Regardless of your church’s particular mission, vision, and approach to ministry, your bottom-line purpose is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. There’s a lot that goes into that: helping people learn to study Scripture and pray, equipping people to serve their community, encouraging them to share their faith journey with others, and so on.
And then there’s the one that seems to be the toughest for us all: empowering people to be generous with their financial resources.
Churches try all sorts of methods to encourage financial giving: We switch up where the offering lands in the order of worship, we scrap the offering altogether and put donation boxes in the lobby, we tell stories to help people connect the dots, and we keep people informed about the financial health of our church through quarterly statements and annual reports. In more recent years, we’ve added online giving and text-to-give to our toolboxes.
There’s another option that only a few churches seem to be taking advantage of—one that’s significantly accelerating generosity in those ministries: the giving kiosk.
Adding a giving kiosk to your generosity strategy requires good planning and execution. Dave Shrein, owner of Shrein Media, LLC and former communications director at Mountain Park Community Church, guided his church through the giving kiosk process. In his new ebook, 10 Ways to Make Your Giving Kiosk a Raving Success, Dave offers some clear direction on how churches can leverage giving kiosks. The most important decision to make, according to Dave, is why you want a kiosk to begin with.
Here’s an excerpt from the ebook:
Why Your Church Should Consider a Giving Kiosk
Adding a giving kiosk to your church lobby goes a long way toward helping your church appear modern and “with it.” As great as that is, there are more practical reasons your church should consider adding one:
- Kiosks provide another option for giving. Millennials are slowly becoming the largest demographic in your church, and they don’t use cash or write checks. With a giving kiosk, you can direct people to a system that allows them to use their debit (or credit) card.
- Dedicating real estate to a kiosk emphasizes the value of generosity. I’ve heard people say, “If something is of value to your church, dedicate real estate to it.” We could get into the biblical reasons for tithing, but practically speaking, your church survives on giving. Dedicating real estate to generosity visually states the spiritual and practical importance of giving.
- Kiosks allow people to respond immediately. Often, the best time to solicit a response from your congregation is on Sunday morning. From supporting a mission initiative, to signing up for a church membership class, to registering kids and students for summer camp, if you have a way for people to immediately respond you’ll see a much greater response rate.
- Kiosks serve as a reminder to give. I didn’t tithe for years. It wasn’t because I didn’t have the money. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to tithe. It was because I never remembered. In the early 2000s, I was in my late teens, and tithing never crossed my mind. The same thing is happening today in your church! A kiosk serves as a visual reminder to give, encouraging a new demographic to participate.
This list can serve as a giving kiosk conversation starter. Sure, not every reason listed above is a “good reason” for your church to invest in a giving kiosk. Starting the conversation with reasons like those listed above will ultimately open up a greater discussion where you will hopefully land on the right reason for your church.
When you’ve finally made the decision that a giving kiosk is right for your church, you can check out the full ebook to successfully launch your kiosk.
More:
10 Ways to Make Your Giving Kiosk a Raving Success is available for free to members of Courageous Storytellers. Learn about the different types of kiosks available and get sound advice on where to set up your kiosk, how to communicate the new tool to your congregation, and how to ensure its ongoing success. Members can also watch a video with Dave Shrein for more insight on giving kiosks. Join now!
Here’s a preview of Dave Shrein sharing some lessons about giving kiosks: