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June 2, 2005
U.K. Churches Looking in Parking Lot to Gauge Income
(Filed under: Church Business)Vicars in the U.K. are being urged to check the cars in the parking lot to get an idea of what their congregations should be dropping in the offering plate. Yikes. I can't help but feel like I'm missing part of the story, or that there's some transatlantic cultural differences I'm not aware of, but yikes. Is it that hard for people to calculate their own tithe? Or to pledge what they're going to give for the year so the church can form a budget? Do we really need to be asking church members to fill out income declaration forms, even if they are anonymous?
Apparently part of the story is "fair share" programs where the richer congregations help out poorer congregations in the same diocese, but it still seems like a lot of intrusive fuss. The church never seems to look good when it comes to money.
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at June 2, 2005 6:26 PM
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This is a bit of a tangent, but I've never believed churches need people to pledge their giving for the year in order for the church to form a budget. Churches have giving & attendance information from prior years and should be able to make pretty accurate predictions for the coming year's budget from that data. Pledges may be an effective way to increase giving, but I don't see its necessity as a planning tool for the church. Am I missing something?
Posted by: Brian Baute at June 3, 2005 6:55 AM
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