How to pay tithing

Just a quick note from my experience. My father was just released as bishop, and a couple of times I tried to give him tithing when I saw him during the week. He asked me to keep the envelope and bring it to church so he could give it to the financial clerk with the other tithing envelopes. He could have taken it, but preferred not to have to keep track of it during the week and remember to bring it to the church on Sunday to give to the financial clerk to take care of.

So, as of now, the best way is to give an envelope to a member of the bishopric so as not to place extra responsibility on others that already have a lot of responsibility (for which they are not getting paid )

[Moderator note: This thread was split from the How to pay tithing online thread because it is an entirely different topic.]

For many, many years Church policy has been, and still is, that donations should only be given only to a member of the bishopric. No one else can accept donations, including a clerk or former bishop. Only the bishop can receive mailed in donations. See Handbook 1: Stake Presidents and Bishops for more details.

jdlessley wrote:donations should only be given only to a member of the bishopric.

I think he's referring to a time when his father was still in the bishopric.

I can understand the reluctance to accept donations outside of the church as it would require them to be sure it made it to the Sunday meeting.

Even when I know I will see a member of my bishopric during the week (including at the church), I most always wait until Sunday, just so they will not have to take it home, store it safely somewhere, and remember to bring it back to Church on Sunday. I would rather hand it to them Sunday, knowing that they will still have it at the end of the day when it is time to prepare the deposit.

Not to mention the fact that, if you give it to a counselor he then has to get it to the bishop. If I recall correctly, only the bishop is allowed to hold donations overnight.

I have always followed the practice as lajackson. Holding my own tithing until I see them on Sunday avoids adding to their workload. It won't be deposited (in most cases) until Sunday anyway. If you simply must get it out of your posession, I recommend you put a stamp on the envelope and drop it in the mail...

While I can appreciate trying to make things easier for the Bishopric, it is always possible that the Bishop will receive donations through the mail. So I would expect every Bishop to have a routine for handling donations received during the week. That is, he must have a secure way to "store" those donations at home and a habit of taking them to the church on Sundays.

mrrad wrote:While I can appreciate trying to make things easier for the Bishopric, it is always possible that the Bishop will receive donations through the mail. So I would expect every Bishop to have a routine for handling donations received during the week. That is, he must have a secure way to "store" those donations at home and a habit of taking them to the church on Sundays.

Right. But: 1) That only applies to the bishop. 2) Getting things is the mail does't follow the same process as having things handed to him during the week. Sure, you can give it to him. But he is after all human. Will he have a process (habit) in place that insures that the envelope will be with the rest come Sunday?

russellhltn wrote:But he [the bishop] is after all human. Will he have a process (habit) in place that insures that the envelope will be with the rest come Sunday?

He should. Otherwise he will be very embarrassed when the dry cleaner calls and said he found something in the suit coat pocket. [Don't ask.]

When I served as Branch President (and in another location as bishop), I had a process to handle donations mailed to me, and donations handed to me. I'm sure every bishop does (or will learn the hard way they should). However, we as members, can just as easily mail our donations or hold them until Sunday and avoid adding "one more task" to a bishop's already full plate.

That was my main point (and the fact that we can further complicate matters by giving our donation to a counselor during the week who must then make sure to get it to the bishop before the evening is over...).

No bishop I have ever known will complain about it, but we all can be aware of ways to support him in his calling.

russellhltn wrote:But he is after all human.

...and he's outnumbered by a whole bunch of ward members who are also human. All they really know is that it's their responsibility to give the donations to a bishopric member. Can you blame them when a Bishopric member makes a mistake with a donation? We just got a new Bishopric at the start of this month. The first advice I gave about donations was to establish consistent habits. Always use the same coat pocket, for example. If you have a consistent pattern then there will be far fewer mistakes made.

mrrad wrote:Always use the same coat pocket, for example.

Maybe the bishop can do this, but a counselor, especially on Fast Sunday, needs to learn to balance the load on both sides to keep from tipping over when the children pay their tithing in coin. [grin]

What are some of the best practices bishops use in safeguarding church funds mailed to them? (Disclosure, I am a bishop). Some comments have been made that only bishops should hold funds overnight. I understand that they are not to be left at the church overnight, not even in a locked cabinet. So, if a bishop has received donations in the mail and is going to be out of town the next Sunday, does he have to hold them in a secure place at home until he returns? Or can he give them to a counselor to be processed the next Sunday (the answer to that seems to be no)?

dstevens60 wrote:What are some of the best practices bishops use in safeguarding church funds mailed to them? (Disclosure, I am a bishop). Some comments have been made that only bishops should hold funds overnight. I understand that they are not to be left at the church overnight, not even in a locked cabinet. So, if a bishop has received donations in the mail and is going to be out of town the next Sunday, does he have to hold them in a secure place at home until he returns? Or can he give them to a counselor to be processed the next Sunday (the answer to that seems to be no)?

I don't know of an official statement on this but one option would be to have a clerk and a counselor (or even the bishop) process a donation batch during the week.

dstevens60 wrote:So, if a bishop has received donations in the mail and is going to be out of town the next Sunday, does he have to hold them in a secure place at home until he returns? Or can he give them to a counselor to be processed the next Sunday (the answer to that seems to be no)?

During a time I was gone a lot while I was bishop, I prepared several envelopes addressed to my first counselor. My wife placed any Church mail I received in the envelope and gave it to the first counselor when she first arrived at Church each Sunday. Some of the mail came in little gray envelopes. They also went into the bigger envelope and were delivered with the other mail to the counselor.

Another option is for the counselor to come by, if distance and time allows, and pick up the mail. I never had a problem with that since, when I was gone, he was in effect the bishop.

Sometimes, when I was only going to be gone one Sunday, I just held them at home for another week.