Christian History online just put up an article I wrote on the history behind the weekly offering in America. Here is a taste:
Religious disestablishment, which historian James Hudnut-Beumler calls “the largest instance of privatization in all of American history,” forever changed the way American churches did business. Churches and pastors could no longer look to the government for money. They had to come up with new ways to raise the funds they needed in order to survive and thrive in the free market of 19th-century American religion.
Churches used a variety of methods to raise money. For example, while some Christians today act like they own the pew they occupy each Sunday, many Christians in the 1800s actually did own their pew (or at least rented it). Some churches rented pews by auction each year, while others sold them to pay for the building and then taxed the value of the pew for annual revenue. The most expensive seats were in the front, and the cheap seats were in the back. Free seats were available in the back or the balcony, but a free pew carried a social stigma.
Read the whole thing.
March 13, 2009 at 7:36 am
Neat article Mark. Riverside Valley Community Church (RVCC), where I served my last couple years of college, was the first church I ever attended that did not pass a plate. We didn’t expect visitors to give anything. It was part of the new members class that members were expected to tithe. Generally speaking, on the Sunday after payday, people would simply drop their check into the box.
When I came up here to start a church, we pondered how to “do the offering” thing. We settled on what I saw modeled at RVCC. We don’t pass a plate. It sits up on the alter and at some point (usually before and directly after) people place their offering in the plate. Then again, we have one couple that has their automatic bill-pay simply mail the church a check every month. I did have one person ask if we were set up for Credit Card donations. Alas…not yet.
March 16, 2009 at 10:11 am
Very fascinating piece, Mark!
March 20, 2009 at 8:31 am
I could nto find your email, so I thought I would drop a quick comment here and say good article at CH.
NAF
May 24, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Спасибо. То, что нужно ))