Check Deposit Feature Saves Detroit Church Volunteers Time Each Week

If you want to know what giving means at Perfecting Church in Detroit, you’d have to take a look at the giving moment.

It goes something like this…

As Pastor Marvin Winans preaches, he’ll ask a question: “Who came prepared to give a $30 seed [offering] today?”

And people start coming.

“We’re all coming in unity to give,” says Cynthia Flowers-Williams, the church’s general manager. “When he asks, you’ll see people get up from all over, and you’ll see the center aisle flooded with people coming to give. They bring whatever they’re coming to bless the Lord with.”

And those who want to contribute but don’t have anything to give? They are reminded of this: “God will bless your desire; He’ll bless your ‘want to.’”    

A Changed Giving Experience

But something new has been added to that moment in recent years.

Mobile phones—and lots of them.

“We didn’t want to count out the Pushpay givers,” Cynthia says. “Just like all of the other people will come with their $30 gift in their hands, the pastor will say, ‘And now all my Pushpay givers, you’re joining us in the middle aisle.’ And now all of a sudden you’ll see all of these people in the middle aisle with their phones in the air, tapping the basket as it goes by.”

It all comes down to this. At Perfecting Church, giving is a part of worship. In fact, the giving moment described above is just part of how giving is done at Perfecting Church during worship services. At another time, people bring their regular tithes as well.

The Power of Check Deposit

Mobile giving through Pushpay hasn’t just transformed how the church gives, but it has also changed how the church’s staff handles its finances. Before Pushpay,  the church typically processed 400 to 500 checks a week. It was no easy endeavor.

“We had to do it all manually,” Cynthia adds. “We had to make sure the slip that was going to the bank was 100 percent accurate. You had two people in there tallying 25 checks at a time. Their accounts had to be the same. If I’m off one penny, and yours doesn’t match mine, we have to do it all over again. The slip that goes to the bank has to be picture perfect. It could take a long time.”

But now they simply run the checks through the scanner they received from Pushpay. Not only does Perfecting Church have fewer checks to process now (since so many of their givers have transitioned to mobile giving), but thanks to the check deposit feature they can now deposit checks without leaving the church.

“Now we don’t have to do the stamping or the tallying of every 25 checks,” Cynthia says. “It’s a much quicker process.”

The first time a person gives a check to Perfecting Church, a staff member has to input the person’s name and other details about the check, but after that all of the information automatically populates the form, saving time and reducing the opportunities for human error.

Why Perfecting Church Loves Pushpay

Cynthia says church members love the Pushpay app because it has made giving so much easier. It has also cut down on the number of volunteers they’ve needed to employ on the weekends. Previously, they had 12 credit-card machines distributed throughout the campus where people could give. Although some people still want to give via these machines, the numbers have shrunk considerably. Cynthia says it used to take volunteers 1.5 to 2 hours a week to process those donations.

“It helps your volunteers,” Cynthia says. “Before [Pushpay], they knew they were stuck in that room for two hours after the service. Now, they’re happier because they can leave a little bit earlier.” That’s just part of how we’ve been able to help Perfecting Church.

Want to find out how Pushpay can help your church? Talk to an expert today.