Collection Plate 2.0

I can feel a wave of Web 2.0 postings crashing over me.

But a quick follow-up to yesterday’s Church 2.0 cartoon from Reverend Fun. The never-dull Shiny Shiny and Boing Boing websites (so good they named them both twice) bring news about an innovation in church giving.

SecureGive have developed a kiosk that allows church goers to let the collection plate pass them by and instead swipe their credit card through a machine and donate by plastic. Giving Kiosks are available at between $2-5k a piece – depending on the customisation - and allow one-off gifts as well a setting up regular monthly debits.

As western citizens happily pay by card in the shops, why not extend this to other parts of life?

So far, seven southern congregations in the US have bought the sleek black pedestals with screens and numeric keypads that are mounted in church entrance halls. In a church using the system, it is reported in the Los Angeles Times that

… some people who donate at the kiosk drop their receipts in the bag as a vestige of the old ways.

“The Bible talks about bringing your offerings to the church, and they like the feeling of dropping their offering in the plate,” Patty Baker [the pastor who invented the kiosk] said. “And we also believe that your offering is part of worship, so that's how they participate.”