When it came time to take up the weekly offering, what would your members do if the church gave money away instead of collecting it? One congregation in Argyle, Texas, decided to see.

Despite declines in church giving, earlier this year the pastor of Cross Timbers Community Church started inviting people to take whatever they needed from the offering plate.

Not only did members respond with the church’s largest-ever offering, later that week the pastor had what he considered a divine encounter with a jobless man on his last dime.

"In that moment, I just knew this is what our church has to be about," said Pastor Toby Slough. "In these economic times, we can’t be so into church business that we forget what our business is, and that is to help people."

Since then, the church has given away more than $500,000 to regular attendees and strangers.

Cross Timbers isn’t the first to try this approach. Two years ago I wrote a story about Journey Baptist Church in the northern Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati.

Journey held a "Receiving Sunday," a reverse offering that originated with an area pastors’ forum. Instead of giving that morning, members were invited to take cash leaders had withdrawn from the bank.

Though the event cost Journey $1,600, two months later it received a special gift of $18,000. The couple who made the donation didn’t necessarily relate it to that service, but Pastor Mike Osborne said it served as an example of God’s faithfulness.

"When we stepped out on faith, in obedience, (God) in return blessed us out of his endless supply," Osborne said.

Curious about the long-term impact, I contacted the pastor last week to ask what had happened since that Sunday. Although they haven’t repeated the reverse offering, Osborne told me it is still talked about and was a lasting spiritual experience for many people.

Proving that a church doesn’t have to do the same thing to drive home the same message, Osborne mentioned that last year he preached a six-part series called "Consumed," which started by examining materialism and debt. The second half reviewed generosity, tithing and how generous communities change the world.

To show that people were listening, the final month of the series they gave two months worth of budget offerings: "It was amazing."

More recently, Journey’s pastor preached another series related to finances. It brought forth a testimony from one couple who have seen significant growth the past year through their simultaneous commitments to tithe and get rid of debt.

These two examples are variations on other distributions of cash that have been going for years—like the church in California that gave away $10,000 to members in 2000. Members used it to do everything from helping the homeless to starting a home for battered women.

The pastors went on to organize Kingdom Assignment, a non-profit charity whose mission statement is "to turn heads and hearts into the hands and feet of Christ."

At a time when the economic downturn is affecting millions, such displays of generosity are incredible opportunities to demonstrate faith and preach the gospel with action. What might God be calling your church to do?