However, the above is all said with the intention that I would never place a tithe/donation on a credit card with which I was carrying a balance. I understand that this cannot be the case for everyone. When a card is paid off completely each month, it’s a better financial instrument then a debit card, IMHO.

As far as automatic or ‘online’ payments are concerned: I thought I remembered the church offering an auto-draft program some time in the past. This is how I make all regular payments to missions groups. Works great.

Alternatively, many banks now offer ‘free online checking’ including ‘automatic bill paying’. (This a service that Quicken and many banks used to charge for.) I have found in several instances that companies will convert a paper check to an EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) and then send the payment through their bank. My bank/credit union also allows me to set these EFT payments on a monthly schedule.

I don’t know if all banks offering online EFT features do this, but mine will send a paper check to any company it does not already have an EFT connection with. So, on the rare occation I need to send a check to a friend (shared costs on a ski trip or something), I just do it online. Pretty cool. I don’t even have to mess with a stamp.

That’s a given? Have you even considered that perhaps it’s not wrong for churches to accept credit cards?

To me, that’s like saying it’s wrong for churches to accept checks, because it encourages people to write hot checks.

cheers

But personally, I wouldn’t like the idea of putting an ATM in the church even if it were possible to disallow credit cards.

The Lord has shown us that it is better to give in secret. We already make enough of a show of our donations; the offering plates pass from hand to hand so that each member knows if/how much his neighbor gave (especially if that neighbor uses cash).

On the other hand, an online EFT (which can be tied to a bank account instead of an debit/credit card) would give most of our members the ability to give in secret.

I agree with you here. I think too often people see their money as their money, not God’s money. The fact is, we only have what we have because God allows us to have it. I think everyone should be faithfully giving to God’s work. You can always afford to give, especially if you see your actual income as 90% of your income. The 10% you should be setting aside for the church was never yours to begin with.

I still disagree with you about whether or not God would let us go into debt, but I think that’s a whole other discussion.

The bottom line, referring back to Rusty’s blog post, is that I don’t believe it is wrong for the church to accept credit/debit cards. I for one would love to be able to pay my tithe online. The ATM thing might be overkill, but I still see nothing wrong with it.

Also, my preferred method of making monetary transactions is to use a card, be it debit or credit. Some people’s preferred method is to write a check. For others, it is cash. Whatever form of payment you use for things, it’s all just money. It’s the individual’s responsibility to use his or her money wisely.

To your point about the cost of the “shiny machines”, how much money does it cost the curch to buy offering plates or offering baskets or whatever your church happens to use? Again, money is money. If spending money on a means of collecting money (offering plate or “shiny machine”) is bad, then buying offering plates is bad.

I am not advocating that people should go into credit card debt. I am just saying that if a church has the resources to give people an option for how they give, then the church should do it.

Finally, and this could be a whole other discussion in and of itself, debt is not an inherently bad thing. I think it is very difficult with scripture to support the claim that God would not have us go into debt at all.