Protect The Tithe

Turning Tables in the Digital Temple

Restoring Stewardship in Church Giving

Authors
Jon Edmiston - Founder Rock RMS
Jeff Berg - Founder Planning Center OnlineAbout The Authors

From Jon and Jeff: A Word to Our Fellow Church Leaders

As two people who began our journeys serving on church staff, we’ve both walked through the day-to-day realities of ministry — the pressures, the faith, and the deep sense of calling that come with it. Out of that experience grew a shared passion to build tools that serve the Church we love — Planning Center Online and Rock RMS. Though our platforms are distinct, our mission is the same: to help churches thrive in their calling. Over the years, we’ve watched the landscape of digital giving change dramatically, and not always for the better. We wrote this article to help pastors and church leaders understand what’s happening behind the scenes in the giving space — and to encourage thoughtful, faithful stewardship in how we handle God’s resources and His people’s generosity.

A Word to Pastors and Church Leaders

In the early years of digital giving, churches were working with limited options. Most of us adopted tools that met immediate needs, helped us adapt to a changing culture, and provided a vital path for generosity in a digital age. Those tools served their purpose well.But the landscape has changed.In recent years, secular for-profit companies, including private equity firms, have entered the giving space aggressively, drawn by the billions flowing through the Church each year. What was once a niche category is now a targeted financial vertical, viewed through the lens of acquisition, monetization, and ROI.
And while many giving platforms still speak the language of ministry, their economics now tell a different story, one worth examining closely.Because:

1
God honors integrity, especially in His Church.“I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity.”
1 Chronicles 29:17

2
We are accountable for how we steward the resources people entrust to us.“Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.”
1 Corinthians 4:2

3
We must protect God’s people, and their tithes, from secular organizations that prioritize profit over mission.“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.”
Acts 20:28

This moment calls for renewed discernment. The digital giving landscape isn’t what it once was, and churches can no longer assume that every vendor shares their values or mission. In the sections that follow, we’ll unpack why this shift matters and offer three practical ways you can evaluate whether your giving provider is truly serving your church’s best interests.

What Made Jesus Angry?

In all four Gospels, there’s only one moment where Jesus’ anger becomes public, physical, and unmistakable: when He walked into the temple and saw the outer courts, meant to be a house of prayer for all nations, turned into a marketplace of profit.

“My house will be called a house of prayer,” He said, “but you have made it a den of thieves.”
— Matthew 21:13

He flipped tables, drove out merchants, and disrupted a system that had become normalized but was deeply broken.This wasn’t just about commerce in the wrong place. It was about sacred space being hijacked for financial gain:

  • Worshipers had to use specific currency, and money changers exploited the exchange.

  • Sacrificial animals were required, but they were sold at inflated prices.

  • The whole system functioned like a toll booth between God and His people — and the poor paid the most.

Jesus wasn’t anti-money. He was anti-exploitation, especially when faithfulness became revenue and worship was taxed.

From Temple Money to Digital Money: The Exchange Problem

In Jesus’ day, worshipers could not use their ordinary, secular coins in the temple. Roman currency had to be exchanged for Tyrian shekels, the only currency accepted for offerings. That exchange wasn’t neutral; it carried hidden costs. The money changers took advantage of their position, setting unfair rates that skimmed value off every act of worship.In many ways, digital giving creates a similar dynamic today. The faithful bring their modern currency, whether in bank accounts or on cards, and to give, it must be exchanged through digital platforms. Just like in the temple, the exchange itself has become a point of profit. A portion of every gift is diverted, not because the giver chose it, but because the system requires it.The problem isn’t the need for processing; that will always be necessary. It’s when secular corporations exploit the Church’s generosity for profit, echoing the pattern Jesus confronted in the temple courts.

The Modern Parallel: Worship at a Markup

Fast forward two thousand years. The temple courts have been replaced with mobile apps and online giving platforms. But the economic structure looks hauntingly familiar.While most giving vendors keep their financials private, one major company in the space briefly operated as a public company, giving us a rare opportunity to peek behind the curtain.Here’s what we learned from just one year of public reporting:

  • They processed $7.6 billion in charitable giving.

  • Their revenue from that giving was $137.6 million.

  • Their processing expenses (likely Visa, Mastercard, and ACH costs) totaled $57 million.

  • Their gross profit: $80.6 million, or a 58% profit margin — just for being the platform between giver and church.

  • They were later acquired for $898 million.

  • Their two founders had already exited with over $130 million in combined equity.

These profits didn’t come from software licenses or subscriptions. They came from taking a slice of every tithe. Every offering. Every act of worship.And while this is only one company, its numbers reflect broader industry norms: Recurring, margin-rich revenue flowing through for-profit platforms built on the generosity of the Church.Let that settle in: Worshipers gave to fund the mission. And a not insignificant portion of that fueled private wealth.

When Sacred Giving Becomes Captive Giving

Many vendors go further: they refuse to release saved payment methods (vaulted cards) when a church wants to switch platforms.That means:

  • Churches can’t take their recurring givers with them.

  • The donor’s spiritual commitment becomes a technical hostage.

  • The vendor — not the church, not the giver — controls the giving relationship.

This is not a technical constraint. It’s a business strategy. Recurring donations are high-margin and predictable.Refusing to return that data becomes a moat; a deliberate barrier to keep churches locked in and investors paid.Whoever controls the vault, controls the cash flow. And when a system controls the worship of God’s people, we have a problem.Jesus flipped tables over this kind of gatekeeping.

“Would You Like to Cover the Fees?”

Many churches use a well-meaning checkbox:
“Would you like to cover the processing fee?”But the real issue isn’t who pays the fee. It’s:
Why is that fee so high in the first place?Let’s be clear:
We are not criticizing the base transaction fees charged by Visa, Mastercard, or ACH processors. Those are sunk costs, and nonprofits often receive discounted rates due to lower fraud risk.What we are confronting is the vendor-added markup layered on top — the part that turns digital giving into a margin-rich product, making these companies worth hundreds of millions and the envy of private equity.When churches pass those fees to the donor without first doing the hard work to reduce or rethink them, we’re asking worshipers to pay for our lack of scrutiny.It’s not malicious.
But it is misaligned.We challenge our people to give sacrificially.
We must challenge ourselves to steward sacrificially, too.

A Better Way Forward: Reclaiming Stewardship

Churches once tolerated these costs because digital giving was new, and better options didn’t exist.That’s no longer true.There are ethical, transparent, and mission-aligned tools available now.It’s time to reset the standard.

What the Church Should Insist On

If we are serious about stewardship, we can’t settle for vague promises or industry norms. There are a few non-negotiables every church should require from their giving platform. These standards protect the integrity of generosity and keep the focus where it belongs—on mission, not margin.

1. Fee Transparency

  1. Pricing should be clearly displayed on the vendor’s public website — not buried in proposals or guarded by sales reps.

  2. Require vendors to show actual effective rates, not just blended averages or teaser percentages.

  3. Remember: If pricing isn’t public, someone’s hiding something — or cutting side deals.

2. Fair Pricing for ACH

  1. One clear red flag: percentage-based fees on ACH donations.

  2. ACH should cost around $0.30 per transaction — not 1%, not 1.5%.

  3. There’s no card network or interchange to justify those markups.

3. Guaranteed Vault Portability

  1. Require a written agreement that churches can access all saved payment methods if they ever switch platforms.

  2. Recurring giving is not a vendor asset. It is a spiritual commitment that belongs under the stewardship of the Church.

The Tables Still Stand. Will We Flip Them?

Jesus didn’t flip tables in anger alone — He did it in righteous love.
He saw a system that put profit between people and God — and He cleared the way.We don’t need rage in the church lobby or chaos at the giving kiosk.
But we do need clarity.
We need courage.
We need action.We must protect our people from unfair fees that rob their tithes of power. And we must hold ourselves accountable to steward their giving as faithfully as we ask them to give it.The altar belongs to God — not to investors.
Let’s make sure our systems reflect that.

Honest Questions, Thoughtful Answers

We know this article has probably raised several thoughts and questions in your mind. That’s a good sign—it means you’re wrestling with the very issues we need to face together. We’ve tried to think ahead on your behalf and provide responses to some of the most common “What about…” questions. Our hope is that these will equip you, encourage you, and remind you that we’re not alone in this mission.

1. What about the perception that this is just about switching to a specific provider?

Answer from Jon:
That’s a fair question, and it’s wise to be discerning in this way. I’m raising these concerns because I have a deep passion to protect God’s Church and the integrity of its worship. Rock RMS, the platform I helped create, is developed and supported by Spark Development Network, a nonprofit organization that does not have any ownership stake in, or receive any financial benefit from, any giving platform.Jeff, my co-author, does lead Planning Center Online, which operates as a for-profit company today. However, he has publicly committed that Planning Center will transition to a nonprofit when he eventually steps away. In the meantime, Planning Center already follows the same principles we’re outlining here—transparency, fair pricing, and guaranteed vault portability.So, this isn’t about promoting one platform over another. It’s about calling all of us, regardless of the tools we build or use, to higher standards of stewardship, transparency, and integrity in how we handle God’s money and serve His Church.

2. What about using the best technology—doesn’t excellence in ministry justify some cost?

While that may have been true in the beginning, it doesn’t hold the same weight today. There are now better, more ethical options available; many of which use cutting-edge technology and offer excellent individual experiences. In fact, some of these mission-aligned tools often outperform the more expensive platforms in both innovation and usability. Wise stewardship invites us to explore these alternatives.

3. What about the effort it takes to switch platforms? Isn’t it too disruptive?

There’s no denying that switching platforms takes work—but faithful stewardship calls for it. This is also a powerful moment to talk with your people about generosity. Use the transition to cast vision and explain how the giving landscape has changed. Making this move is a statement that the Church will not be taken advantage of by the secular marketplace. Call your congregation to join the mission—people are drawn to a cause that matters. It’s likely to grow both engagement and giving—and it’s the kind of faith-driven action God will honor.

4. What about the claim that high margins drive innovation—aren’t these profits necessary to build better tools?

That might be true if those profits were consistently reinvested into innovation—but even then, there’s a law of diminishing returns. In reality, the largest secular vendors in this space show very little meaningful innovation. Most improvements are incremental at best, and new features typically only appear when churches begin to demand them. The core business model remains focused on maximizing margin, not serving ministry impact.

6. What about PCI compliance? Isn’t vault portability a security risk?

Vault transfers are fully PCI compliant and happen regularly between payment processors. It’s a standard, secure practice in the industry—especially when companies are acquired or merchants switch providers. Security isn’t the issue here; the real issue is willingness.

5. What about the claim that saved payment methods legally belong to the vendor?

Remember what Jesus said when handed a coin: “Whose image is this?... Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Matthew 22:20–21). So let’s ask the same: Whose name is on the payment form? Whose name shows up on the individual’s credit card statement? It’s not the vendor’s. These are acts of worship directed to the Church, not assets to be held by a company.

7. What about donor privacy, don’t the vendor’s terms of service restrict vault portability to protect individual data?

When an individual gives, they’re entering into a relationship with their church—not the vendor. No one says they tithe to “Acme Giving”—they give to their church. The vendor is simply a third-party processor. I’ve reviewed several terms of service from major giving platforms and haven’t found any that explicitly prohibit returning saved payment data to the church. In fact, some vendors have admitted they’d consider updating their terms to be more restrictive, which moves in the wrong direction. And let’s not forget—terms of service are not sacred documents. They can be amended. Stewardship demands we advocate for what’s right, not just what’s written.

8. What about coming across as anti-business or overly critical of technology companies?

This isn’t about being anti-business, it’s about being pro-stewardship. We’re not criticizing profit; we’re calling for fairness, transparency, and alignment with the mission of the Church. This is especially important when the service touches an act of worship, like giving. It's fundamentally different from selecting a vendor for carpet cleaning or building maintenance. Giving is sacred, and the systems that support it should honor that.

9. What about the free development or custom report writing some vendors offer—doesn’t that add value worth paying for?

These services often mask the exorbitant costs buried in processing fees. It’s more transparent and financially responsible to pay directly for development or reports at an hourly rate than to fund them through a perpetual percentage of the tithe.It would be like someone offering to donate free offering boxes to your church, but in return, they take 1% of every donation placed in them—forever. Eventually, the “free” box becomes far more expensive than simply buying one upfront.

© Copyright 2025

Jon Edmiston

Founder Rock RMSJon Edmiston is the founder and Executive Director of Spark Development Network, a non-profit organization created to ensure churches have access to world-class technology. Under his leadership, Spark launched Rock RMS as an open-source project—intentionally licensed this way to protect the church’s investment and make innovation accessible to all.Jon is also a founding partner at Triumph Tech and serves as the lead technical architect and vision-caster behind Rock. As one of Rock’s original developers, he remains deeply engaged in shaping the platform and supporting the community that powers it.Prior to Spark, Jon spent 13 years at Christ’s Church of the Valley, serving on the leadership team for digital ministry and communications. He also previously worked as an E-Commerce Program Manager at Honeywell Inc. Jon approaches life with curiosity, purpose, and a commitment to excellence in everything he does.

Jeff Berg

Founder Planning Center OnlineJeff Berg is the founder of Planning Center Online, a company built to serve churches with powerful, easy-to-use software. Driven by a desire to help ministries thrive, Jeff launched Planning Center to provide tools that solve real problems and support the day-to-day needs of church teams.With a background in software development and a heart for the Church, Jeff has led Planning Center from a single app into a full suite of connected tools used by thousands of churches around the world. His vision has always been to build thoughtful, reliable solutions that empower ministries to stay focused on people over process.Jeff continues to guide the company with a commitment to simplicity, excellence, and service, ensuring Planning Center stays true to its mission of helping churches make disciples through effective ministry.