The folk at Selling Jesus – a group opposed to the commercialisation of Christian ministry have put together a book Abolish the Jesus Trade: Spread the Joy of Freely Giving. Naturally they are making it available for free online – and as available for the lowest price for as a printed copy that Amazon would allow – or for actually free from them. And they give you permission to print it yourself!
This extract from Abolish the Jesus Trade by Andrew Case is free on The Other Cheek, naturally!
Our purpose here is to highlight and exalt the radical generosity of God’s heart, confront the commercialization of Christianity, and promote the biblical teaching that ministry should be supported but never sold. We want to explore the history of how we’ve gotten to the point where it’s the respectable default to monetize ministry, and take a deep dive into the Scripture’s teaching on the subject. We believe our evangelical cultural moment has a serious blind spot in this area, and we hope to be a voice of reform. Overall, we seek to take seriously the many things the Bible has to say about the relationship between money and ministry.
Spoiler alert: we’re not going to be telling people they should be poor if they serve God. And we fully believe that the worker is worthy of his wages. Nothing we’re going to share is new, nor is it some kind of fringe bigotry or legalism. We simply want to encourage people to do what the local church has done to support ministry for centuries—rely on the free generosity of God’s people. It’s simple and beautiful. Christian ministry of all kinds has been supported in this way since the time of Jesus. We know it’s possible, but people refuse to follow that biblical model for various reasons, which we’ll be addressing in turn.
The Beauty of God’s Generous Heart
It’s important for you to know that at the core of all of this we want to take the time to revel in the beauty of God’s generous heart! The very fabric of Scripture sings with the glory of a God so radically generous that he freely gave us life, a universe of splendor, rain and sunshine, the laughter of children, the sweetness of his Word, and even his only Son. All without charging us a subscription fee. We want God’s example to be our north star. He is our joy and treasure.
We’re not here to tell people they’re going to hell and burden people with the traditions of men. We’ve all failed and learned along the way as we sought to reflect God’s heart and love him. We completely understand that most people have simply never thought about these things.
Also, we’re not here to address the prosperity gospel and the more extreme forms of manipulating believers and Scripture for the sake of getting rich and buying private jets. That has been confronted already by a lot of good people, and we’re grateful for it. Instead, we’re here to ask hard questions of what most of us perceive to be the normal faith-based market. Questions like, “Should Christian podcasts run ads? Should the Word of God be sold for profit and locked down by copyright? Should biblical counselors charge fees for helping people find healing in Christ? Is it God-honoring for a preacher to sell his digital sermon recordings? Does Scripture permit a scholar to profit from a commentary they wrote on a book of the Bible?” These kinds of questions and much more.
Two Categories & a Definition
There are two main categories of people who engage in the sale of Christian ministry: those who have bad intentions and those who have good intentions. In our experience, many, if not most, have good intentions, so we’ll be focusing mainly on those people and the different ways they’ve been deceived.
Let me take a moment to unpack what “selling Jesus” refers to. First, let me define what I mean by “selling,” and also what I don’t mean. We all know that to sell something is to exchange it for money. This means that you deny access to it unless someone pays you. This is not the same as giving it to someone with no strings attached and no expectation of remuneration. This is also not the same as receiving donations to enable you to freely give as much as possible to others: that’s what’s typically called support, not selling.
Now, let’s talk about what I mean by “Jesus.” I’m referring to Jesus as the end goal of all Christian ministry. We sing songs like, “It’s all about you, Jesus” for a reason. The spiritual gifts that God bestows on his children are designed to build up the body of Christ. Their end goal is to magnify Jesus and extend his reign over all the earth. So if I offer someone biblical counseling, ultimately my goal is to point them to Jesus, to lead them to him as the only healer and fountain of all riches of wisdom and knowledge. If I write a book about the gospel, my ultimate purpose is to lead people to Jesus, to trust him, follow him, abide in him, treasure him. If I teach someone biblical Hebrew, my goal is to get them to Jesus through the deeper study of his Word, because I believe that learning Hebrew helps people see Jesus better, more clearly and accurately, and with more certainty. Again, if I write a worship song, my ultimate intention is to offer a means to exalt Jesus, to enter into his presence with thanksgiving and praise. So Christian ministry of all sorts has that end goal: get people to Jesus, to know him better, to magnify his name, to be closer to him, to walk and talk more like him.
So when we sell Jesus, we put a paywall between others and whatever blessing God might have in store for them through our spiritual gifts. In other words, we deny people access to the ministry we are called to bless people with—unless they pay us for it. To sell Jesus is, by extension, to turn him into a product, a commodity, that can be bought, sold, controlled, and kept from those unable to pay.
As disciples of Jesus we believe that one of the most fundamental joys we have is to imitate him, even when it comes to how we fund ministry. To copy him is to honor him, especially since he had more to say about money than love and heaven and hell combined. It was a big issue to him, so we believe we should think carefully about it as we follow him. Jesus got deeply emotional about mixing commerce with spiritual things when he drove people out of the temple, so we think this issue is something that should move our hearts to zeal in the same way and cause us to speak up and make radical changes. We pray that this book will start a movement to decommercialize Christ, and make it unthinkable for future generations.