At Church, an `ATM for Jesus'

Those kinds of reservations emerged in Baton Rouge, La., before Baker went into business. About three years ago, the Roman Catholic diocese there worked with a Canadian company to produce a machine that would accept bank card donations from churchgoers. Church officials hoped to place it in the Cathedral of St. Joseph, an imposing Gothic Revival building near the banks of the Mississippi River that dates to the 1850s.

It's not an Aerosmith kind of place. Church officials eventually changed their minds.

"I think that when it actually came time to put a kiosk in the back of a cathedral, it just wasn't quite, well -- I'd like to say 'kosher,' but we're Catholic," said Mark Blanchard, the stewardship director for the diocese.

When the board of Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church considered buying one of Baker's machines more recently, the issues were both generational and doctrinal. Nate Gibson, chief financial officer of the Tipp City, Ohio, church, is 25 and reckons he'll live to see a post-cash society. He was an early fan of the kiosk. But it took a vigorous debate before older members of the church board decided it was appropriate.

The board had another concern: The kiosk accepted both debit and credit cards, and Ginghamsburg advises its members to avoid credit card debt. So the Bakers said they would tweak the machine to accept only debit cards.

Ginghamsburg's machine was delivered late last week, and Gibson expects it to be rolled out for use in the next few days. He said that with 5,000 weekly visitors to the church, his only regret may be that he didn't order two: Debit cards hardly seem like a passing fad.

"Things are not going backward," Gibson said. "We're not going to sit here in 10 years and say, 'Dang, we shouldn't have put in a debit card machine because no one's using them anymore.' "

The churches that have installed the machines are noting the changes in the way people give. At Family Church, an evangelical congregation of 700 in West Monroe, La., some members choose the kiosk because they can earn bonus airline miles when they charge their donations, accountant Kristi Young said.

At Stevens Creek, volunteers such as Jeff Asselin still pass around the wooden-handled collection bag. But Asselin said it is considerably lighter these days -- although some people who donate at the kiosk drop their receipts in the bag as a vestige of the old ways.