Just because they’re not in the pews Sunday morning doesn’t mean Northsiders aren’t tithing and fulfilling their church pledges.
Many local churches shut their doors in March to help stem the spread of the coronavirus among members.
Those weekly services were a major source of revenue for congregations, which rely on collections to cover operations, pay for missions and the like.
Nationally, articles from the New York Times, Washington Examiner and Houston Chronicle show that church giving was down amid the corona pandemic.
Local houses of worship, though, appear to be fairing better, with leaders saying they’re seeing a spike in online donations.
In fact, most church leaders on the Northside say giving has been better than expected.
“We’re still waiting for mailed checks to come in, but it looks like we had a good month,” said Ralph Kelley, executive minister for First Presbyterian Church in Jackson.
First Presbyterian has canceled in-person activities through April 30. Services are now livestreamed Sundays and Wednesdays on the First Presbyterian website.
The church has approximately 2,800 members.
Leaders there made electronic giving available about three years ago with the introduction of a smartphone app. Since then, giving has been expanded to allow contributions via the church’s website.
“We’ve seen a pretty significant increase in online giving the last few weeks,” Kelley said. “People that had been regular givers, but had never given online, have started to switch and give that way.”
“We’re also receiving quite a few checks via the postal service.”
Pepper Carter, communications and events manager at Broadmoor Baptist Church, said online giving at her church is also increasing “week to week.”
“People are recognizing it is easy to do, it is safe and it is a trusted source.”
Broadmoor also allows members to mail in checks and drop them off at the church office.
She said it was too early to tell whether collections for the 4,500-member congregation would be down.
“Gifts and offerings are still coming in on a weekly basis but it’s not as instantaneous as the offertory in the service. It takes a few more days to calculate it,” she said.
Since the outbreak, Covenant Presbyterian Church has seen online giving grow by 91 percent.
“We have an older congregation, so the fact that we are doing online giving is a big deal for us,” said Treasurer Brooks Mosley. “It shows it can be done.”
Mosley didn’t have the final numbers for March’s collections, but said they looked “better than expected.
“People are kind of late on their pledges, but in November or December, they’ll catch up.”
Covenant’s traditional services are slated to resume May 10, unless the outbreak again requires them to be postponed.
Bob Rambo, lead pastor of Christ United Methodist Church, believes online giving is the way of the future.
“However, there are still many older adults who prefer to give the ‘old-fashioned’ way. So, we will continue to offer people a variety of options.”
Among options Christ United allows members to give online, in-person or via text.
Donations for the church of 4,000 have dropped as a result of the outbreak, but the percentage of members giving online has doubled, going from 15 to 30 percent.
“We are fortunate that we paid off all our debt last fall. We also have no capital campaigns to worry about right now, Rambo said.
