I thought this was pretty funny, from the Monday Morning Insight blog.
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What if your church put this in your weekly bulletin?
"Last Sunday, there were 661 offering envelopes turned into the offering. The denominations were as follows." Then a list showing how many people gave anywhere from the low end ($1) to the high end ($175) showing the actual breakdown is shown.
That's what St. Luke's Church in Queens, NY is doing every week.
According to a report in the NY Post, not everyone in the church likes the idea: "I don't like it," said Pat McGlinckey, 56. "It's like they're hitting below the belt to get us to give more."
"It just left a bad taste in my mouth," said a 20-year churchgoer who didn't want to be named. "What someone gives is their personal business. They shouldn't be made to feel bad that they're on the lower end of the spectrum."
More from The Post article:
Last week there were 661 donations totaling $8,527. One person stuffed an envelope with $175, while 21 parishioners gave only a single buck.
The most popular denomination offered was $5, with 196 donations. In second place were the $10 offerings, at 142.
The church’s pastor, the Rev. Monsignor John Tosi, told The Post the new feature was to ensure financial transparency and not to shame parishioners into bigger offerings.
“The idea was to let them know where our money comes from and where it’s going, which is important,” Tosi said.
“We’re not embarrassing anybody, we’re not judging anybody,” he added. And if the efforts causes a parishioner to reach deeper into his pockets, “That’s not such a bad reaction, is it?”
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1 comment:
Queens,NY? There's a lot of poverty in that area. Maybe some of those people can only give a dollar..yeesh!
If you want to show how cheap people are pick a wealthy area..my guess is you'd see the same figures. I'm not a fan of "guilting someone into giving". It's like the churches that pass the plate twice cause they didn't get enough the first time.
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