As part of a series on stewardship, our staff has been reevaluating the options we’re providing our people with to give on Sunday mornings and throughout the week. As part of the process, we’ve researched the use of a few standalone giving kiosks (which resemble an ATM you might see outside of a restaurant). Through some discussion amongst our staff and some other experts, a lot of good questions have been raised. Hit the jump for my lists of pros and cons, and feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below.
Giving Kiosk Pros
- Your giving isn’t limited by the location of your checkbook. A good chunk of our people just don’t carry their check books any more; if God prompts them to give during a service, they’re pretty much out of options unless they remember to do it online when they get home.
- It can still be an act of worship. Most kiosk vendors give the donor a receipt that they can drop in the offering plate when it’s passed around, so there’s still a connection to the act of tithing. Pretty cool.
- It can link up directly with our church database. This is a huge win on the administrative side of things; whenever someone gives at a kiosk, it’s automatically listed on their people record along with their other giving throughout the year.
- You can limit transactions to debit cards. This is a big deal to many churches like ours who offer financial counseling ministries and want to teach their people to live responsibly.
Potential Negatives
- Perception among visitors. Would it be a turn off for a visitor to see a few giving kiosks in the lobby whenever they come in? If we do install some, I think we’ll put them in locations that don’t scream “WE WANT YOUR MONEY!!!”
- Visibility. In a few of the demos I’ve seen, the amount given is shown in huge letters on the screen after a transaction is complete. That’s almost worse than someone making a show whenever they drop a Benjamin in the offering plate…
- Lines. We push hundreds of people through an increasingly small lobby space between services at our main campus; would a few kiosks be enough to handle demand without creating a logistical nightmare?
What do you think? Do you have any wisdom to add to the conversation? We would love to hear it in the comments below.
Based on the lists of pros and cons you’ve presented I would opt to give them a try. But I also wanted to head off the subject of “money-changers in the Temple,” which will likely surface at some point in this post.
I think it’s good that we approach this subject biblically, but we have to keep it in context. Whether via a kiosk, an online transaction, or through the offering plate, contemporary giving in church is based on one’s free will. There is no longer a tithe mandate, but the principal carries forward in a New Testament sense. Understand that the money changers in the Temple during Jesus’ time were charging huge mark-ups for people trying to exchange their currency for the only kind of money accepted for the Temple tax. It’s kins of like those payday loan companies today. The merchants selling sacrificial animals to Jews traveling from far away were also charging exorbitant fees. So these devout Jews, trying to follow the law, had no choice but to give in to these predators.
Regardless of the means through which a person makes a donation or offering to his or her local church, the priority must remain on worship.
Say no more, I believe bro. Daniel Kassis said it best.