"The Future of Giving? It Ain't Paper!" That was the title of a talk I gave in 2013 at the National Association of Christian Business Administrators convention. Then, online giving was offered only by around 20% of churches in America. There were some in the audience who thought I was crazy.
2020 showed how prophetic I was as, almost overnight, most church giving came in some digital form. The churches that already had an established online giving platform fared better financially than those with few or no online options for their members. Church leaders I counseled went from seeing around 20% to 30% of their giving coming digitally to now 70% to 80% coming digitally. So, a lot has changed since 2013.
One change is that fewer churches today pass a plate, bucket, or basket for the offering. The offering is seldom, if ever, mentioned. With the rise of digital giving and the demise of checks and cash, isn’t the offering time dead in church? Even before the Lockdown, the trends were moving away from offering time. Let me share what hasn’t changed.
First and foremost, God hasn’t changed the command for followers of Christ to be generous in their giving. The Church has historically taught the importance of giving as an act of worship. What also hasn’t changed is that every command of God is also a promise. His promise regarding giving is that He, “will open up the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that will not have room enough for it.” Churches that don’t teach the concept of generosity based upon biblical principles hurt their member's financial standing and the financial security of their church.
While the why of giving hasn’t changed, the how has. If you think about it, the how of the offering has always changed. Early Christians gave with coins up until banks began using paper checks. Now, few people write checks for much of anything, and cash has almost disappeared. I’m convinced that God doesn’t care about the means of our giving, only that we give. Thus,
The offering isn’t dead; it’s different!
I have found that improving the offering time often gets pushed back by church leadership. Offering planning and preparation is usually non-existent for most churches. Here is a question. How much time do you spend each week planning what you say before taking up the offering?
When I start coaching a church, I find that one of the first things I must do is help them,
Rethink the attitude about the offering.
The Right Attitude – “I simply don’t like to talk about money.” I realize some of you are uncomfortable talking about money, giving, finances, etc. I hear that a lot. I understand, but my approach might surprise you. Here is one of my core principles: It is not that we ask for money that people hate. It is how we ask for money that matters. I will show you how to create a desire within people to want to give to your church. And, of course, at OG, we can make it easier for members to give.
What’s the right attitude for church leaders when it comes to stewardship? Let me answer that with a couple of questions. Is the mission of your church important? Do you believe in that mission, or is this simply a job for you? It’s eternally important, and you wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t deeply believe in your calling. How about this for an attitude statement?
Our mission, to impact our world for Jesus, is given to us by God. We are changing the world one life at a time. Since all this is true, why would a Christian not want to give money to support our mission?
If you adopt this attitude, you take the first step toward building a stewardship platform to put your church on the path to financial security. While we are talking about attitude, here is what motivates us at OnlineGiving.org:
We believe in the mission God gave the local church and that it deserves to be fully funded!
When you have the right attitude about the offering, you are ready to help people connect the dots. Connecting the dots happens by telling and showing people how their generosity helps support life change and Kingdom-building!
100% paperless giving might be the future of giving, but it shouldn’t mean an end to the offering time. The offering time is your time to teach biblical stewardship and generosity. Having the right attitude is the first crucial step. In the next few posts, I will explain how to make your offerings worshipful and meaningful. By doing this, you will have a better chance of improving giving at your church.
One last thing. No other digital giving platform gives you the options, tools, and help we do! To learn more, contact us today at (615) 206-4000 or drop us a line at support@onlinegiving.org.
The Stewardship Coach
We've seen a dramatic increase in digital giving to churches over the past few years. While some churches may put less emphasis on offering time on Sunday mornings, consider these reasons why Paperless Giving Shouldn't Stop the Offering.https://t.co/2ViQCMW2jM pic.twitter.com/p5Ky8Tx1pO
— Online Giving (@onlinegivingorg) January 8, 2024