Selling Jesus

This episode offers practical guidance and wisdom on how to share the principle of freely giving, along with its implications and applications. It can be a sensitive topic, and people often avoid sharing it with others out of fear of offending someone. Our goal is to encourage you to spread the biblical truth that ministry should be supported but not sold, so that individuals and churches can see change. We cover things like the responsibility of understanding the topic thoroughly, distinguishing between encouragement, correction, and rebuke, choosing an appropriate starting point for conversations, as well as the importance of patience and prayer in fostering heart change. And don't miss the new video we just launched for helping people share the dorean principle. We'd love to hear from you. ⁠⁠⁠⁠sellingjesus.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thedoreanprinciple.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠copy.church

This series on "⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Christians Who Sell Jesus⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠" takes profiles that represent real-world scenarios wherein well-meaning individuals are actively engaged in the Jesus trade, often unwittingly. Julia is a well-known Christian YouTuber and blogger. Her mission is to leverage the reach of the internet to edify believers with God-centered, Christ-exalting content. She’s particularly called to minister to women who have been victims of abuse, helping them seek healing in Christ. When her subscriber count hit 100,000 she was advised by her cousin to monetize the channel and start earning ad revenue and seek out sponsors. When she asked her followers about this idea, most people said, “Of course! We would gladly sit through ads to support the great things you share! God has obviously blessed you! A worker is worthy of her wages! You go girl!” Now Julia has nearly half a million followers and several revenue streams besides ads and sponsors. First, she has a special subscription option that enables people to access some of her content early, as well as suggest ideas for future videos and blogs. People who pay for an even more premium subscription also get some kind of free merch once a year, along with an opportunity to ask her questions in a livestream she does every couple months. When her sister admonished her to think more carefully about whether it’s biblical to force people to watch ads before receiving spiritual guidance from her, she got offended. “It’s not like I’m driving a Tesla and live in Beverly Hills! I always tithe, and I support six different charities. These income streams allow me to give more than I ever have in my life! How dare you judge me, when the Bible clearly says that you shouldn’t muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain! Besides, people don’t have to sign up for the premium stuff, and they can get an ad blocker if they don’t wanna watch the ads. Or if they don’t like it, they can go listen to someone else! It’s a free country.” Read the ⁠rest of the profile⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠sellingjesus.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thedoreanprinciple.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠copy.church

Many feel intimidated when it comes to making their book available free of cost or hindrance. And if you’ve listened to our conversation about Joe the Author, you may have lots of practical questions about where to start. This guide is for you. A common misconception is that you need a legacy publisher to typeset, format, and publish your book in order for it to be successful, beautiful, and professional. That is simply not true. God, in his providence, has given us incredible tools that allow us to circumvent the unbiblical system of most legacy Christian publishers and reach far more people with our work. So this is a comprehensive guide meant to demystify the steps involved in self-publishing a book in a way that truly accords with Christ’s command to freely give (Matt 10:8). From choosing typesetting software and formatting your manuscript, to navigating the publishing platforms, this guide covers most of the essential details to get you started. It explains how to leverage free tools and services, as well as freelance assistance when needed. While there is definitely a learning curve to this process, it is not out of reach for anyone who has a desire to grow and try new things. You’ll be surprised by how much trouble, time, and money you’ll save by not going with a legacy Christian publisher, while enjoying full control over the presentation, distribution, and updating of your work. Follow these steps, and you'll be able to self-publish a high-quality book that’s genuinely free for readers around the world. Read the whole guide at copy.church. ⁠⁠⁠⁠sellingjesus.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thedoreanprinciple.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠copy.church

In this episode (which you can read on sellingJesus.org) Jon explores how the Christian music industry exploits church worship for commercial gain, despite religious exemptions for churches. Churches are required to pay annual licensing fees to use modern worship songs in their services, and most of the money goes to a select few artists who charge exorbitant fees and have questionable practices or beliefs. This episode also discusses the role of CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International), in facilitating this business model. Scripture requires all churches to abandon this unbiblical system. When contemporary Christian music first started to emerge—and be commercialized—one artist refused to profit from the gospel. Keith Green, one of the most popular Christian artists of his time, was adamant that “if it's ministry, you cannot charge.” Keith didn’t want anyone to be impeded from hearing the gospel through his music, and was convicted to not charge for tickets to his concerts (which thousands attended) and gave away records for free. He died in a tragic accident at the age of 28, but his music continues to impact hundreds of thousands of people today. Artists have their role model, a man who refused to compromise and took seriously Jesus’ words: “freely you received, freely give” (Matt 10:8). ⁠⁠⁠⁠sellingjesus.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thedoreanprinciple.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠copy.church

This series on "⁠⁠⁠⁠Christians Who Sell Jesus⁠⁠⁠⁠" takes profiles that represent real-world scenarios wherein well-meaning individuals are actively engaged in the Jesus trade, often unwittingly. Mandy is an Old Testament scholar and the author of some of the best commentaries on Job and Amos. Both are published by Zondervan and don’t cost more than other commentaries. She’s also employed by a legacy Bible institute and teaches several courses, including biblical Hebrew. She regularly tells her friends that she has a dream job and couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to do what she loves. People respect her and look up to her as a nearly perfect model of someone who has given her life to God’s service, blessing readers and students year after year. Unfortunately and unwittingly, Mandy is selling Jesus. The problem for her, like many others, is the fact that she has simply never thought about copyright or the status quo of selling Christian teaching. Even though she is a deep, critical thinker and has a PhD, she hasn’t taken the time to think biblically about whether it’s right to sell her commentaries on God’s Word or require students to pay tuition before being able to learn about the Bible from her. She has accepted an old, widespread system without a second thought, assuming that the system is biblical because so many other people have bought into it. If you were to challenge her to think differently and reconsider how biblical the system is, she would dismiss any contrary ideas as “fringe” and not worthy of her time. Like Luke (above), she’s comfortable with the way things are. In this way she resembles antebellum Christians who were extremely comfortable with the slave trade, and many historic Roman Catholic priests who were comfortable selling baptism. Besides, she might lose her dream job if she started to take what Scripture says about money and ministry seriously. Better to leave well enough alone, and if anyone brings it up, simply silence them by forcing certain parts of Scripture to support the status quo of commercializing Christianity. Ignorance is bliss. Tom follows in the footsteps of many seminary leaders who have gone before him since the seminary was founded in 1892. He has inherited a system and structure that is typical of nearly all seminaries around the world: students must pay tuition if they want to receive spiritual guidance and biblical teaching. Thankfully, the seminary has some endowments that allow it to keep its course prices down, but Tom is well aware that there are many people who never attend his seminary because of the cost. Although there are scholarships available, they are limited and usually reserved for international students. Sometimes at night he thinks about how nice it would be if professors could simply be like missionaries and raise support, freeing themselves to teach without charging students money. Or why couldn’t there be more bivocational professors who support themselves with another job like Paul did and offer their services to the seminary for free? But then he shakes his head and laughs at how impossible his idealistic musings are. The seminary has been operating the same way for too long. Tradition can’t be broken. There are too many people who would hate his ideas and keep them from even being tried. Why bother with a pipe dream? ⁠⁠⁠sellingjesus.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thedoreanprinciple.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠copy.church

What do you do when you've invested years working for a particular ministry that's part of the Jesus Trade, but then become convicted that selling ministry is wrong? We received an email from a listener along these lines. She finds herself in a dilemma. She wants to give Christian teaching freely and reach more people, but the organization she works under requires her to charge people a set amount because "they won't value what they don't pay for." What should she do? In this episode we do our best to address this situation. If you have a question about selling Jesus, please feel free to ⁠⁠reach out to us via email⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sellingjesus.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thedoreanprinciple.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠copy.church

Our guest in this episode, ⁠Joseph Jacowitz⁠, has been the pastor of Christ Bible Church, in Pleasanton, CA since 1990. He and his wife Sherry have been married since 1978 and have five children and eight grandchildren. Most importantly, for this podcast, Joe is the president of ⁠FirstLove Ministries⁠, which is one of the few ministries that truly lives out the ⁠Dorean Principle⁠ of freely giving and doing ministry by faith and funding everything through the provision of God through the free generosity of the Body of Christ. This is the first in what we hope will become a series of episodes in which we interview ministries that have rejected the Jesus Trade and are living out the command of Christ and the example of Paul, refusing to sell Christian ministry, but rather relying on God for all necessary finances to function. Although we may not always share all peripheral convictions with these ministries, we do share the core conviction of freely giving and taking a stand against the peddling of God’s Word. If you lead a ministry that seeks to reflect God’s heart by not commercializing Christianity, and you’d like to share about your ministry and God’s faithful provision as Joe has in this interview, please feel free to ⁠reach out to us via email⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠sellingjesus.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thedoreanprinciple.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠copy.church⁠

"When Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money. 'Give me this power as well,' he said, 'so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit'" (Acts 8:18-19). The sale of religious instruction is rightly labeled simony. As such, it should be readily condemned. The contemporary church is saturated with this particular sin. This episode answers several objections to calling the sale of religious instruction "simony." Those objections are: Simony Refers to Buying, not Selling Simony Refers to Ordinations, Not Other Religious Things Simony Refers to Spiritual Things, not Teaching Simony Refers to Immaterial Things, Not Material Things Simony Implicates the Buyer Read the article. ⁠⁠sellingjesus.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thedoreanprinciple.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠copy.church

For those of you who prefer to listen rather than watch a long video, this episode is for you. Watch the original video here, which also includes subtitles for the limited parts in Spanish. This is part 3, so if you haven't watched the previous episodes, make sure to watch part one and part two. Now that we’ve spent some time laying the biblical foundations for freely giving ministry, it’s story time. I want to share some anecdotes and interview clips to give you a picture of the bitter fruit of the Jesus trade. When we refuse to follow Jesus’ command in Matthew 10:8 to freely give the grace that we have freely received, the repercussions are tragic. Much of the fallout of the modern Church’s obsession with monetizing ministry has been invisible to Westerners. That’s because it’s usually casting a dark shadow on people in other countries who don’t speak English or who aren’t as wealthy. Special thanks to Fausto, Danillo, Paulo, and Botros for being willing to share about the reality in their countries. Here are some of the resources referenced in the video, as well as some others that might be helpful: Free and Open: Bibles without Copyright Restrictions Daniel Block interview Books and articles on copyright (including "Against Intellectual Monopoly") https://gracious.tech/ Bible Publishers - Stewards or Gatekeepers? United Bible Societies open resources https://open.bible https://aquifer.bible/ STEP Bible Center for New Testament Restoration https://openbookpublishers.com https://berean.bible/ https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/ https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essays/ The Dorean Principle The Christian Commons Does Jesus’ Command to “Freely Give” Apply Today? Common Objections Ten Times Commercializing Ministry Is Condemned Books and Resources on the topic Easy conversations to help you understand these issues better

Read the profile here. This series on "⁠⁠⁠⁠Christians Who Sell Jesus⁠⁠⁠⁠" takes profiles that represent real-world scenarios wherein well-meaning individuals are actively engaged in the Jesus trade, often unwittingly. Chris has a timely message and warning for the Church. He’s filled with a passionate and prophetic urgency to admonish evangelicals about the dangers he sees looming ahead if they do not repent and reform in seven key areas. So he has written a book in the form of a letter called Dear Church: Seven Lies Seducing Evangelicals. In the book he talks about how these lies are slowly infiltrating Christendom, and he desperately wants people to be aware of the dire consequences. Speaking from decades of pastoral experience, he believes that God has commanded him to sound a wake-up call to his people, and that he would have blood on his hands if he failed to raise these concerns. Chris has shared in multiple interviews that he had no intentions to write another book in his life, but God made it clear to him that he needed to help deliver people from the deadly deceptions of our anti-Christian culture. Since Chris is already a well-established author, he published his “letter” with a legacy publishing house. There are two options to choose from: a Kindle version for $14.99, and a hardback for $21.99. It is not freely available in any format, and copying it or sharing it is strictly forbidden in the “All Rights Reserved” notice at the beginning of the book. As we’ve already seen from other profiles like that of “Joe the Author,” what Chris has done is a clear violation of Christ’s command (Matt 10:8) and the wider teaching of Scripture (e.g. 2 Cor 2:17, Micah 3:11, 2 Cor 9). But from a purely pragmatic perspective, Chris’s choice for spreading his timely message is completely insane and hypocritical. It is evil, cruel, and illogical. Why? When you write a letter to someone, it’s an insult to require money from that person before allowing them to read it. It goes against the very definition of a letter to charge the recipient for it. It is both illogical and evil to put a paywall between people and urgent warnings. It’s illogical because, if you truly want to save people from imminent harm, you want them to get access to your warning as quickly, effortlessly, and freely as possible. For example, if you charge a fee before people can hear a hurricane or fire warning, it reveals that you don’t truly want to save lives, nor do you have any real “urgency” in your heart. This paywall is also evil and cruel because it ensures that many people will suffer harm or death because they didn’t hear the warning, especially the poor. Chris, by putting his book behind a paywall, has sealed painful consequences for many people, for which he will be held accountable at the judgment (by his own assessment and admission). People who are the most vulnerable to these lies of our anti-Christian culture are often the least likely to pay for a book in order to find out how they’ve been seduced. Many people who are deceived believe with all their hearts that they’re walking in the truth. They scoff at the idea of going out of their way to pay someone to tell them what lies they’ve fallen for. Ironically, Chris has contributed to the lies that harm evangelicals by believing and promoting a lie himself: the lie that Christian exhortation and messages inspired by the Spirit of God (speaking truth) can be turned into merchandise. He is not only aggravating the current crisis by keeping his important letter behind a paywall, but also helping to spread the deception that the only way to warn people is by selling that warning. ⁠⁠⁠sellingjesus.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thedoreanprinciple.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠copy.church