Michigan Church's Offering Plates are Now Equipped With Apple Pay
Sunday Service at Water Heights Baptist Church in Great Lakes Michigan seems like one you might see at any other of the 250,000 churches in the US. The piano starts playing, the ushers begin to pass around the offering plate, and members of the congregation start pulling out their cellphones. Except these people aren’t about to make a mid-service tweet, they’re getting ready to pay communion.
That’s because each offering plate here is equipped with Apple pay, the new payment service for Apple’s IPhone. Senior Pastor Greg Dulany tells the Enlightened Evangelical it was a huge step for the congregation. “The amount of money our Church had been receiving from the weekly offering was in decline for several years and we discovered that it was mainly because our members no longer carry cash. We needed to update the process. When David (a Dean at Water Heights) brought this idea to us a few months ago, we decided to give it a shot.” It turned out to be a good call. Greg says that they are now receiving nearly twice the weekly communion they were before incorporating the mobile service. “People just find it more convenient. It’s so much easier than trying to remember to use the donut store ATM before church to get your offering money.”
The offering plates used at Water Heights look just like traditional ones except their centers are equipped with a screen and keypad. The members use this system to key in their offering amount before placing their phones over the plate to complete the transaction. The Water Heights pastor says they discovered these special plates had an additional hidden feature. “The keypad doesn’t erase the previous amount after the transaction goes through, so the person you hand the plate to can see how much you gave" the pastor joked, "It’s actually probably helped. People seem to give a whole lot more when they know that other people will see it. Isn't that part of the reason we still do public communion?”
Pastor Dulany says they are working on creative ways to utilize the technology. “We’re thinking about doing something with it during missions week. You know, put a goal with a blank meter on the screen. Then every time someone donates we can fill in the meter with the donation amount until it’s all filled in and we reach our goal. Just things like that to make giving at church a little more engaging.”
When asked about the dangers of integrating technology into the Church, he laughed. “As long as the traditions are being upheld, the Church should look for way to keep itself from becoming archaic. Aren’t you glad that there weren’t religious debates about bringing air-conditioning into the Church?” Greg tells the Evangelical that he would rather not show pictures of the device right now, as a businessman in the congregation is helping them get ready to begin marketing the device to other Churches.
So maybe this small change will soon mean that many church accountants will have to count a whole lot less of it.
Susan Grumble
Senior Editor