Right now is Stewardship time at our church (and maybe in most churches - what do I know?). Anyway, for you people who don't visit churches very frequently, this is when the church asks you to pledge for the next year so that the session (or whatever the governing body is called) can estimate what kind of budget the church is going to have.
Today we received the pledge card in the mail along with a document describing how to sign up for Electronic Giving. I have been wondering for years when it would come to this... The way they try to sell it to you is that you don't have to worry about bringing checks or cash to church every week/month, you don't have to worry about forgetting about it, and it's safer than checks...
And true - this is totally convenient. Any business that offers electronic payment - I'm all over it. But for church? I mean, will we get to a point when the offering part of the service is erased from the order of worship? There is something spiritual about bringing gifts to share with one's community of faith.
I'd like to hear what you, my friends, have to say about this...
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3 comments:
since nobody has said anything...
I think that traditions are (should be) sacred and change is usually bad. The key point here is when tabita says "bringing gifts to share with one's community of faith". we're not talking just about paying your mortgage and electric bill. I think this question you have posed begs the greater question- where to draw the line between church as a spiritual body and as a business of operations?
I try to drop my pledge in the basket at the first of every month, and every time I forget to bring the envelope or go to the ATM, I think to myself "I should just set up a monthly e-check!" But something keeps me from doing it, I think the same feeling you guys are expressing.
Either way of donating, the effect is the same, and I bet if you asked the church office/budget people on the receiving end, they'd vote for the steady, electronic flow. I personally like the tradition. For what it's worth, when God talks to us Republicans, he tells us he's ambivalent on the matter.
And yes, we're going through stewardship season. Towards the end of the stewardship sermon last week, I found my hand kept involuntarily rising from my lap and making "push button" motions. Then I realized "Oh, wait, this is church, not NPR! That doesn't work here!" :-)
David
Katie,
I think that is an excellent point. I may have to devote an entire post to this topic sometime soon...
You're just full of great thoughts... :)
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