-
@ Jeffyp0p
2025-01-13 22:28:38I am not a big fan of open letters, it’s really difficult to write on a topic that applies so broadly without exception. Yet, here I am with a topic that I believe meets this criteria.
In this post, I will not attempt to sell you on the merits of Bitcoin or the evils of fiat currency. There is enough content out there that can explain those topics better than I ever could. Instead, I want to convince church leaders around the world that you should seriously consider equipping your church to be able to accept Bitcoin as a medium of tithes and offerings from your congregants.
Here is a list of reasons I came up with for church leaders to consider:
- Bitcoin Wallet is very simple to set up
- It’s quite simple to set up a bitcoin wallet. Do not let the technology make you think it is too complicated. If you have someone in your congregation familiar with BTC, they can help. Or, if you go to a company like Unchained Capital, their staff will walk you thru it step by step. There may be a small fee, but should be seriously considered.
- We should try to accommodate our congregation
- Especially if it’s easy to set up, we should try to accommodate accepting our tithes and offerings in how our congregation is led to give. If there are members in the congregation who are inclined to tithe in BTC, the church should be set up to accept it.
- Anecdote: In college I knew a pastor who tithed in 1oz silver coins. He subscribed to Austrian economics, and said “why should I give to my Lord money that devalues”. The church bought a safe and stored it. All congregations should have the same mentality
- Sending money to foreign missionaries:
- No transaction or exchange fees
- Sending a wire to a foreign missionary with accountability is painful. We used to do this and needed two signatures and the sending financial institution required us to fax approval.
- Many times, individuals who serve on Church Finances have full time day jobs and the coordination and administration becomes logistically very difficult. Church finances should have accountability but our existing financial institutions make this difficult or they do not consistently enforce it.
- Bitcoin Multi-Sig makes this extremely simple and easy. You skip Transaction and Exchange fees and accountability is built in with Multi-Sig. For those of you unfamiliar with multi-sig, just imagine the following scenario: You have 3 authorized signers at your Church. In order to send money, you need 2 out of those 3 signers to authorize sending funds.
- Financial Sovereignty
- Any student of church history knows that governments have been the greatest persecutors of the church. The separation of Church and state is dwindling as government power continues to grow. With BTC, the government cannot seize or freeze your assets.
- All you have to think about is Covid. Imagine if you did not want to shut down your Church during Covid (I.e. The state of New Jersey froze and seized assets of Atilis Gym) This does not apply to just governments, but also financial institutions.
- Churches should learn to self custody assets. Underground churches will attest to this.