online tithe

You’d think by now, it would’ve gotten easier. I’ve been going to church for my entire life. I’ve been giving to the church for most of my adult life. For goodness sakes, I’ve been working in church generosity for three years now. And I still don’t know how to talk about money. Because, let’s face it, people get weird when it comes to their wallets. Because of this, many pastors and churches simply don’t talk about it.

It’s Valentine’s Week, and that means a couple of things. First off, it means it’s cold--at least where I am. It means your social media feeds are likely cluttered with declarations of love, and/or diatribes about how V-Day is entirely arbitrary and unnecessary. And it means every blog post or “how to” article posted this week is required (by federal law) to include motifs of “love,” “affection,” and “romance.” Furthermore, since I’m the one doing the writing, you know we’ve got to talk about giving, generosity, and stewardship as well.

One of the most frequently cited and widely used reasons for the rapid growth of digital giving over the past decade is the proportionate decline in check writing during that time. And the trend continues. In fact, according to one report, we are on pace to write our final check sometime in the year 2021--a mere six years away. Nowhere is this “check-less” trend more prevalent than with millennials, 20% of whom have never written a check in their life.

In a recent post for ChurchTechToday, I discussed four of the primary financial benefits that effective recurring giving programs can provide for churches. Increased giving, stabilized revenue, and automated workflows were all discussed at length. Today, I want to focus on another demographic that will benefit greatly from a fast and flexible recurring giving option: your givers! It’s no surprise that a giving tool that will benefit your church’s staff will benefit your givers as well. (How’s that old proverb go? “What’s good for the goose is good for the giver as well?” Yes, I think that’s it. Intuitive though it may be, let’s dig a bit deeper and look at four specific things recurring giving can do for the givers in your congregation.

As the director of business development for an online and mobile giving platform, I’ve had the privilege of a front row seat to the many new tools and technologies introduced in recent years. Tools that make it easier, faster, safer, and cheaper for churchgoers to give to their churches.

Online giving, text giving, mobile apps, crowd-funding pages, kiosks, widgets, gizmos, gadgets, you name it! It seems like every month there is a new “game changing” technology that is poised to “redefine church giving as we know it.”

In this rapidly changing environment, I’ve often felt the same frustration that many pastors and church leaders wrestle with: Where do I even start?

Each week, as I talk with pastors, administrators and elder boards about the impact that online giving can have in their churches, there is...

Churches depend almost 100% on their members as well as outside donors to give generously to the church in order to keep it running...

As we come up on the end of the year, that time is here for churches to send out contribution statements and start focusing...