing. Those who are in the background are often the most necessary and valuable to the rest of the body. AND, God considers those things done in secret, those things that are done “as unto Him” as incredibly precious.
Think of Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:1-4 when He says:
“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
There are many ways that the Bible illustrates what the kingdom of God is like. One of the most applicable to this discussion is that we are like a “body”. Paul puts it beautifully and brilliantly in 1 Corinthians 12 where he is speaking about various spiritual gifts. That whole chapter is profound, so please do read it. Specifically, here is a portion that helps illustrate how deeply we need each other (and when Jamie talked about his finger situation, it really brought this passage to mind):
“Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”
(1 Corinthians 12:14-26)
So, once again, what are you offering? What part of the body are you, an eye, an ear, a finger, an elbow? You get the picture. We all play our specific part, and the Lord, being the Head is the One directing us to accomplish His will. When one of us hurts, the way that Jamie’s finger is currently hurting, the other parts feel that pain and come to that part’s aid, picking up the slack just as our bass players at church are doing currently.
No matter how insignificant YOU think your gifts are, they are utterly necessary to the rest of us, and fully SEEN and VALUED by our loving and living God. If you’re not SURE of what role you’re supposed to be playing or what you have to give unto Him, seek Him and surely He will direct you.
I’d love to hear what you consider your role in His body. Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Lisa Prokopowitz is a Christian Singer/Songwriter, Podcaster and Blogger who seeks to lift up the name of Jesus and draw hungry hearts unto Him.
Video clips embedded in this article are from Worship Services at Freedom Church in Oak Ridge, NJ. To watch the full services, access the following links:
The first two clips above: https://www.youtube.com/live/noWRkc9l-34
The service with Jamie’s words of gratitude: https://www.youtube.com/live/Ce6wK9rVGW0
Watch the Video version of this Manna From My Father’s Hand episode here (Streaming live at 3 PM eastern on 7/17/2025–come join me in the live chat if you’re free at three!):
https://www.youtube.com/live/vRlD8WGzpp8
The podcast (Audio) version of this episode will be posted here:
https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/shining-river9/
For more encouraging Christian content:
https://manna.shiningriver.com
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