There is nothing new under the sun
by John Casey

A saying that keeps coming back to me, in varying situations, states that "There is nothing new under the sun." Somehow, though, we keeps finding ways of doing things differently, or packaging them differently, to make them look or feel new. I found myself reflecting on this the other day as I looked over the material for an electronic contribution program that Mindekirken has decided to join, and thought I would share a little bit of it with you this month.

The program is called "Simply Giving", and it’s provided as a charitable service by Lutheran Brotherhood. The idea is to make it easier for members of Lutheran churches to make their regular contributions to their churches by using modern electronic funds transfer technology. I’m sure that more and more of you do this now, whether it’s for utility bills, insurance payments, or subscriptions to other services. The way the Simply Giving program works, you fill out a form that specifies how much you’d like to give to Mindekirken, how frequently and at what times this would take place, and for what purposes. Once your form is processed (which takes a few weeks), the contributions you specify take place on an ongoing basis by direct transfer from your checking or savings account to the church account.

What’s in it for me? – is a question you might ask. Why should I sign up for this program? It’s a good question, as far as I’m concerned. Some of the answers may come in the next paragraph, because I’m sure that if you didn’t care about and have an interest in Mindekirken you wouldn’t be reading this. But on a personal basis, a lot of people are likely to conclude that this is a convenient way to make the contributions that they make now via check. Most of you reading this may be more organized than I, but I can remember a lot of Sunday mornings when I’ve sat down to write my weekly check then had to rush out the door to get to church! It also means that you can make a decision once about what you’d like your giving to be and don’t have to keep track of it thereafter. The automatic withdrawals will show on your regular checking or savings account statement.

What’s in it for Mindekirken? – is the next logical question. I’ll toss out a few answers that come to mind. First, it reduces the amount of work involved on Sunday for the Trustees to count and tabulate the contents of offering envelopes. Second, it reduces the work involved for our Church Secretary to prepare a deposit the next day. Third, it reduces mistakes that can occur in these manual processes. Fourth, according to Lutheran Brotherhood, most churches that have used this program have seen their contributions even out, and sometimes even increase. Like Mindekirken, most churches see a decrease in attendance in the summer, which also means a decrease in offering envelopes. If members are set up to contribute automatically each week or each month, the fact that they miss a service doesn’t mean that they can’t contribute.

What’s in it for Lutheran Brotherhood? – also worth discussing briefly. In short, it’s a corporate contribution on their part. They promise not to accumulate any information that they use for sales or marketing purposes. In fact, they even contract with a separate company to handle the transfers of funds. They are working really hard to avoid even an appearance of conflict of interest, which makes me feel good.

So there’s a little bit about "Simply Giving" – you’ll have to decide for yourself how "new" it really is! We’ll be sending out an informational mailing with a brochure and more details soon to all Full and Associate Members. Any of you reading this who aren’t members but might be interested in getting involved (you don’t have to be a member to participate in this program) can call Kaia at the office to get a brochure mailed out to you. As always, feel free to let me know your thoughts and feelings on this. Since it’s completely voluntary, I look on it as one more option that we can offer to our members and friends.