Plastic replaces passing the plate
Growing number of churches taking credit, debit offerings

12:59 PM CDT on Saturday, June 30, 2007

Click here for article in paper.

At the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Dallas, more and more parishioners have signed up to give tithes and offerings by automatic assessment of their Visa or American Express accounts.

"They want to get the points, and that's fine," said Bobby Brown, the church's business manager.

But is it really Christian to collect frequent flier points on the way to heaven? Are churches that take plastic contributing to the nation's credit card debt crisis? Does automatic assessment rob from the thoughtfulness and spirituality of giving?

And is the latest innovation, the ATM-like "Giving Kiosk" that lets people swipe a credit or debit card as they're entering or leaving worship, simply too suggestive of money-changers in the temple to work for most congregations?

Across Dallas and elsewhere, church leaders are grappling with such issues, trying to find their way in a brave new world of stewardship.

"It's a constant hot topic," said Phill Martin, deputy CEO of the Richardson-based National Association of Church Business Administration. "They're asking questions about the process and the theology."

Clearly, the offering plate and envelope are in trouble as payment by cash and check declines.

The Federal Reserve reports that the number of checks paid in the United States dropped from 50 billion in 1995 to 37 billion in 2003, resulting in the mothballing of several government check-processing centers.

Meanwhile, Visa USA saw its volume at religious organizations climb 21 percent last year, said Bill Dobbins, vice president of merchant relations.

Such companies as ParishPay and Vanco Services have emerged to help churches collect by bank draft, credit card and debit card. The latter, based in Minnesota, began nine years ago with 10 clients. Now it has 8,500 clients across nearly 30 denominations and handles $27 million a month, said Len Thiede, vice president for corporate sales.

Jason Callahan, the 29-year-old finance committee chairman at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, represents a generation of churchgoers that carries little if any cash.

"I pay all my bills online. I pay my tithe to the church through an automatic bank draft," he said. "I go through a checkbook about every two years."

Though Wilshire has long taken bank drafts, Mr. Callahan and his committee have nudged it toward an experiment in accepting offerings online by credit card.

Across North Texas, and across denominations, churches are making such decisions.

One might expect that The Potter's House, which was founded by superstar pastor T.D. Jakes and grew rapidly into a mega-church with a contemporary worship style, would be a leader in taking credit card contributions online.

But it's now joined by such establishment congregations as First Methodist of Dallas, Highland Park United Methodist and Park Cities Baptist.

The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd began five years ago allowing parishioners to sign up for automatic payment by credit card. About 25 percent of the church's giving now comes in that way, said Mr. Brown, the business manager.

One big benefit of automatic giving, he and others said, is that it eases what's widely known in church circles as the "summer slump."

People go on vacation and often don't make their scheduled offerings. With automatic credit card or bank draft payment, the church tends to collect more and definitely collects more evenly.

Just as important at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Mr. Brown said, was the need to keep up with how church members prefer to handle their finances.

"We couldn't afford not to do it," he said of the decision to take credit cards.

While the trend toward high-tech giving is unmistakable, so are the varying comfort levels of churches.

At Fellowship Church in Grapevine – which offers high-tech, contemporary-style worship and satellite locations where people watch services on video screens – online giving by credit card is encouraged.

"When applicable," the Web site notes, "you may also enjoy reward points and frequent flier miles from your credit company."

But at Park Cities Baptist, the Web site language about online giving doesn't mention such advantages and is quite somber. It includes a box that says, "Caution: Please use this only if you fully pay off your credit card bill monthly. PCBC does not condone credit card debt."

Gene Potts, the church's financial manager, said he encouraged the move toward online giving but also insisted on the warning.

"We live in a world of credit card debt," he said.

Indeed, Americans owe about $880 billion on their credit cards, according to The Nilson Report, which studies credit systems. The publication puts credit card debt per household at $7,698 in 2006 – up nearly 5 percent from the year before.

While there's little, if any, evidence that credit card giving to churches is a root problem, many churchgoers carry large balances, with crushing interest payments.

Churches are keenly aware of this, and it's common for them to offer personal finance courses led by their own staff or lay experts or by outside firms such as Crown Financial Ministries, which has worked with 250 congregations in the Dallas area. Yet many of those same churches have begun to take credit cards for offerings.

Dave Ramsey is a nationally known Christian financial adviser, who has radio programs and books and makes personal appearances. Though he thinks it's inevitable that more and more churches will accept credit cards, he's not happy about it.

"I deal with people every day that have had their lives completely trashed with these stupid pieces of plastic," he said. "Churches ought to be about solving [problem] areas, not contributing to them."

Others raise different concerns. Mr. Callahan said some members of Wilshire Baptist's finance committee worry about automatic assessment because children learn stewardship by seeing their parents put an envelope in the offering plate each week.

Terry Austin, director of stewardship for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, makes a related argument.

"I believe that giving is a part of worship," he said, "and if you take an offering away from the worship context, then to me you've lost the meaning of giving. You've made it fundraising for the church."

He added: "When I have [an offering] automatically withdrawn from my bank or credit or whatever, I can do it without any thought of worship. To me, that's a serious problem."

But James Hudnut-Beumler sees the issue differently. He's dean of the divinity school at Vanderbilt University, an ordained Presbyterian minister and a church historian whose latest book is In Pursuit of the Almighty's Dollar: A History of Money and American Protestantism.

Dr. Hudnut-Beumler notes that envelopes were controversial when churches began to use them in the 1890s. He argues that it's not only inevitable but right that churches adapt to how people are handling money.

And he argues that automatic withdrawal is a highly responsible way to give, because it results in more disciplined and generous giving.

"Why should you be any less serious about your support to the church and gifts to God through the church than you are in paying your mortgage?" he said. "If you're paying your mortgage in an online bank draft, why is it an insult to God to always pay [an offering] on the 15th of the month?"

Probably a lot of pastors are where Barry Cameron of Crossroads Christian Church in Grand Prairie finds himself these days.

Mr. Cameron is the author of The ABCs of Financial Success and is keenly aware from his research and counseling that even many middle-class families struggle with credit card debt. He also believes that giving in a worship service is more meaningful than automatic assessment and sets a good example for children.

But his fast-growing church – which averages 4,000 for weekend services – includes many young people who don't carry cash. So Crossroads Christian will accommodate them.

"We are moving to online giving," he said. "That's the mode of giving that most of the younger generation use."

As for getting frequent flier points for an offering, Mr. Cameron sees no problem. Nor does Mr. Callahan of Wilshire Baptist.

But once his church begins to take plastic, he plans to give more than his usual tithe, to pay for the roughly 2 percent processing fee that goes with credit card transactions.

"Because I'm getting points, I'm willing to cover the fees," he said.

It's hard to imagine a church like Wilshire, which prefers hymns to contemporary "praise music," installing a Giving Kiosk. But four Texas churches either have one in place or on order.

The Giving Kiosk was developed a couple of years ago by Marty Baker, pastor of Stevens Creek Church in Augusta, Ga. He said his church took in about $200,000 last year through Giving Kiosk "swipes" of credit and debit cards.

Trinity Church of Cedar Hill recently ordered one of the units, which go for between $2,000 and $5,000.

Church communications manager Michiel de Wit said Trinity has lots of young members who have embraced online giving. He thinks they'll take to the Giving Kiosk too, using it to make special offerings when they are moved by something in a worship service but haven't brought cash or a check.

He conceded, however, that having an ATM-like machine in the vestibule may take some getting used to – even at less-than-traditional Trinity.

"Is there going to be somebody who says, 'What are y'all doing?' I don't know. It wouldn't surprise me," he said.

At the request of The Dallas Morning News, the Richardson-based National Association of Church Business Administration queried more than 200 local church administrators about how their churches collect tithes and offerings. Sixty-nine responded. Here are the results:

1. Does your church take bank drafts for tithes and offerings?
Yes – 70%
No – 30%

2. Does your church take credit and/or debit cards for tithes and offerings?
Yes – 55%
No – 45%

The informal survey also found that of those churches that do bank drafts and/or credit/debit cards, the most commonly cited benefit was "steadying income across the year," followed by "increasing income." Of the churches that don't accept bank drafts or credit/debit cards, most plan to do so within the next three years.

What the churches said:
"Gotta keep up with the technology."
"I don't like the transaction costs, and I don't see that it will increase contributions."
"We have considered taking bank drafts and debit cards. We would be less likely to consider credit cards, since so many people get in financial trouble using them and giving is supposed to come from the abundance of what God has given."
"This is a positive way to help givers discipline their giving."