(FORTUNE Magazine) – Short of cash on Sunday mornings? That's no excuse. Just pull out your plastic. Last month, parishioners at St. Marks United Methodist Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, became one of the first congregations to donate via credit cards. It works like this: Parishioners stop at a finance table before the service and fill out a charge slip. They keep two copies, one for their records and one for the collection plate. The church enters the card numbers on a terminal connected to a local bank. So far so good. The first Sunday, the church, the largest Methodist congregation in Nebraska, with 3,000 members, took in $300 in charges. Pastor Cecil Bliss says the average donation was $75. Business manager Hale Laws says: ''We've heard very little negative comment.'' Few mainstream congregations plan to convert to credit collections. No Roman Catholic churches take charge cards and the Mormons disapprove. Surprisingly, such high-tech operations as Pat Robertson's 700 Club and the Assemblies of God, which ousted Jim and Tammy Bakker, also abstain from credit. But such TV ministries as Jerry Falwell's Old Time Gospel Hour and Robert H. Schuller's Hour of Power have long acknowledged the power of plastic. The Church of Scientology has been letting donors ''charge it'' for four years. At Jimmy Swaggart Ministries in Baton Rouge, a staffer answers the phone with the cheerful greeting: ''Visa and MasterCard.'' So much for old-time religion.