Page 9 - PC Issue 14 Summer 2020

presbyterian.ca
SUMMER 2020
STEWARDSHIP
Giving is Changing in 2020
Connection 9
COMMITTEES
The Assembly Council
PRESBYTERIAN
By Jim MacDonald, Stewardship & Planned Giving
When churches begin to open their doors again, many congregants, concerned about a second wave of COVID-19, may be reluctant to re- turn right away. Anecdotally, we’ve heard that churches that have cre- ated videos or done live streaming in the past few months have added viewers who were not attending church prior to the pandemic. Many churches will want to continue cre- ating digital content to share with remote par ticipants. Recorded worship videos can be uploaded to YouTube and worship service events can be streamed live on YouTube or any number of platforms dedicated to live streaming for churches.
Isolated donors give online
Church members who join you re- motely may want to give to your church, and they’ll need options. These include Pre-Authorized Re- mittance (PAR), Interac eTransfer and online giving. Tithe.ly and Cana- daHelps are two services that pro- vide secure donation forms for your website, allowing you to accept gifts from both debit cards and credit cards. CanadaHelps is simple and already set up, however it issues the tax receipts, while Tithe.ly gives the congregation the tools to collect the gifts and the congregation issues the tax receipts. For the past few months, I’ve been helping churches add Tithe.ly and CanadaHelps forms to church websites, so feel free to reach out to me for assistance.
Paper money fading away
In the past few months, paper
money has been shunned by many for fear of virus spread. I recently tried to tip a grocery store shopper who had gathered my groceries for pickup, and, to my surprise, she refused the cash tip for that very reason! Prior to the pandemic, only about half of Canadians carried cash all the time; and only a third of all transactions were cash-based. Now it will be even fewer.
Churches may want to explore terminal devices, like a Square Ter- minal, in response to a cashless society. The Square Terminal can swipe, tap and insert debit and cred- it chip cards for in-person transac- tions. If the device is connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi or cellular data, donors can give using debit cards and the church will only be charged $0.10/transaction by Interac. If the device can’t find an Internet signal, it will still accept credit card trans- actions, so it will even work at a church picnic! Best of all, it comes with a small printer in the back, so you can provide the user with a re- ceipt. Square devices that connect to mobile phones and tablets star t as low as $59 and the standalone Square Terminal costs $299. There is no monthly fee. Congregations must remember to collect the per- sonal information needed to issue tax receipts.
As the church experience goes through adjustments in 2020, churches may need help keeping up. Stewardship & Planned Giving is here to offer guidance and suppor t.
If your church needs assistance setting up PAR, online giving or getting a Square Terminal device, contact Jim MacDonald at jmacdon- ald@presbyterian.ca.
The Assembly Council is the commit- tee of the General Assembly that is re- sponsible for ensuring that the work of the church is carried out efficiently, ef- fectively and within the policies estab- lished by the General Assembly. The membership on Assembly Council is drawn from across the country and includes representatives from the At- lantic Mission Society, the theological colleges, the Life and Mission Agency and the Women’s Missionary Society, so that the church benefits from the broadest possible viewpoints and in- puts on matters.
The Assembly Council was created to be both a coordinating and pro- phetic body that seeks to fulfill these principles in all its discussions and decisions. Attending to the Strategic Plan of the PCC is one way the Coun- cil does this work.
In its coordinating function, the Council keeps the national agencies and committees of the church running smoothly, recommends policy and prepares national budgets. Among the subcommittees of the Assembly Council are: Archives and Record Management, Audit, Benevolence,
Commission on Assets of Dissolved and Amalgamated Congregations, Commission on Proxies, Church Ar- chitecture, Ewar t Endowment for The- ological Education, Finance, Manage- ment Team, Nominating and Human Resources Policy and an Executive.
As a prophetic body, the Council seeks to accomplish the work that stands before it today, while seeking a vision for mission and discerning an image of what the church might be in the future.
The Assembly Council meets twice ayear.
Members of the Assembly Council gather online for their spring meeting.
Attention Treasurers
Sign Up for Automatic Withdrawals Today!
With everything happening across the globe over the past few months, leaving the house to pay bills may feel like a daunting task. We want to make paying your Pension and Health & Dental premiums as easy and safe as possible. By switching
to our Automatic Withdrawal payment option, you have one less reason to leave the house. It takes just minutes to sign up, and you will never have to worry about missing a payment again!
To sign up, all you need to do is download our Automatic Withdrawal Authorization
Form at presbyterian.ca/finance
Once completed, email the form to onawar@presbyterian.ca or mail it in to:
The Presbyterian Church in Canada Attn: Omnya Nawar
50 Wynford Drive
Toronto, Ontario
M3C 1J7 1-800-619-7301