It is totally fine for the church to receive it from an accounting perspective, but from an admin perspective, it is much more complicated. The simplest method would be for the church to receive and liquidate the cryptocurrency on the spot. Some organizations use a third-party intermediary to receive crypto donations for them and convert to cash on the spot for a fee.

What should you do if your church is expecting a future donation or if it already has bitcoin donations coming in? Well, we recently experienced an example where the donor wanted to gift bitcoin to a church without liquidating to avoid having to pay capital gains tax.  

In this case, was there a way for the church to set up an account to receive the crypto donation and then liquidate it, similar to stock donations?  

This question makes perfect sense. So, the church can either set up an account on a bitcoin exchange, set up a wallet and receive the bitcoin directly (the more complex approach), or the church can choose a third-party service to receive the bitcoin so the donor does not pay any capital gains. That third party service will then convert it to cash, charge a fee of 2-3%, and pass the cash on to the church just like any other standard donation.  

Because of the nature of crypto, unless the church has someone technically sophisticated and knowledgeable, we would suggest going with the second approach of using an intermediary.