Being Generous When Not In Worship

While your congregation may not be worshiping in person over the next few weeks the mission of God’s church continues. Whether keeping a food pantry open, adjusting community meals to a take-out only option, or ensuring some of the most vulnerable in your community are cared for, the congregations of this synod and church are still doing vital ministry in our communities. Those ministries continue to need your financial support.

In addition, whether from home or in the building your congregation’s pastor, administrative staff, musicians and sexton or cleaning crew will continue to be working. They will be providing worship opportunities in these weeks when not gathering in person, be on the other end of the phone and keeping other lines of communication open, making sure your congregation’s building is cleaned and sanitized and getting ready for in person worship to resume. Your financial generosity is needed to continue to provide for their salaries.

You can always drop your offering in the mail — your congregation’s financial secretary, treasurer and counting team can still gather to count offerings. If your congregation does not already have online giving now may be the time to investigate it and start offering this opportunity. Here are a few options to get started today.

Tithe.ly - This is one of the easiest ways to begin online giving — it takes about ten minutes to set up, all you need is the congregation’s checking account information. The sign up is free and there is no monthly fee; you are only charged per transaction The Synod office uses Tithe.ly as its online giving platform and the ELCA has a preferred vendor relationship with Tithe.ly.

Givelify - This platform offers a simple sign up, all you need is the congregation’s checking account information. There is no sign up or monthly maintenance fee; you are only charged per transaction. There are a few congregations in our synod that use this platform.

Give+ from Vanco - This platform is connected to Simply Giving, the first automatic giving platform that many congregations already use. There is a monthly maintenance fee plus a charge per transaction. Whether you already use Vanco or not, the sign up is simple but takes some time to complete. The ELCA has a preferred vendor relationship with Vanco and the Synod office has used Vanco in the past to received payments for Synod Assembly.