Hey Pastor Dale,

I don't have the knowledge to address #1, but I find you second question to be an interesting one.

Recently I was meeting with a team from a church I am building a site for. I was running through my list of features and got to my "Scripture" content type. (Which is nothing more than a verse or inspirational quote randomly displayed in a block.) "I don't like that..." the pastor said... "certainly we teach from the Bible, but I'm afraid if we start throwing verses around we're going to look too preachy." "Fair enough," I thought, and continued with my presentation. I was surprised when he later insisted they have a donate button on the homepage! (I finally talked him down to a primary menu item...which is still pathetic.) If we're going to be aware of negative sterotypes...money grubbing is one we want to avoid.

With that said...I think encouraging people to read is a good thing. And if the church can glean 4% of book sales people are going to be buying anyway, so much the better. So if you go that route, keep it very low key. (In Drupal you could easily hide the content from anonymous visitors.) It might be worth mentioning once, but probably shouldn't go in every bulletin!

Just my .02! I wonder how other people in the G&G community see it.

-NP

Wow. We're planning to add a paypal donate page to our site to help members set up a recurring offering to encourage firstfruits giving, but that will only be in the Members-only section, which is only visible to actual church members, who have to be added manually.

But yes, would welcome more input on this.

I've been a Christian for a long time. I have seen all sorts. The one thing that still makes me sick to my stomach is seeing churches ask for money outside of its own congregation. Because, why isn't that congregation doing its job to take care of their own church?

And to add to what was already said, churches are already deemed money hungry by the unchurched. So let's not add to that even if we have great intentions.

Third, what kind of a Pastor doesn't want to show Scripture? Sorry, but that is the most whacked thing I heard this week! Where have we gone that we hold a DONATE link with higher priority than SCRIPTURE!?!?!

It all goes back to one question - why are you doing the website in the first place? To spread the Gospel?

Pastor Dale,

I don't have any problem with your church operating an on-line, or bricks and mortar, bookstore to make materials available to your members and others. In this context, I believe it's appropriate to use PayPal to allow purchases via credit card; especially for an online store because it makes the concept work. If my numbers are correct, the PayPal discount rate for non-profits is 2.2% and there's a $0.30 transaction charge. The amount is small enough not to be too significant for small transactions, and it makes the transaction possible.

Tithes and offerings are another matter, especially when they are recurring. I don't know what it costs your church to deposit a check but it's probably a lot less than $1.00. A $50 donation would cost $1.40 to process through PayPal. There are several methods of making regular contributions that cost less than PayPal or credit card discounts and fees. These include:

• Good old paper checks.
• Regular Electronic Fund Transfers. This is a method that my church uses. The church, or the bank, initiates the transfer, frequently a fixed amount every month, but other options are available.
• "Internet Bill Pay" (I'm sure every bank has there own name for this service) allows bank customers to either make an electronic payment, similar to EFT, or have the bank write and mail a check on the customers behalf. The donor initiates each transfer. Generally this service is free, or has a low fee paid by the donor.

As a church member I think I'd be upset if my church encouraged donations (tithes and offerings) via credit card. I don't think it shows good stewardship. I don't have the same reservations if we're "selling a product" like a book, a fee for a summer camp, or a seminar.

Just my 2¢ worth,
Curt

Curt, we're already encouraging people to use their Bill Pay systems from their banks. What we'd like to add is a paypal system for those who don't have the bill pay through their banks or don't know how to set it up. It's mainly for those who tend to be gone camping over the summer.

Pastor Dale,

Our church has encouraged EFT for donations, for people that would like that option, via our bulletin. Simply stated, the announcement tells them to contact Bill S… for more information.

If you can justify the processing costs, PayPal is pretty simple to set up in an Ubercart implementation. E.g., you could create a donation product, price it at $1.00, and allow purchases in any reasonable quantity. I believe that, but haven't tried, Ubercart can be configured to bypass the "cart" metaphor and go directly to "checkout" after a product (donation) has been selected.

FWIW: Installing and configuring Ubercart is more intimidating than it is difficult; but, that's just my opinion.

Hope this helps,
Curt