A 'Cheerful Giver' Box

• Select a large cardboard box or plastic storage tub and set it in a prominent place in your Sunday school classroom. Tell the children that this box will accept gifts from only a cheerful giver, and that these gifts will be offered to those who are in need. Explain to the children that the cheerfulness with which a person acts, rather than the act of giving itself, is more important in God's eyes. Ask each child to find one toy or piece of clothing at home that they would be willing to give the needy with a cheerful heart. Accept offerings from the children until the box is full. Donate the contents to a local charity.
  
  

Let's Help the Missionaries

• This game involves collecting "points" as money to support an imaginary group of missionaries. Divide your class into two teams. Select a topic that you have just covered in your classroom's Bible study for questions that can win each team points toward the missionaries' support. Set up a system for the children to see how many points will, for example, purchase the hypothetical missionaries' needs such as school supplies, food, bicycles, housing or medicine. Each team "uses" their points from correct answers to "purchase" items for the missionaries. Discuss with the children how, in real life, tithes are used for the many expenses of missionaries around the world.
  
  

Tithing Box

• Have each child bring a small plastic tub or cardboard box to Sunday school. Provide rhinestones, glitter, sequins and glue for decorating the boxes. Discuss ways the children can collect money to add to their tithing box, by doing chores at home, walking a neighbor's dog, and so on. Remind them that God does not intend for each of them to offer all the money they have, only a portion of it. Once each child has collected tithes for a few Sundays, take your group to a church service, so that each can place his tithe in the collection plate.
  
  

Skit About Giving

• Tell your children the parable of the good Samaritan. Talk with them about how tithing and the lesson of "loving your neighbor as yourself" are connected. Discuss the fact that in Jesus' day, the Samaritan was found by the side of the road, while in modern society, we have many homeless people who in effect live by the side of the road. Tell them that tithing to the church provides money for shelters and soup kitchens that help the homeless. Ask the children to create a skit that reflects an aspect of our modern connection between tithing and "loving our neighbors." The script called "A Caring American," available at the Dramtix website (see Resources section), offers ideas.