A short YouTube monologue by Justin R. Lester (recorded Nov 9, 2017) addressing whether an envelope is needed to tithe. He states envelopes are not strictly required but strongly recommended so the church can track donations accurately for record-keeping and tax/crediting purposes; he gives examples of improvised identifiers and directs donors to Deacon Gloria Price or pew envelopes.
Chapters
Do I need an envelope to tithe? Short answer, not necessarily, but the long answer, Here's a long answer for it. For records, when it comes to the congregation, our non profit organization, right for records keeping, for leaders who are giving for tax purposes, for anything like that, we do ask that you use an envelope when you do give unto God. That makes it easy for us to make the right to make the tabulations for to know who's giving, to know who's not giving. So that when we do our records at the end of the year, we make sure we have the right information. If we don't know who gave cash, we won't know who gave cash. And so if you're giving cash in church and you want accurate records of it, we'll never know. And if you tell us, I gave $25 million last year and we literally don't know who gave the $25 million in the offering, we will never be able to give it that credit unto you. And so when it comes to that, please do use an envelope. I've seen people wrap it up in bulletins. I've seen others put a post it note on it. There was one time I really didn't know and so I put a post it note with arrow on it that said this is Justin's tie, whatever that is, to make sure that we're able to get accurate records for it. So if you need an envelope, please see our financial secretary, Deacon Gloria Price. You'll be more than happy to make sure you have an envelope, your name on it, and there are also some in the back of our pews on Sunday morning. Grab an envelope, put it in there, throw it in the offering basket. That helps us keep accurate records. So we know. And so that we know. So able to make sure that when we give information back to you, we know that information came from you.