E-giving Many still want to put
something in collection plate By Sandra Guy
R
yan M. Gray, a senior investigator in the derivatives marketplace, is hard-pressed to recall writing a check since he may write two or three in a month. Gray is a big believer in electronic giving to his church, St. Luke Lutheran of Logan Square in Chicago, and encourages it in his role as vice president of the congrega- tional council. “With a stewardship campaign in the past few months,
it’s helpful to know that people’s pledges will actually make their way into the treasury,” he said. Gray, 34, realized the need to make his giving easier when he and his wife, Gina Forgianni Gray, an attorney, sat down to get a closer look at their incoming and outgoing household expenses. Gray has been using electronic bank- ing to pay bills since 1999, and he jumped on the chance to do the same with tithing when St. Luke implemented its program in 2010.
“My wife and I are so busy, we thought the automatic deduction would spare the scramble we had had during the church service when we suddenly realized we didn’t have cash or a check,” Gray said. “The process made [tithing] a lot more convenient. We knew our intentions would be reflected in what the church receives.” Gray’s pastor, Erik Christensen, 37, said the direct-debit
Guy is an ELCA member and a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times. 14 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
takes root where checks, cash reigned
“Please key in your donation and pass along.”
giving program, as St. Luke calls it, is starting to pick up steam among the congregation’s growing number of 20-, 30- and 40-somethings. “A generation of folks is used to handling their finances—paying utilities, the car note and the mortgage— online,” Christensen said. “They are relieved and appreci- ate the directness of [electronic] giving.”
Nine months after electronic giving started, nearly half of St. Luke’s members use direct-debit giving for their regular tithing.
Christensen, who for two years has paid his condo association fee, alma mater donation and other payments online, said direct-debit giving has made a “huge differ- ence” in the church’s stewardship campaign. It eliminated an extra layer of following up on people’s written pledges to seek assurances that the checks would be forthcoming. “People have thanked me and said this is how [they] handle all of [their] finances,” Christensen said. St. Luke’s 25-percent increase in pledged gifts for its just-launched 2011 stewardship campaign appears to include 60 percent to 70 percent electronic pledges from new member donors, according to the church’s preliminary data.
The congregation has grown to an average attendance of 60 from its 2006 average of 12, when it started a redevelop- ment program.
Needs time to think Fred Jaxheimer, a member of St. John Lutheran Church, St. Johns, Pa., sees the positive aspects of electronic giving but has decided to refrain from it so he can spend time each week thinking about his blessings and what he is giving back to God.
“I think too many people want to keep worship at church and don’t want to spend worship time outside of the church,” said Jaxheimer, 48, a retired nuclear-reactor
JEAN SORENSEN
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