Your Money: How Best to Pay for Your House of Worship

Worshipers pick one up at their local chapel, fill it out and hand over their money to a lay leader (having annotated the amounts paid by check, currency or coins, per the instructions on the slip). No annual bill, no passing of the plate. Keep the canary-colored carbon copy for your records.

The fact that the slip looks a bit like something your dry cleaner might give you when you drop off your clothes is part of its appeal. After all, worship is a regular part of many people’s lives. We need to pay for it somehow.

But the how in this equation is something that has changed over time for many religions in the United States, from selling pews to the wealthy 100 years ago to electronically pulling money from people’s bank accounts more recently.

So as we approach a busy season for giving among believers, from the annual dues that Jews hand over each summer to the pledges that Episcopalians often make in the fall, this is a good time to ask whether we’ve settled on a form of collection that is both efficient and meaningful.

Whatever you may feel about the relative worth of tithing slips, the membership model or annual pledges, it’s clear that most religious institutions are at least a bit better at collecting money than they used to be.

Rabbi Gary P. Zola, a professor at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, said that Reform congregations in the United States once supported themselves by letting those who paid the most sit in the best seats in the sanctuary and get honors, like blessing and holding the Torah.

The pay-per-pew model turned up in Protestant and Catholic churches, too, and some churches were particularly serious about the commitment. Poor Aaron Smock was the subject of an 1884 article in this newspaper under the headline, “Smock Must Pay His Pew Rent.” The Second Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Freehold, N.J., sued him when he fell $600 behind on his bill for Pew 62.

This method of raising money began to bother religious leaders, and many moved more formally to some form of tithing. Mormons tithed from early on, and offerings were often produce or livestock or hardgoods.

Many Jewish congregations adopted what came to be known as the fair share approach, with everyone paying theirs. After World War II, as Jews moved to the suburbs, another membership model emerged with a single annual fee for everyone.

“These were places where there was a socioeconomic floor,” said Rabbi Daniel H. Freelander, senior vice president of the Union for Reform Judaism. “All the houses cost the same.” That said, dues relief has generally been available for people who can’t afford the standard amount. (A disclosure: I’m on the board of a Reform congregation.)

Whatever people pay, however, it hasn’t always been easy for administrators and lay leaders to get them to donate regularly and increase their contributions each year, no matter their faith. Over the last decade or so, entrepreneurs have seized on the opening and tried to automate the process.

One big player is a service called ParishPay, which works with many Catholic churches and a few synagogues to help sign up worshipers to pay via credit or debit card or automatic payment from their bank accounts. Nearly 1,000 institutions have joined the service, and it claims a 20 to 30 percent increase in giving by individuals who enroll.

That’s a nice lift, though the process is a bit antiseptic given that no money changes hands at the house of worship (though Jews are not supposed to handle money on Shabbat). Marty Baker, the lead pastor at Stevens Creek Church in Augusta, Ga., came up with the idea for an in-church giving kiosk in 2003, when he wondered whether attendees with pockets full of plastic might give more than they were depositing in the collection plate if he found a way to accept their cards.

Today, his for-profit company SecureGive has kiosks in churches, Hindu temples and some zoos and hospitals, too. “You could do this at home or online,” he said. “But there is something about swiping that card at church. It’s a reminder that your gifts are making a difference in a broader context.”