I don’t have checks. My checking account doesn’t even have checks associated. It should be called a debit card account. On any given Sunday I would find myself walking out my front door thinking, “Don’t forget to stop by the ATM” only to switch gears into mentally rehearsing the Sunday school lesson I would soon be presenting to my pack of middle school / Jr highers. Once I was five minutes down the road I would slip into a sort of auto-pilot, driving straight past the ATM and into the church parking lot. My tithing record was almost non-existent. But then something happened.
A Digital Door Opens
One day I was browsing around my church’s newly updated website when a familiar object caught my eye. It was a PayPal button. The only difference between this button and all of the other PayPal buttons I’ve seen spread across the internet was that this one said, “Donate.” I assumed that this may be a solution to my failing tithing practices. Only one question remained, how much of a cut would PayPal receive? After a quick discussion with our treasurer I was delighted to learn that the cut was 0%. The church would receive 100% of the donation.
Cutting this story short I’ll tell you that my tithing practices are in order and sitting in a much better spot than this time 18 months ago.
Expand the Options you Offer
PayPal is just one option out there of a digital tithing option. Here’s how it looks: your church establishes a non-profit account with PayPal, you put that link on your website (as my church did), and maybe a few people will notice and use that option. I’m not entirely sure but I would not be surprised if I’m the only person at my church tithing through this option. You have to advertise it. Put it in the bulletin, on your announcement slides, on the offering envelopes, etc. And let’s talk about those envelopes for a second.
My church recently reformatted our offering envelopes with a spot to write in your debit/credit card info. It’s not a bad idea, it gives people another method of tithing. I am curious of the adoption rate however. I think it would have been a more popular option about 10 or 15 years ago. I love my church, but it still makes my nerves ding a bit to write that info down then send it off in a bag or basket to the office. But I’m not talking information assurance in this post (Check back next week… I’ll just say this for now: email encryption. Chew on that.) Let’s take that envelope to another level, let’s talk QR codes. Slap the PayPal logo on your offering envelope with a QR code that links straight to PayPal’s mobile site. Put that same logo/QR code in your bulletin and up on the announcement slides. While you’re at it, include a QR for your weekly notes handout (another future post).
So far we have cash, checks, debit/credit card numbers on the envelope, PayPal on your website and your envelopes, QR codes to get people rapidly and securely to PayPal. That’s all good for established payment methods, but why stop there?
Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin. Your church needs to accept Bitcoin (BTC). If you don’t know what Bitcoin is, then I offer this 1 minute 44 second video to get you up to speed. Odds are that no one in your church possesses any Bitcoin or owns a business that accepts Bitcoin. I would even wager that many would have never even heard of it. You may have a few that read the Wall Street Journal or caught a short segment on Bloomberg about it, but all they can really tell you is that it exists.
Here’s the deal. It costs you nothing to install the Bitcoin-qt software on one of your office computers. The biggest change is that now (alongside your PayPal logo and QR code) you’ll include the Bitcoin logo and QR code to your wallet in all those places mentioned earlier. With those tiny changes you are now ready to accept the cutting edge of digital payments. Sure nobody has heard of it, but once upon a time it was the same for debit cards, checks, even cash.
Setting up your wallet in a secure manner and then establishing the appropriate accounts to convert the BTC to USD is a little deeper than I want to go in this article, but if you’re interested, please hit me up in the comments. I can talk for hours on this stuff!
Wrapping it all Together
We’ve come a long way from bringing the first crop to the store houses. We all know the stigma that the church is really just out for your wallet. That’s not what this article is about. I’m not writing in order to give you more pathways into people’s bank accounts; but to inspire you with some ways to help remove whatever barriers may be keeping them from giving in a way that is pleasing to God. I can’t help but feel that there are many out there who want to give to missions, the church, a particular ministry within the church, etc. but (like me) they just lack a convenient method. I hope you find something useful in this post. As always if you see other opportunities or flaws in my logic, please comment and let’s flesh it out. After all, we are better together.
What experience have you had with tithing through technology? Do you recommend it and if so, what do you recommend?
TC Johnson says
I’m going to sweeten the post a bit. The first person to leave a comment here on the post with their Bitcoin wallet address will receive a little gift 🙂
Blake says
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TC, glad to see you’re getting into BTC. I think it’s great for churches/ministries to help people give more freely. Someone at the Alabama/Auburn game had a sign with their wallet address outside the stadium and strangers randomly sent them 25k worth of BTC. Imagine what this could do for giving! If people see a worthy cause on tv they just have to snap a quick picture and give a small amount. There’s good and bad with any technology. Its good to see someone promoting it for a good use.
Jesse Gruber says
TC, we have a Paypal set up, but I think we still get charged a percentage…I’m pretty sure we’re set up as a nonprofit. Do you know if there are any additional steps/verifications that we would need to do in order to receive no charge?
TC Johnson says
I’ll ask my church’s treasurer.
Jesse Gruber says
Thanks. Feel free to message me on hangouts if it requires more back and forth 🙂 we can post the result here too!
Alan Bryant says
Did you guys get it figured out?
seventy8Productions says
What is the harm in still accepting it even if it is not mature?
Andrew Fallows says
Oh no, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying churches shouldn’t accept it, or that it’s a bad idea for a church to add it to their set of things they do to accept tithes. I am all for churches accepting BTC, and I’m all for people who have them using them to support the church.
I just think *need* is a strong word. That phrasing implies (to me) that a church which doesn’t accept BTC is going to fail financially or spiritually, and that’s definitely not the case.
seventy8Productions says
I definitely agree and in fact would encourage all churches to not college Bitcoin, but instantly take the money from an exchange service.