The 21st Century Church: Income Generating Strategies Pt. 1
Somewhere along the lines, “income“, “profit“, and “revenue” became dirty words in the church. Granted, the legacy that televangelists with shiny cuff links and women with giant hair and way too much make-up have left us is enough to make anyone with a conscience skittish about developing income strategies for a church. Frankly, people in the body of Christ who operate in that vein have screwed it up for a lot of us.
But since when does failure get the last word for followers of Jesus?
I had a conversation with a very, very wise friend the other day who stated a very plain, simple challenge to me: “Instead of figuring out who’s going to get the biggest piece of the offering-dollar pie, why not figure out how to make the pie bigger?“
Taken the wrong way, his challenge could seem based out of greed.
However, taken the right way, while suspending judgment and fear, this could easily be a paradigm shift that the 21st century church desperately needs.
My friend also said that the way we collect tithes and offerings in the church, at least in mainline denominations, is based on the 19th century model of “passing the basket.” Think about it:
- How many things do you buy anymore by writing a check? My guess is not many. But we continue to collect offerings this way. (My wife and I often forget to bring our monthly tithe check to church simply because we never write checks!)
- How much cash do you carry around with you at any given moment? Again, my guess is not much. But when the basket passes by, people feel obligated to put something in the basket in order to avoid feeling foolish or guilty. (Trust me, I’ve watched this happen many times on Sunday mornings. Even people who don’t regularly go to church will throw a few dollars in because they believe it’s the “right thing to do.” God bless them for it, but there is a better way. Feeling guilty is never a good motivation for giving. Ever.)
So most churches continue to use this archaic system of basket passing to generate income. Why? Because people don’t know that there’s a better solution or are afraid to implement it.
Online giving isn’t a new concept to the church, although surprisingly few churches are utilizing this powerful tool. Most people utilize some sort of online payement feature to pay their monthly bills. What makes the church think that we don’t need to implement this convenience into our income-generating strategies? After all, more people have PayPal accounts than do Visa cards. That is telling.
Have you seen churches that have implemented online giving well? How did they do it? If you’re on staff with a church that incorporates online giving into your income strategy, what has that done to your bottom line? Have you received any pushback? If so, why?
Justin,
Thanks for being bold enough to write about giving in a church blog. I think that the issue of giving and stewardship are often side stepped because of the abuse (that you noted) and difficult financial times we currently find ourselves in. Here are some thoughts that I had:
1. I currently serve in a church, that, if everyone went on welfare and tithed 10% of that check, would see a three fold increase in giving.
2. Finding better ways to raise money for churches is OK, I think that people should give back at least a portion of what God has first given them. The question is whether their money is making it back to God's work in the world. Stewardship on behalf of churches is infinitley important.
3. Our assumptions about "offering" need to be revisited in a lot of ways.
4. In light of the changes you might make, the financial structure of the church might need to change (i.e. fund accounting; general funds, line items, mortgages)
Anyway, just some thoughts!
Re: #3…. What's one concrete way you would re-think offering?
probably the first concrete way that i would redefine offering is by broadening our understanding of offering to include time, labor, prayer. Of course this assumes a structure for managing those offerings and that the church (and parishoners) believes that these are valid offerings in the first place. The second thing that i would do is move to online, automatic deduction for tithing. If you could establish consistent giving through tithing to budget from, then you could ask for special budget items in the service. I'm thinking of the Wells we funded last year and other outreach ministries.
I think that all of these create a space for people to A. give of themselves B. have tangible ownership through that offering and C. Pray and think about what they are giving
St. Thomas Aquinas up in Ames uses the phrase "Time, Talent and Treasure" and I like it a lot. But Jason has hit on the point here of getting the church to accept that time and talent are as needed as money.
I belonged to one church with a very micromanaging priest. Drove people crazy and ultimately drove them away…I mean, if Father wants to have his fingers in the bake sale, then by all means…let HIM run it (make the fliers, call for donations, set up the tables, sell the stuff and figure out what to do with the leftovers – oh gee…maybe we should leave that to the ladies' guild after all huh?).
The Catholic church in particular needs to pass off more non-priest duties to the laity…and accept that it's an OK and even GOOD thing to do.
i think that giving "time, labor and prayer" are utterly important but not the same as giving financial resources. no doubt that excesses has cost the church much in regard to confidence that each dollar is used well. but i don't think that giving financial resources is so much about what the church can do with it as much as it helps me trust God and not my paycheck. by setting aside a portion of my income it helps me count on God for provision, it is an exercise in helping me trust God. it also prevents me from buying everything that i want. which i think is a good thing…because i don't have the resources i have to go without which also helps me keep materialism at bay (it helps…i still manage to have way too much stuff).
if giving today is in anyway a parallel to the offerings that old testament saints gave then we need to remember that those gifts got burned up! talk about bad stewardship! yet people gave because somehow the discipline of living on less, giving God our best, etc. was worth the sacrifice.
i think that time and talent need to be held up as worthy contributions to the kingdom of God but not in lieu of treasure…it is just a different category in my mind.
Fo realzies, what if the church had a kiosk(s) where there would be a debit card swiping machine to "pay" their offering? It would have to be debit because that is money that people are guaranteed to have in their account, unlike credit. Most adults carry around some sort of debit card I would assume, and it works the same way as check, except more convenient, and probably more safe than check-writing.
Stranger things have happened, man. Some church I know even have ATM's in the foyer/lobby.
I'd need a little more convincing before I was comfortable with the ATM, but the debit card is a great idea. Or at least have a form where people can write down their card number for regularly occurring offerings…
Not sure why we're not seeing more CC terminals in churches. It'd be easy to have one in the lobby in a discrete location, perhaps in a booth or corner, and people could go to it, swipe their card, and leave their tithe worshipfully and privately.
Good post.
Yeah, our church made online giving available a little over a year ago. According to the stats, I believe about 30-40% giving comes from online now (about 3-4 mil). As far as general offerings are concerned, we don't pass around anything. There are drop boxes in various locations around the church so people don't feel pressured to give and they can give privately and in their own time. A short prayer over tithes & offerings is prayed right before the sermon and that's pretty much the extent to which giving is mentioned.
Tithing is supposed to be an act of worship between you and God so I think it's nice for churches to make online giving available so people can do that on their own time. Now I'm just waiting for a church to create an iPhone app.
I enjoy being an electronic fund transfer donor because I like seeing who gives the dirtiest looks when I put nothing in the basket. It's telling.
The first church we belonged to that used EFT as an option…the priest just stood up and said, now you won't forget and we can count on what we'll get so we can plan accordingly. Most people signed up.
Ah, but what you are all forgetting is that whenever we sign-up to online anything it is to make it easier, quicker and so we don't forget. While this is great for things like phone bills and the like, thithing is something utterly different than that.
When we give our money to something like our churches, it must be something that we intentionally do and do with a heart of joy. Online giving gives thithing an "out-of sight, out-of-mind" stamp, which is hardly what giving to God is all about.
I also understand that online giving often results in much higher giving, but at what expense??
Just thought I'd chime in late…
ADAM! Good to have you on the site, my brother…
I would disagree with you on the online giving. Our family pays all of our bills online, but it does not make it one shred less real than if we were drive to the phone company and pay it in case ourselves.
I hear you, though, on the sacrifice part. Giving, intentionally as you point it, is a huge discipline in the Christian life. I'm just wondering if removing the "tangible" aspect of giving makes it any less real?
You going to be up at school in July?
Yo-
Not gonna be there in July, our baby is due on July 13th, which is right when intensives start so…
Anywho, while I don't disagree with the fact some of us can be intentional and still thithe online, there are many folks that I know that completely forget about their online giving. So I would say that if you are being intentional about it anyways, why not write the check or go get cash?
While I don't think 'removing the tangible' makes giving any less real in the sense that your money is still going to be given, I do think that there is more to giving than just a transaction happening (which I doubt you disagree with).
What do ya think?