...And he said unto them: "come unto me all you who are heavily laden and weary and I will lighten your wallet for you."
The Bible According to (some) Church

I hope we all realize that the above quote is a joke but for some reason the good news is a salable commodity. When did we let this happen? When did we become such sluts? When did we sell our souls?

Let me remind you of something - men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth suppose that godliness is a means of to make money. (says 1 Timothy 6:5).

Take for example an arbitrary inner healing or counseling ministry. There are thousands of the things so let us generalize a little. Now the latest one to hit the big news might be branching out and setting up UK or stateside branches.

The people that have been helped by this will say how "God is blessing" the ministry when what they have actually confused is financial gain from popularity with the true blessing. These popular services leave people feeling connected to God (no bad thing), healed or able to face something hurtful from the past.

The crunch comes when our zealous and still "buzzing" convert to this new ministry say "it only costs..." and they follow up by telling you what you get for your money.

Did I miss something? Does the Holy Scripture say: "Freely you have received freely charge a good price for it."? Or is it written "The thief comes to kill steal and destroy but I have come to sell you something nice."?

The Bible I remember reading says things like "take no care for what you will eat or what you will drink", and "do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow has enough worries of it's own. Which of you by worrying can add even an inch to his or her height? Then why worry about the rest?"

The Bible I read says "take no purse with you, nor a change of clothes for a labourer is worthy of his pay."

Now let us just get right down to "brass tacks" as they say. Who pays your wages? Who ever that is that person is your master.

Do not try to say "god" pays my wages when you sell product. I sell product and the person that pays my wages is the customer. If the customer wants it they get it (within reason). If I make my product green but blue is more popular I do not worry about "moral integrity of my colour choice" I sell it in blue regardless of how I think it looks.

Jesus was not talking just about "lusting after the things of this world" when he said that you can only serve one master. That you must choose between God and Money. When you sell the free gift of God you are stuck between two masters. Fatally compromised.

Here is an example. As a business man I use what power I have to get what is best for my business and this is often what my customers want most. Now supposing that there is a supplier that is taking a cause of action I do not want them to take.

I would write to them and say "take this cause of action instead and I will write in my blogs and other websites about you sending my readership and clients to you."

What do you suppose that company will do? They will consider my offer. If they find it a credible suggestion that I could send significant custom (beyond that which they expect from the current cause of action) they will change for me.

When you are selling the good news the same is true - those that can send the most customers call the shots. Or to invoke an old cliche - "he who pays the piper calls the tune".

Christianity is the biggest and best paying market sector in the west today. Is it not time that the market stalls were turned over? Is it not time that the sales culture of the church came to an end?