My initial reaction of charging for sermons was negative - but we do not blink when people charge for conferences, books, training materials, etc.. More and more I think that if someone is a minister of God, then all they do should be free and either their “day job” or donations should cover costs. On the other hand if they happen to be a Christian in the vocation of music or teaching or whatever, I guess that is no different than my company charging for our products.

Net, the frustrating part is when someone claims to be a minister of the Word and charges for that. They should decide which side of the fence they are on.

Put simply, CDs & DVDs incur a materials cost.  Most of the time we list stuff in our church to cover the cost of materials, no more than that.  The great thing about podcasts & vodcasts is that there are no material costs.  Even the man-hours cost in this should be minimal.  Is there not a single person in all of T.D. Jakes’ ministry who would volunteer to upload his sermons for free each weekend?

I never said this was horrible...just that it seems to be bucking a trend in which ministries are offering their podcasts for free.

Todd

Shadowette has the right perspective: No materials used/no charge. Seems to me that there are some organizations that charge fees for products (including books, cd’s, etc.) and justify their profit by calling a “donation to the ministry”.

By the way, the price has already been paid on the cross.

‘By the way, the price has already been paid on the cross.’ - KC

Nice comment.  It reminded me of another point my pastor made on why we are giving things away for free, it’s because they have already been paid for.  T.D. Jakes’ sermons have already been paid for within his salary.  His staff has already been paid to record the message as it’s being preached.  The money he makes off of selling podcasts is pure profit. 

I also find it very interesting that he decided to use a 3rd party company to provide this for him.  I wonder what prompted him to use Audible.com, instead of just uploading through iTunes.

Hey David,

You are correct.  If T.D. Jakes were a secular author no one would say anything, but T.D. Jakes is NOT a secular author.  He is a pastor who preaches to see lives changed for God.  He is a pastor who is paid by his congregation to write & preach sermons.  Basically, he’s taking something that he’s already been paid to do, repackaging it & reselling it.  And, to be fair, I don’t truly believe it is soley T.D. Jakes who decided to this.  His church and staff had to have some involvement. 

How many unsaved, unchurched people are going to pay $14.95 a month to listen to his sermons hoping it will change their lives.

There will your HEART be also...Matthew 6:21; Luke 12:34

No man can serve two masters (even TDJ)...Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13

Also 2 Corinthians 2:16-17 (btw - which camp would TDJ fall in?  Does he hear from God?)

No one here has discussed the cost of distribution of data via the Internet. In fact, several of the above comments discuss hard materials like CDs and DVDs as having a cost factor while blatantly ignoring the fact that it does indeed cost money to produce materials for digital distribution (man hours) and it costs money to store those items on a server (outside hosting or in-house server) and deliver those items via download (bandwidth).

However, I disagree with the decision to charge for this type of service as the overhead is ultimately rather small and the “return” is far greater. I’m not sure whose decision it was to charge for a podcast, but I do believe they will see a greatly diminished ROI for this decision. Not to sound too business-like, but part of what has made podcasting so successful is its accessibility factor. T.D. Jakes’ ministry just added a large layer of inaccessibility right in front of their ministry. And as previously mentioned, there are very few (if any) unsaved, unchurched people who will pay for something like that. Unfortunate, but true.

I’m more a proponent of open source ministry. If God is Jehovah Jireh (and He is), then we shouldn’t have to do much to be financially successful in our ministries. And that should allow us to be good stewards with that which God has blessed us with (including teachings on tape and policy manuals.)

Whoa, hold on a second, he’s giving away thousands of IPod’s for free! I want to go!

Perhaps they plan to pay for that by selling the memberships. Hmm… $14.95 x 12 months vs. hundred of dollars for an IPod? and folks don’t even have to sign up for the $14.95 membership.

I wonder if they are making money off of this deal?

SCP: No church is a gift to mankind, but Jesus Christ is. (I know you know this, but I thought it was worth reminding all of us.)

The number of people in the pews of the church you pastor and the amount of income you receive for pastoring the church is not relevant to the discussion. You are evaluating a number in a group and a number on a paycheck as relative to the term successful.

If anything, I agree with you that attempting to emulate a model, a theological standing, a person, a style, an approach in an effort to build the “kingdom” (of your own) is ridiculous. And I agree that there are leaders in the church who are “missing the point” by clamoring for the latest and greatest from their mentor or favorite leader.

With that said, I would encourage you to also avoid missing the point when attributing success to such relative facts such as congregation size and salary. You can be very financially successful in the place that you are in regardless of the numbers. Being financially successful is a result of making godly decisions of your finances (and more specifically, the finances of the church) and devoting time in prayer over such matters.

I’m not sure who drew the line first in your situtation: the “big church people” who get so much attention and treat you like you “aren’t worth much” or you, “the small church people.” But the fact is, that line needs to be obliterated for the sake of the body of Christ. I believe it’s going to have to start in your heart no matter how you feel “the other side” is treating you or the congregation you pastor. There should be no sides on our side. We are in this together, fighting the enemy and proclaiming Jesus as Lord.

I hope you’ll accept these words as humbly as they’ve come from my heart. I don’t intend to be corrective, but I do hope this sparks some inspiration in you as you help shepherd God’s children and seek out the lost.

Many Christians pay for Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Oprah, Wall Street Journal, LA Times, and many other publications and have not problem with it.  The Bible does say that the worker is worth his meat.  Is it the Man of God’s fault that he has many people who like his sermons.  Thing to note is that Bishop Jakes is not making this a requirement for all christians only those who want to hear the messages God has given him.  If you don’t want to hear him don’t pay the fee there are plenty of men of God who offer their messages free get those and don’t complain about these.

Sorry David, I guess you struck a nerve in me that I didn’t even realize was there.  I think I took your comment that if we are faithful to God then we will make sure we are financially succesfull in our ministries, wrong. 

I know many pastors who are struggling to make ends meet, then some bigwig pastor makes us all look like moneygrubbers.  It saddens me.

Oh, and I agree the line needs to be obliterated.  I think it was drawn years ago by the Church growth Movement placing more emphasis on nickels and noses than on the kingdom.  My denomination still strongly supports that movement, unfortunately.

I think this is a tough nut to crack.  On the one hand, I still sometimes think this is the type of thing that caused Jesus to ransack the temple when so much buying and selling was going on.  I know they weren’t selling “spiritual stuff” but it makes me wonder if we aren’t guilty of doing the same things.  But I do think that Christians are a market.  We are willing to buy CDs, books, DVDs, yadda yadda yadda.  People will pay for this, that’s why Jakes has made it available for $14.95.  That being said, I think there is some validity to the notion of celebrity status of some of the megachurch pastors.  You can agree or disagree, but people will buy simply because it’s TD Jakes.  If Small Church Pastor did the same thing, it wouldn’t work because no one knows the Small Church Pastor.  We buy alot of RW’s Purpose Driven merchandise.  I personally am going through a Bible study written by Hybels that I bought at bookstore.  We all have our “favorites” because we like what they write, sing, say, etc. 

I have heard of churhes charging for their manuals.  Not $250 but more like $10.  Particulary if it’s a church that creates its own cirriculum. 

I’m rambling, sorry.