Pros and Cons of Online Giving

[Jim Peet] The 21st Century Offering Plate

(One for every usher)

I’m sorry, sir, but your offering has been declined due to insufficient funds. Please contact your credit card establishment for further details.

[KevinM] If we all agree that giving is a form of worship (we should!) I think we should expand our question. Is giving taught in the New Testament as an activity of the gathered church?

Here’s why I think this is a valid test question.

Our modern technological era has made it possible to distribute our pastor’s sermons over the internet. I could stay at home and listen.

Our modern technology has made it possible to edify and encourage other church members via email—I could stay home and do this, too.

Or stay at home and take communion at www.eholycom.com] www.eholycom.com .

Okay…kidding aside….my own view is that “giving” is something that the church does when it comes together, and that the proper NT practice of giving can avoid the sin of Matthew 6:1.

I’m not paid every week, but my wife and I have chosen to divide up our giving so that we participate in the offering each week. I still think its a valid idea, but I have sympathy for those who attend churches where the offering strays from its intended goal of worship. If so, this can and should be addressed by those leading the worship service.
Kevin,

I think generally this is going to be a generational issue. Here’s how a younger tech savvy computer thinks about it.

You say you give every week. At what point is the actual giving going on in your heart? Is it when you fill it out, drop it in the plate, or when the check clears? You probably fill the check out before you come to give. So I would just submit that giving by check is fairly the same as giving by online check as a practical matter.

I don’t think anyone would say giving is not worship. The question is whether it’s necessarily always part of corporate worship. It seems to me that giving at a corporate service may be more about the propriety of giving in public at a time where everything was hard cash or physical objects.

Acts 5 contains a negative example of giving, and it doesn’t appear that Annanias and Sapphira came to give as part of a corporate worship service. They came three hours apart after conducting business. It’s hard to know if that was a normal practice of the church. It may have not made a lot of sense to sell property, then sit on the cash until Sunday. The prudent thing might be to go straight to the church and give it. Just think if you were paid in cash every week. How might you feel about taking around wads of Benjamins everywhere you go.

Shaynus, my own view is that we should assign this question more consideration than merely calling it a “generational issue” with the “young and tech saavy” against the “old and…” (Rats. Do I have to be lumped in with the Luddites?)

Here’s how I’m framing the bigger question: “Is giving taught in the New Testament as an activity of the gathered church?” [Yes, I’m trying to frame the question so that our answer will be helpful for any culture, in any era.]

Careful now…I’m not saying that giving should always be part of the weekly church gathering (I did mention that we plan our giving for once a week, a personal conviction. On the other hand, we do not give in every offering…which would be two or three gatherings per week, in our case.]

All I’m saying is that the early church seemed to practice regular giving during their meetings. Though there are several places where giving is taught in the NT (not Acts 5!), I think the clearest passage, and a good starting point for the discussion, is 1 Cor. 16—where giving is described in the context of the gathered church, on the first day of the week. Every week.

Some of our baggage might be related to a less-helpful rendering of 16:2 in the KJV: “Upon the first day of the week,” a reading that neatly clips out “every” (note how NASB, NIV, and ESV all include the phrase “first day of every week.”)

Again, there are several NT passages that address the matter, but the summary is that our giving should be motivated by love, not coercion—so I personally avoid binding the conscience with a percentage (!) or mandated frequency or even a hard-and-fast rule claiming that weekly auto-deposits are wrong. All I’m saying is that we do have a body of NT teaching to grapple with here. My intention is not to discourage all of those who give regularly and sacrificially through an online debit. I’m just suggesting that there might be more at stake.

[Aside] I do not personally embrace the Regulative Principle, but our Reformed friends view “giving” as a required element in corporate worship. Churches are allowed some latitude as to frequency, but the idea of collecting a regular offering during the worship service is considered mandatory. Many Reformed liturgies place the offering after the sermon, viewing it as the proper response to good preaching!

Kevin, I’m not saying it merely is a generational issue. It is more than that, but it does have generational components. That’s all I’m saying. In 25-50 years, I don’t think we’ll have checks or cash. Then it really will be a generational issue.

I’m aware of the 1 Cor 16 passage. The question is whether it’s descriptive or prescriptive. Would you say as long as a church gives opportunity to give, that they’re following the Bible, while average Christians can practice giving differently?

Yes, I would say that it is important for church leaders to offer the opportunity to give. And I would suggest that an “average” Christian would want to give weekly. But I’m not fussy about it. My real intention is to give out of the abundance of my heart.

As far as the question regarding “descriptive or prescriptive” in 1 Cor. 16:1 and 2, I’ll be a bit more fussy. While it might be proper to ask the “descriptive or prescriptive” question regarding (say) the offerings reported in the narrative sections of Acts…I would suggest that such a question is a settled matter in 1 Cor. 16, where Paul is responding to a specific issue by using clear, imperative verbs. I suppose a person could argue Paul is giving a one-time local answer to a local problem…but that would be an off-scale unorthodox viewpoint.

Oh, and I’ll take you up on that 25-50 year bet…I’ll wager Mitt Romney’s $10,000!

Interesting that 1 Cor 16:2 gives the reason for the collections: that there wouldn’t be any when Paul was there. 1) Seems like a pretty specific reason and 2) apparently paul wasn’t concerned that worshipers would be missing out on an act of worship that was a regular part of a weekly service.