Selling the Gospel: Is is Sinful to Monetize Your Christian Blog Ministry

What if we reimagine Christian ministry not as a free service but as a rightful occupation that deserves adequate compensation? It's time to dispel the misconception that monetizing ministry is unholy and instead, see it as a way for Christian entrepreneurs to use their gifts to serve others. In this stirring conversation, we challenge the traditional stance on ministry and finance, addressing the thought-provoking question of whether it's wrong to 'sell Jesus' or if church leaders should earn a wage for their work. We explore the immense opportunities the digital world offers and emphasize the importance of creating valuable resources that help others connect with the gospel. 

Busting myths about digital ministry and money, we argue that offering resources to guide others closer to God is not selling Jesus. We help you understand how money and the kingdom of God can coexist. We stress the necessity of financial resources for survival and the significance of keeping spreading the message of Jesus as the primary goal. If you're a Christian entrepreneur or intrigued by the intersection of faith and finance, prepare for a paradigm shift. Prepare to appreciate the practicality of monetizing ministry in ways that honor God and benefit users of its resources. As you strive to put more of Jesus out there online, you'll witness a bountiful harvest.

If you are interested in taking your digital discipleship to the next level through blogging, YouTube, social media, and/or online Bible study groups, be sure to join my private FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/kingdombloggers
You can also follow me on YouTube where you will find a variety of helpful tutorials for navigating each of these important platforms: https://www.youtube.com/@KingdomBloggers

Transcript

LeeAnn Fox: 0:02

Welcome to the Kingdom Influencers podcast, where our mission is to get more Jesus online. This podcast will equip and empower ministry leaders as well as regular everyday Christians, to take the message of Jesus Christ throughout the digital realm. I'm your host, LeeAnn Fox, digital Ministry Coach and the creator of the Kingdom Bloggers Ministry, and I am so excited and honored to be a part of this journey with you. Let's get started. Hey everyone, leanne here from Kingdom Bloggers. So today I want to talk about something that I actually get a lot of comments about, both negative and positive, and so I really kind of break down this particular topic, kind of just put it out there for you to think about. And I know from the beginning that in making this video, there are some who are totally going to disagree, and that is totally okay. That's. The beautiful thing is that we can disagree and still be friends. But there are others who probably really need to hear this message as they move forward with their ministry ideas. So what are we talking about? Money mindset and Kingdom mindset. More specifically, creating a Christian-centered ministry, whatever that looks like, with the goal of monetizing it, so basically, monetizing your ministry. Now I get a lot of comments that we should never be selling Jesus, and I totally agree with that, that it's sinful for us to make money off of sharing the gospel. And so I just kind of want to break down a few things. We'll talk about some scripture, but I just really want to put this out there in more of a mindset concept Is it a sin to sell Jesus? Well, I would say, if you open up a shop or set up a table tent, whatever, and you charge people to come inside to read Bible verses to them or to pray over them, like the confessionals in Catholic churches, like if you had to pay a quarter or something to go into them, that would probably be wrong. But as a Christian entrepreneur, as a Christian blogger, a Christian YouTuber, a Christian ministry leader in the online realm, I want you to take a step back and think of it from a different perspective and please, if you have a pre, a notion of how you, if you think it's wrong, the negative and all that, please just hold that and listen to what I have to say and maybe, hopefully, I can change kind of your mindset on this. First off, I'm not trying to get you to go out and sell Jesus. I don't want you to go out and be a corner person saying like, open in your jacket, hey, I got some verses here, or give me $5. That is not what we're doing here.

LeeAnn Fox: 2:33

But God wants us to be prosperous. He wants us to go out and use our gifts and talents to serve, to serve everyone. And if you literally devote your life to doing that well, somebody has to pay the bills. And so our pastors, our preachers, our ministry leaders in the church earn a paycheck for that. And, yes, part of the tithe is, you know, go to pay that salary, because the money's got to come from somewhere. And yes, I know there are many churches out there that have taken advantage of that. The leader of the church, the pastor, preacher, whatever you want to call them, depending on your denomination, have totally taken advantage of that. But you know what? They're just as human as the rest of us and they are as fallible as the rest of us in falling victim to sin and the temptations of the enemy. So there's that.

LeeAnn Fox: 3:16

But there are a lot of churches out there that they do a lot of great things with the money that they're given, but the pastor, the leader of that church, still has to pay his mortgage and support his family and do all those things. So it's a really kind of ridiculous notion that they should not earn a wage for what they are doing, and so I want to be very clear about that. I'm old school, so I'm going to say it like it is and be as Christian like as possible. But it is absolutely ridiculous to say that church leaders should not earn a wage. They should not be paid from the church tithes. Well, where else is the money going to come from to pay them for literally spending 40, 60, 80 hours a week serving the church and building the church and doing the things that they do?

LeeAnn Fox: 3:53

So that aside, but let's talk about us. We're not all of us, most of us, are not seminary trained. We're just regular women at home for men, doing what we do, trying to create a business that can sustain us and our families, and fortunately, the internet has made that just so very possible. There are so many opportunities online, whether you're a Christian or not, or whether you're Christ centered in your business mindset or whatever, but the internet has just made everything possible. So we have opportunities, whether you're a Christian blogger, maybe you prefer video, you do YouTube, maybe you have the gift of creation, in other words, creating printables. Maybe you just rock at writing Bible study lessons, things that ministry leaders can use.

LeeAnn Fox: 4:34

Well, think about this. Your church has to buy these materials from somewhere. So there's somebody usually a big corporation out there bulk producing these Bible study materials and your church is paying for those things. And so if anyone wants to say, well, I don't think that's right either. Well, again, somebody's got to pay for the paper, right, somebody has to pay for the ink. That stuff just doesn't come free, the things that you utilize, even the Bible that you buy and that you read, it took financial resource to make that thing, and so the whole notion that we should not earn income from creating very good resources for other people to enjoy the gospel. Salvation is free. Nobody is selling salvation, and pretty much anybody with a phone or a wifi connection or able to get on the internet can access the Bible, like Biblecom is free, and all of that For those of you who create things.

LeeAnn Fox: 5:25

So let's talk about a website. Even if you never create products, you create content to help pour into people, to break down the Bible, to do those things, and eventually you get enough traffic coming to your website that you qualify for Mediavine Now you can put ads on your site and so you're gonna earn consistent, significant monthly income from those ads. Is that selling Jesus? It's not Like, literally, the ads in the ad revenue company really have nothing to do with God. Those are just ads on your site and the company's paying you ads not because you're Christian content, but because your site gets a lot of traffic. In that scenario, I don't see where there would be an issue with that right. You're not selling Jesus. On the flip side, if you have a YouTube channel you build up and you create these really great Bible study videos and devotional videos and all this stuff to help people really grow closer, stronger in their faith, really learn the Bible, and you get enough traffic and enough subscribers that now YouTube will put ads on your videos and you earn income from those ads.

LeeAnn Fox: 6:24

Again, you're not selling Jesus If you affiliate marketing. Let's talk about affiliate marketing in your blog content or your videos. If your audience, you're trying to teach them about the Bible, well, they need to go buy a Bible, and so well, you don't make Bibles. I mean you may, but most likely you don't make Bibles. So you're gonna recommend a really great Bible that they can purchase on Amazon. You're serving their needs. You're not selling Jesus.

LeeAnn Fox: 6:48

And so I think there's this whole misconception with people who go into digital ministry of any sort whether you're formally trained, seminary or you're just a regular stay-at-home mom pouring into people. The things that you're doing and creating are helping. We are the mode, we are the vessel to get that information out there, and the internet is the highway, and so we're creating the resources out there to help people get closer to God. So you're not selling God. You're creating things using the gifts and talents. You have the gift of God. Apparently, I have that. I like to talk. I can get on video and talk about things. I'm using this gift to help others in their faith. Maybe you have the gift of, like I mentioned before, creating printables and really great worksheets and things like that. Those are things that people need and would like to have and at the end of the day, they're gonna buy them from somewhere. So if you have that gift, I'm pretty sure God wants you to use it to be fruitful and to be prosperous.

LeeAnn Fox: 7:38

That's kind of the mindset shift. You are not selling Jesus. You are offering Jesus to others in various forms and not offering Jesus. Let me rephrase that you are providing resources to help others get closer to God, get stronger in their faith, because, if you personally like the connection you build with Jesus, them, but the ways you are earning money from that is not in the realm of selling Jesus per se. You are creating resources and putting it out there in the online community and, yes, you are earning income from that, but you're not earning the income from selling Jesus, okay, so I really want to encourage you to rethink that mindset, for any of you have had several women actually reach out to me and say that they really struggle because for so long, they believe the lie that you know, whatever, maybe they created really great Bible study lessons and things like that, and they believe the lie that it was a sin for them to even consider putting those on Etsy and earning income from them.

LeeAnn Fox: 8:31

So God gave you a gift of creating like the creative bug, and you do it really, really well. You don't think he gave you that gift for a purpose other than creating them for your church. The gifts he gives us also enables us to thrive here on earth. We need finances to thrive, right? I mean we have to. We have to pay for our homes, we have to buy groceries, we have to buy gas. We have to do those things. The resources it takes to create those things cost money.

LeeAnn Fox: 8:57

So again, I just wanted to encourage you with that. And I know, look, if you firmly believe that you shouldn't do it, then I am not saying you're wrong, okay. What I'm saying is you're wrong to condemn those who do want to proceed on that path, right. And so I don't want to say, okay, well, you should do it even though you don't believe this, right, you should. That's totally wrong. You believe what you believe and I respect that. But I've seen too many people calm down hard on Christian creators because they're all believed. They were trying to push that and say, well, if you do this, then you're going to hell, basically, and God would not approve that, and that is simply just not true. So, anyway, I do also want to mention one last thing. So, mindset, right, money mindset versus kingdom mindset yes, the two can coexist.

LeeAnn Fox: 9:42

However, we're all familiar with the verse that the love of money is the root of all evil. So remember that word love, not the word money. Money is not the root of all evil. We need money. We can't, we just can't be here on planet earth without money. We have to pay for our homes, our places of living, we have to buy gas, we have to buy food, we have to pay for electricity. Right, like to be on earth costs money, and so the love of money is in reference to those who put money above all else. Like you would literally sell your mama for a dollar that's what we're talking about you would literally go against everything you believe as a Christian if it brought you money. That is not what we're talking about in my mantra.

LeeAnn Fox: 10:20

So what I go by with my business, my business goal, first and foremost, is to empower Christian creators, get more Jesus out there in the online world, cause you know, that's the devil's playground. My focus, my goal, has always been to serve, that to serve, and in serving God and serving through that, I reap the financial blessing. My goal has never been I gotta make money. I gotta make money. Even when I was down in the worst financial place that I could be, there were things that were offered to me, opportunities that I simply refused because they went against my beliefs, and so you know, someone who was putting money over the kingdom would probably take some of those opportunities Okay, and so that's where we have to be very careful in always ensuring that our fundamental goal, no matter what, is to get more Jesus out there online, to save more souls, to get more people to heaven, and in doing that we reap a harvest.

LeeAnn Fox: 11:13

So, anyway, I would love to hear your feedback, your thoughts. I know this is a really sometimes polarizing topic, which I mean it's sad that it is, but I think, because it's so polarizing, this misconception, this understanding of this has really held back a lot of women and probably men too, but I think women more so, because we tend to be the creatives has really held you back from all that God has planned for you. He has given you a talent, he's given you a skill and he's given you a passion, or else you wouldn't be doing it so well. He kind of wants you to share that right and the fact that you're not using it to be fruitful as far as helping, you know, bring finances to your family, it really saddens me that too many women have believed that life for so long and have been held back from reaching their full potential in that area. So, anyway, be sure to like this video. Follow us here at Kingdom bloggers, join my Facebook group. You know, if you're really interested in taking that next step and figuring out how to step into your calling in this digital Christian entrepreneur, influencer kind of creative world, I would love to help you take that step. But definitely let me know what you think about this, let me know your opinions. I would love to hear from you.

LeeAnn Fox: 12:20

All right, everyone. Thanks so much for joining us this week. Be sure to come again for our next episode, where we continue diving into all things digital discipleship. If you haven't already, be sure to follow us here on the podcast and leave a review. Let us know what you think. Share it with a friend. Our goal here is to build digital disciples everywhere. Remember, if you are not using the internet to influence others towards Jesus, the enemy will surely use it to influence them away from him. All right, everyone. God bless and have a great week. Bye, bye.