It’s Sunday morning and you’re sitting in the pew in church. Here comes the offering plate, but you reach in your pockets to find only lint and plastic. That’s OK; now with just a swipe of your bank card you can give part of your offering to the church in just seconds.
Pastor Marty Baker, of Stevens Creek Community Church in Augusta, Ga., has come up with an ATM service that allows churchgoers to give just like they were at their bank.
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Eric Mortensen said, “It’s no different from traditional systems, just more modern.”
With the help of a computer programmer who belonged to the church, Baker designed the ATM and had it built. In early 2005, Baker introduced the first “Giving Kiosk” at Steven’s Creek.
Since then, Baker has begun offering the ATMs to other churches through his company he’s calling “SecureGive.” The units cost between $2,000 and $5,000 for hardware and installation, and SecureGive collects up to $49.95 per month for licensing and support.
This seems reasonable for an idea that could make tithing more convenient for all. But here’s the kicker: a card processing company and SecureGive collect their portion of 1.9 percent of each transaction on every machine.
Granted,1.9 percent is not a lot, but that’s not the point. The fact is that SecureGive is operating a business through the church.
Max Carter, campus ministry coordinator, said, “ATMs are a business; putting an ATM into a church means it is in business with someone.”
This situation seems somewhat familiar.
Matthew 21:12-13 states, “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them. It is written, [My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.]”
Some may argue that this is no different from putting a vending machine in a church; however, the company that owns that vending machine pays the church for it to be there. SecureGive doesn’t pay the church anything; in fact, they take away what would have been the church’s by taking a percentage of each transaction.
“Worship should be a step out of culture; this brings culture and worship too close,” Carter said.
In traditional Christian worship, offering has a specific place in the service. It is seen not only as monetary support for the church, but as an act of worship itself.
Pastor Ramon Smith of College Park Baptist said, “My concerns would be that the ATM could put people in financial trouble because they give more than they can afford, and this system takes the tithe out of the worship setting.” Smith continued, “Tithing should be an act of worship and something you want to do, not a routine payment.”
The ATMs would also be out of place in Jewish tradition, according to first-year Martha OrHai. “Under Jewish tradition we can’t hold money on the Sabbath,” OrHai said, “so ATMs in a Synagogue would be inherently wrong.”
There are those, however, who don’t find any problem with the ATMs.
Carter said, “Quaker tradition is to pay throughout the year, so it might be more acceptable under Quaker beliefs.”
“People shouldn’t be as worried about how the church is collecting money but whether or not it should be,” Mortensen said. “And if there is not a problem with giving money, then they should have no problem with the ATM.
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ATM’s for Jesus now available
Joe Overby
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October 27, 2006
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