Archives For stewardship

Many pastors ask if their church can simply use PayPal for their online giving.  The answer is yes! Paypal can be an effective tool, but let’s back up and first ask: what do you want to accomplish by providing electronic giving?

Electronic giving should be used as a tool to help develop generous people who can easily and effectively support the vision of the church.  Here’s a checklist for evaluating an e-giving solution:

Continue Reading…

David Messner and I have been working on a new resource of AG Financial to help pastors spark a movement of generosity in their church.  We know that every church has a “gap” between their current reality and their vision. And every church needs a GAP – a Generosity Action Plan.  Every pastor needs a strategy on how they are going to resource their God-given vision. That’s why we’ve created the Generosity Action Plan Membership website.  It gives you monthly coaching, done-for-you materials, and insights from pastors across the country on how to develop a culture of generosity within your church.

Continue Reading…

Why should a church offer a variety of giving methods including e-giving, online giving, and giving kiosks?

Because…

  1. We are passionate about seeing people come to know Jesus and experience His best for their life.  The more people who can financially partner with us, the more lives we have the potential to impact.
  2. What we do as a church we want to do with excellence. That includes our services, kids’ ministry, outreach; and that also includes giving.  The bottom line is that businesses like banks have understood the value of offering a variety of tools.  Of course we are not a bank, but it could be argued that churches have a more important mission than banks.
  3. The methods of currency exchange evolve of time. We observe throughout history how people have moved away from offerings of animals, grain, goods, or minerals.  Now we’ve moved away from cash and checks. For instance, 80% of US households are now utilizing electronic direct deposits, online banking, and or other online transactions.                                                                                                                         Continue Reading…

Here’s a simple test you could use to evaluate your church’s giving system:

If your local bank offered the same financial features as your church, would it still be in business?

With that in mind let’s consider some of the features most banks offer:

  • View your contribution history online
  • Change contribution amounts online
  • Give to specific accounts
  • Receive regular mail or electronic statements or statements on demand
  • Access your information via your mobile phone
  • Deposit money with an ATM or kiosk
  • Credit and or debit transactions
  • Set up automatic and recurring payments
  • Have an online profile makes interaction simple and updating information easy
  • Observe how your accounts or investments are performing
  • Deposit cash or checks in person

Continue Reading…