Getting Paid To Go To Church!

Churches Pay Worshipers To Attend

LABELLE, FL. -- With declining church attendance, some pastors are trying something different to get people in the door. They're pay them from $20 to $100 to visit.

In Southwest Florida, a new church will hold it's first service this Sunday and is offering $20 to the first 250 adults to attend.

The Wave of Grace Church is holding services at the Vineyard Elementary School in Naples. Pastor Luke Schouten figures it would cost just as much to mail out brochures as to give the money to folks attending the Church's first service this week.

Schouten guesses anyone who comes and takes the $20 may really need it. And he hope that some lives might be changed forever.

Photo: Paster Luke and wife Chris Schouten and family (courtesy RCA)

The Wave of Grace is part of a church building program on the Gulf Coast of Florida by the Reformed Church of America through a program called New Wave Planters. Several new churches have been sponsored from Naples to Tampa by RCA.

The RCA has North American beginnings going back to a worship service in 1628 in a room above a grist mill in what is now New York City. Today the RCA has about 1,000 churches and 170,000 members in  the United States and Canada.

A church in Alabama is taking a different philosophical look at the idea of giving money to church goers. The Cornerstone United Methodist in Auburn recently handed out $20,000 and asked members to do something nice for someone.

Rev. Rusty Hutson asked members to take an envelope out of the offering basket, each containing $20, $50, or $100 bills,  and give it to someone less fortunate. Hutson says he wants to spread the message of giving and peace. Generosity can change the world, he said.

Photo: Rev. Hutson, courtesy Cornerstone UMC