Giving Credit to God
In an article about electronic giving for church collections.
For Catholics, who historically have lower donation levels than other denominations and fund almost all their activities through the money placed in the collection plate, having parishioners on a steady donation system is almost revolutionary.
Dennis Corcoran, director of operations for The Church of the Presentation, said he decided to explore ways the parish could stabilize its income after asking the church's finance council how they came up with a budget: "They joked with me and said 'We sit in a room and burn incense and throw a number up in the air."'
Hey I like that one. They could have made it even more Catholic by also interceding with St. Matthew the Apostle who is the patron saint of Money Managers.
About a third of the church's 1,100 households who regularly attend service have signed on to give electronically, Corcoran said.
In the summer vacation months, the collection used to range from $16,000 to $21,000 a week. Last summer, the church's second using ParishPay, income averaged about $20,000 to $22,000 a week, he said.
When these services first came out, parishioners and church personnel had their concerns. Namely, is this OK with God?
Corcoran said spiritually there's nothing wrong with electronic giving and it's a natural progression for the church.
"There was no monetary gifts back in the early church," he said. "You donated a goat or a chicken. It was a huge leap when they went to putting a check in the collection basket."
One of the biggest concerns for parishioners and church officials has been the feeling of letting the basket pass by as the congregation watches. The companies usually give the congregations envelopes or post-it notes that can put in the collection basket in lieu of cash or check.
In today's society where many Americans carry significant credit card debt, some churches are hesitant to offer congregants another way to run up their bill.
If your worried about what others think as the collection plate passes by you need to work on that fault not have something like post-it notes to assuage it. I am speaking from experience on this being that my decision to enter the Catholic Church occurred only a couple months before Easter that year I ended up spending over a year not receiving Communion. You do worry about what other people might think are the reasons you are not receiving, but I recognized it as a fault that I needed grace to overcome.
Now as for the consideration about Americans with significant credit card debt what is the big deal? After all if the follow past practices electronically donating a dollar won't put them significantly more in debt.
Now I would think the PayPal would be better and more Catholic system than one called ParishPay. After all haven't your ever read PayPal encyclicals?
Though the real solution would be for them to have bought my Tith-O-Matic.
Of which I did a story at Spero News about. As a consequence an Australian diocesan magazine paid to run my parody and after they did one of the priests in the diocese reportedly didn't realize it was a parody and called the diocese to order one. This was told to me by the editor of that diocesan magazine.
Known as 
The Tith-O-Matic was a great parody piece and I think it's so cool that a magazine published it. Funnier yet is that someone tried ordering it. Good job - as usual.
Actually, the Protestants had this tithe business worked out pretty well a while back. At least black Protestants in the South did.
I'm thinking of that scene in "To Kill a Mockingbird" where Scout accompanies her black housekeeper to church. The minister announces the collection is for Helen Robinson, whose husband is wrongly accused of rape. The minister says $10 is needed. (Remember, this is the South in the 1930's.) He counts the money in front of the congregation and says "This isn't enough. We must have $10." The doors are shut. It's Alabama in the summertime and the church isn't airconditioned. People sit and sweat and finally - cough up a few more dimes.
While the method is novel, the practice is of tithing is, of course, an ancient one. It is certainly understandable, but I think it unfortunate that priests are so unwilling to discuss the notion of tithing with their parishioners. It is a no-brainer--if you do not plan to give a certain percentage of your income to charity in advance, you will not have the money to give at the end of the month. Whether it be 10% (which should certainly be the goal sought after) or a lesser percentage, I think that every person whose Catholic faith is important to them should set aside some percentage of their income to give to the Church. If more people did this, there would be no need for the endless series of appeals that most churches are reduced to--the "fix the boiler fund", the "rewire the church fund", etc. I know that it is a sacrifice to give generously, but I know many big families with very limited incomes who still manage to give 10%, always remembering that it is not a question of net gains and losses--God rewards our charity with his, and no one will suffer unduly for remembering the Church in the same way as they remember their cable bill.
Do people really notice who's giving and who's not, or who's receiving and who's staying back in the pew? Honestly, there's so much else going on, I can't imagine that anyone's really that interested. And if they are, they probably just think you gave in the mail.
Could someone with enough points on his account receive a PayPal dispensation?