Should children be bringing food donations to the front of the church?

Question:

Hello,

I am hoping you can help us with some insight into a situation happening in our local body. During the worship service, during the time of offering, the children of the congregation are invited to come up and donate food items to the church’s pantry. Many members of our body have had issues with this, including myself, for multiple reasons. We feel that this violates God’s wishes not add or subtract to His word (Deuteronomy 12:32, Proverbs 30:6, Revelation 22:18-19). In the New Testament, the offering on the first day of the week is only described as a collection, such as money. God never said anything about food or about a tradition in which only the children come up and donate food items to a pantry. We have no problem with the donation to the pantry, or the children giving if they desire to, but according to the scriptures, we strongly disagree that this should be a part of the worship service.

Recently, during a men’s Bible study, one of our brothers in Christ brought this up among the men and the elders. This has been brought up multiple times before and after to our eldership, and they, among other men, think that doing this is acceptable because we’re supposed to train a child up in the way they should go. They have also argued that giving in worship doesn’t need to be limited to money. There is a division in our body over this, and we know it is not pleasing to God either. Many men in our congregation have gone over the scriptures to try to reason with the eldership and solve this issue, but the eldership won’t hear.

Please give your thoughts, advice, and support. There is more to this situation than can be written, but we deeply desire for God’s will to be done and not our own, especially on the day when we come to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Thank you.