Facebook for Faith: When we use social media for tithes, offerings, and stewardship

Facebook recently launched Faith for Facebook, a resource portal for religious leaders. The portal provides documentation, case studies, and how-to resources on Groups and Facebook Live, likely the most utilized resources among faith communities. Beneath the content on communities and video is a section on charitable giving: Fundraising on Facebook.

According to Facebook's documentation, Facebook covers "all fees for donations made on Facebook to charitable organizations." Churches that qualify as 501(c)(3) organizations could thus use Facebook Payments for fee-free fundraising. The sign-up process is brief: provide a recent bank statement, relevant contact information, and submit some paperwork.

Once enrolled in Facebook Payments, churches can add a Giving button their Facebook Page (which, of course, is different from its Facebook Group). When an individual donates on the Page, funds arrive in the church's bank account within a matter of weeks. According to the company, "If your organization is enrolled with Facebook Payments, then it will be paid out every two weeks. The funds will be paid to your organization as an ACH, or as a direct deposit to your organization's bank account."

Other than the free cost, the benefit to using Facebook for tithes and offerings is accessibility. The wide adoption of Facebook in a congregation makes it easier to collect tithes and offerings than on platforms like a church management system or standalone giving app. With seven out of ten Americans using Facebook, and five out of ten Americans visiting Facebook every day, it's likely that most members of a congregation already have a Facebook profile. Even older members of the congregation are likely to use the social media site. Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation are the fastest-growing adopters of the social media platform.

But as with all technology in a ministry context, there are questions that church leaders ought to address before directing congregants to donate through Facebook:

• Ethics - should you use social media for tithes and offerings?

• Exclusivity - should Facebook be the only platform for tithes and offerings?

• Liturgical integration - how might we remember that tithes and offerings are more than a transaction on a social media site?

As with all ministry technologies, church leaders ought to reflect on the ethical implications of using Facebook for donations. While processing fees are covered, a donation through Facebook gives the social media giant access to even more user data, in the form of credit card numbers and billing addresses. While this data is undoubtedly secure and protected from hackers, one wonders how Facebook could integrate this data into their ever-growing portfolio of user information. Still, without concrete examples of improper usage of user financial information, any expectation of corporate malfeasance is an assumption. The fact is, online tithes and offerings require church members to share their financial information with some organization, whether it be a bank, an app developer, or a social media company. It may be a net positive to route these donations through Facebook, which has far more cybersecurity resources than smaller app developers. We may not know what Facebook does with all of this data, but we can be confident that it is safe from hackers and breaches.

From a practical standpoint, we should also consider whether Facebook should be the only platform or one of many donation platforms. The more donation platforms a church utilizes, the more complexity it introduces for its treasurer and administrative staff. There is some value in using Facebook exclusively, particularly since it doesn't charge a donation fee. Yet, three out of ten Americans don't use Facebook, and it seems almost callous to suggest that someone needs to create a social media profile to tithe to the church. The best answer to the question of exclusivity, then, might be to use two platforms for donations: one that integrates with the church's website (such as Tithe.ly or Breeze CMS), and one that connects to a Facebook Page.

Ultimately, church leaders would do well to remember that tithes and offerings are always an act of Christian worship: giving back to God what God has first given to us. This is difficult to remember in the world of fast-paced online transactions. With the rise Venmo and PayPal, the exchange of funds through cyberspace has become truly effortless, even impersonal. While it's beneficial for churches to receive offerings through a click-to-donate button, it's essential to maintain a connection between stewardship and worship. Donating online to church is an act of worship. For this reason, churches should not abandon the offering during online or live-streamed services. Church leaders might even consider having a virtual blessing for click-to-donate buttons, on Facebook or on a website, marking that these technologies are in fact an expression of the community's worshipping life together.

Facebook for Faith's giving tool is a valuable resource for church leaders. The lack of transaction fees provide a compelling advantage when compared with other church offering technologies. While it might not be the only way to collect tithes and offerings, it might be the most useful way - particularly when it is connected with worship.

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@ryanpanzer is the author of "Grace and Gigabytes."

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Slack for Ministry: A new way for churches to collaborate virtually and asynchronously

Less than half of Americans want to work full-time from an office when the pandemic subsides, according to the New York Times. These sentiments follow a recent McKinsey analysis suggesting that most organizations can rely predominantly on remote work without any drop in effectiveness or impact. According to McKinsey, even location-based services like healthcare may one day see over one-third of employees coming to work virtually. We are in an economy where the number of available jobs is misaligned to the number of active job seekers. As a result, organizations that are unable or unwilling to collaborate virtually and asynchronously will soon encounter a severe shortage of job applicants.

This trend matters a great deal to churches, which are just as active in the labor market as any organization. While church leaders may prefer to think of congregations as localized units shaped in response to the needs of a geographic neighborhood, the church of the future will be less of a bounded entity. In this digital age, congregations will take up a both/and position, serving the needs of the physical and virtual neighbor in response to God's call, with acts of discipleship taking place down the street and throughout cyberspace.

Church leaders, then, need to find a way to collaborate virtually and asynchronously, with rostered leaders, lay leaders, members, and virtual/physical neighbors. Whether a congregation has a large office with dozens of staffers or a small office with a pastor and an administrator, today's church leader is tasked with extending the collaborative reach of the community.

Slack for Mac OS

This is why Slack is such a compelling platform for ministry. Originally designed as a chat application, Slack sought to reduce dependence on email. By convening chat conversations and hosting direct messages between collaborators, Slack reduces dependence on the inbox and facilitates collaboration between those who are neither located in the same place nor working at the same times. While churches are ineligible for Slack's nonprofit discount program, an account starts at just $8/person per month.

Slack invites anyone connected with an organization to join "channels," or chat rooms, created around shared projects. Companies might have channels for sales, marketing, product development, or human resources. Churches might create channels for worship planning, faith formation, Sunday school, and administration.

Once organized into channels, Slack provides the infrastructure for meaningful collaboration. This includes apps that support teleconferencing platforms like Zoom, as well as integrations that support work on shared documents like Google Docs. Slack also provides threaded conversations, facilitating the possibility of a lively back and forth.

How can today's church leader get the most from Slack?

First, identify what areas require collaboration, and accordingly, meeting times. Does your church have a weekly worship planning session? A bi-weekly finance check-in with the treasury committee? Each of these represents a possible Slack channel, where ideas can be exchanged and questions answered outside of scheduled meeting time.

Second, find specific opportunities to utilize Slack to exchange ideas. Adopting a new technology requires an awareness of uses cases. The most common way churches might start to utilize Slack is to bring together the worship planning team, who can use the platform to integrate music, preaching themes, prayers, and other aspects of Sunday morning. Communicate how and when collaborators should turn to Slack - and remember to communicate the benefits of reduced meeting time, and greater community input.

Next, think about Slack as a platform for more than staff collaboration. While most organizations initially adopt Slack for internal use, congregations don't have a clean demarcation of internal/external stakeholders. All members of the church, and to some extent, all members of a neighborhood, are valued collaborators. Most church and neighborhood members won't want to engage via Slack initially - they likely tend to prefer to engage through social media like Facebook Groups. So, start with the church's lay leaders, or those who serve on standing boards or committees. Board and council members may be the most eager to reduce unnecessary meetings, holding conversations and even votes when it best suits their availability. Your church council Slack channel may be far more valuable in fostering collaboration than channels for pastors and church staff.

Finally, remember to have fun with Slack. From an endless trove of animated GIFs to seemingly every emoji (and the ability to create your own), Slack makes digital collaboration far more fun than any email exchange. The extent to which a congregation actually enjoys using Slack determines the sustainability of the platform in a ministry context.

While Slack is an excellent collaboration tool for congregations, it's important to remember that all technologies have a potential cost to our attention and energy. Cal Newport, author of "Digital Minimalism," recently published a book critiquing the rapid adoption of Slack. In fact, Slack can prove to be distracting, particularly when its usage is not goal-directed. In a ministry setting, Slack requires a specific purpose. It also requires some documented usage practices. It's best to encourage Slack users to carefully monitor their notification settings, potentially deactivating mobile notifications so as to avoid interruption outside of working hours.

Throughout this time of extended digital distribution, we've seen and experienced the redefinition of the workplace. That redefinition is coming to our churches, beckoning us to find new ways of collaborating in mission. Slack is a compelling tool for purposeful ministry, an invaluable resource for the digital age church leader.

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@ryanpanzer is the author of "Grace and Gigabytes."

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When Rally Day is canceled: Confronting the ongoing church attendance dilemma

Half of all churches experienced an increase in worship attendance in spring 2020. At least, that's what surveys from the Barna Group suggest. Most church leaders can attest to a similar trend in their congregation. As lockdowns tightened during the early pandemic, church-goers with little else to do flocked to online worship, peaking on Easter Sunday and Christmas Eve 2020.

And then the Zoom fatigue began. As the reality of a long pandemic set in, online attendance began to wane. Even as churches reopened their sanctuaries on a limited basis, cumulative attendance continued its decline.

One congregation in my town had over 700 households join for worship online on Christmas Eve. Today, attendance is down to a few dozen worshipping online, with in-person attendance less than half of its pre-pandemic levels. With widespread concerns over unvaccinated children and the delta variant, as well as the reintroduction of mask mandates, some local congregations have opted to cancel rally day festivities in September. Some church leaders have shelved plans for grand re-opening celebrations targeted for the first Sunday after Labor Day, a day that was once thought to be the harbinger of a brighter and mask-free future.

These challenges can, at times, seem unbeatable. In a time like this, today's church leader might try desperately to reverse the slide in attendance. But the headwinds of this pandemic moment may prove to be too strong.

This may not be the time for a well-conceived marketing campaign or a revamped outreach strategy. Instead, this may simply be a time for lament, introspection, and presence.

First, grieve the losses. Many congregations have acknowledged the grief and pain associated with the widespread loss of life during the pandemic. Some have acknowledged the hardship associated with not being able to gather at the altar for communion or to gather in large groups outside of worship. Each of these merits a word of lament from a Christian community, from scriptures, through preaching, and in prayer. As congregations look towards an uncertain fall season, some are planning for a service of lament on All Saint's Day, looking to culminate the longings and losses of the pandemic in the mode of the psalmist. But in a sense, grieving the losses of the past has its limits. Our news cycle, and our day-to-day lives, are so imbued with loss that individual lament has become habitual. We might, therefore, require something more than collectively grieving what has been lost. What we really need now is an expression of the specific type of loss that comes from unrealized hope.

So we acknowledge the pain that comes with unmet aspirations. Now more than ever, our churches are communities with an uncertain future. When 2021 began, we saw a glimmer of hopeful expectation on the horizon, a tantalizing promise that the fall could bring a restoration of what had been lost. In January, I saw an opportunity for churches to innovate, to come up with a new way of doing ministry, and being church community that could be fully implemented come September. The delta variant has tamped down these opportunities. The growth we had anticipated in September may be far less than what we had hoped for. While some churches are moving ahead with their plans, others are expressing dismay in that these predictions have proven unreliable. At best, our grand reopenings in September will be cautious and tenous. Through scripture, preaching, and prayer, we are called not just to lift up the losses of the past, but to confront the unrealized hope that so many of us carried into the new year. Just as the psalmist lifted up the laments of a people in captivity without a clear future, so to must we lift up the concerns of those whose plans and aspirations have crumbled in a second pandemic summer.

Finally, we must reflect on why we feel so pressed to grow. In this season, many church leaders may find grief and frustration from declining attendance in a season where we had once anticipated growth. In this environment, it is appropriate to wonder why we had put so much emphasis on "post-pandemic" growth. This is a time for all of us to revisit our relationship with growth, why we see increased numbers as our key performance indicator for the healthy congregation. As churches without a clear future, growth is not up to us. This is the time to reflect on the mission and purpose of a congregation. In our capitalist cultural context, growth is often viewed as the end or purpose of all organizations. This season of unrealized hope offers us the opportunity to break that cycle, to reflect on God's call, and to orient our communities accordingly.

Attendance may be down, and Rally Day may be canceled. But God remains at work in our communities. The call of the church, which is seldom synonymous with growth, remains in place. Though the future may be uncertain, it is a future that belongs to God. For that, we give thanks amidst our lamentation.

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@ryanpanzer is the author of "Grace and Gigabytes." An advocate of innovation in the church, he is a skeptic of growth for the sake of growth.

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