Rural churches are experiencing funding shortages due to poor internet connection.
Ecclesiastical Insurance has revealed that a third of rural churches are not using digital donations due to a lack of signal for wireless card reader machines.
Helen Richards from Ecclesiastical Insurance said that as banking habits have evolved, churches "have had to adapt to make sure they’re keeping up".
"By embracing digital donations they’re able to safeguard their income generation, which is great news," she said, "helping to preserve the church now and into the future".
She added: “There are challenges ahead though, not least the issue around rural connectivity issues and bank closures.
"It’s a concern that so many respondents to our survey said they don’t have a fundraising plan in place. From a future resilience of the church perspective this exposes them to risks – such as the loss of one revenue stream in cash donations.”
Many rural areas are experiencing bank closures – but ageing congregations can struggle to embrace online banking to set up regular tithes.
Card machines for contactless donations are critical to enabling fuding in the modern banking era, but not every church has the capacity to install them.
St Michael and All Angels Church, Turley, told the BBC that many members of their congregation “struggle to send a text message, so the chance of payment technology working is minimal”.
Katherine Creese, a church warden, said: "To actually try and install [Wi-Fi] at the moment would be a bit of a no, no. The walls are very thick, the internet connections in the village are not that brilliant and getting a phone signal depends on the weather.
"We get many people saying, 'I haven't got any cash, how can I donate?' It is getting a little bit more tricky, especially at weddings.
"We would hope maybe in the foreseeable future to get some kind of connectivity here in the building, so that we can literally tap into that income source."
Jim Chapman, warden at Hartpury Church said: “"What a lot of people seem to do now is clear out their loose change. So there are a lot of coppers and smaller bits of silver in the donation.
“If we get a card machine people could give five pounds, or we could put various buttons on to suggest a donation, so I'm quite hopeful."