This was not a request, but a command, so the question of evangelical outreach should never be a question. We are to do it, we're commanded to do it. And looking at it in faith, it's a "get to", not a have to anyway!
Therefore, to charge for doing what Christ commanded is an abomination, and should NEVER be done.
"But...but...Dean, are you saying that ministers should not be paid, that the 'laborer is not worthy of his hire'?"
Of course not. Ministers do far more than simply preach a sermon, and the time and effort that they must expend is well worthy of compensation. Yet even then, there is a sense that the compensation should not be "too" much, and while reasonable people can disagree on exactly where that line would be, all understand that there is such a line.
The minister who is then given nothing but a cot in the back of the church and the right to grow potatoes in the yard - this is thought as too little. The minister with fleets of private jets and minks for his wife, this is thought of as too much.
Some where in between, we are comfortable. Usually any where in the middle class range, be it modestly lower middle or quietly upper middle.
But what of video series? Video presentations? Then it should be at cost or not at all.
Because how many times can one man be paid for the same thing? How many times should he be? The Apostle Paul certainly received expenses, he got to have room and board provided, but no where does it say that if the Thessalonians numbered 100 he got 10 drachmas, and if they numbered 200, so that twice as many wanted to hear his letter to them, that he then got 20 drachmas!
A minister may have gave a great sermon - take Lee Venden for example. But was he not paid to create such? And does he not desire it to be heard by as many as possible? Has it not been a calling? Has not the command of Christ applied to him as well as any of us?
It seems likely, that if he is about to ascend to the pulpit, and an extra person steps inside to hear him, that his salary does not go up. Why would it? He's paid for the effort of creating and performing the sermon, as to how many hear it, it takes no more time and effort for 100 to hear - or 101, or 1,001.
Yet he films it. And it is then recorded. And this he sells world wide. Seven days a week. Oh, for reasons of delicacy, he won't have his staff laboring on the Sabbath, but the answering machine assures the caller that it can still be ordered immediately at www.whateverdotcom, yes even on the Sabbath.
$36 for a five disc series, to take one example. "All about Jesus". And that's a good topic. Sure, there were 66 whole books wrote about it, well over two thousand years ago, but I guess a fresh take never hurt. And certainly if only 10,000 people world-wide ordered that, it sure wouldn't hurt his budget.
See, each disc only costs about 30 cents to make. So five discs to ten thousand people would be about $15,000 that Lee would have to spend. But let's be safe, assume I forgot a lot, and double that. Ol' Lee then has to shell out $30,000 for those folks to hear his message.
How much does he get compensated? Well, at $36 coming in from each of the 10,000, that's $360,000. Hmm. I'm not mathematician, nor a fancy dan CPA, but I'm guessing that he's managing to squeak even in this arrangement.
But I'm just picking on Lee because he's handy. I'm sure he does just tons of great stuff with the money. Really. I guess. But still, kind of sucks for those who would have desired to hear a great message, but don't have $36 to drop. And a far cry from how Jesus did it.
Oh, remember Jesus? Yeah, he gave out food first, healed some, then preached. Had he followed Lee's model, he could have charged each person who came to the Mount to hear his sermon five drachmas, then did good works with all the money that would have rolled in.
What's the real point here? Lee is the least of these who feed off the desire of the already converted to learn more of what they already knew. He's the least of those who convince the faithful that only through this or that series can a "real" evangelical outreach be had.
There are those who charge far more than Lee. Those who charge us not $36, but $3,600 and even upwards of $5,000, for video series with glitz and glamor, polish and finesse, such that if we only dig deep and buy them, we can advertise them to the community and just watch the converts roll in!
And last time, how many did we get?
Zero. We had a guy, his mom, what? Any more visit? Anyone? Buehler? Buehler?
Pastor Cory Jackson, from the Michigan Conference, spoke at Bible Chapel last night. He said, ""Do we Adventists know the pulse of our community? Because if we don't, we cannot be missionaries to them! We spend money on another video series of the Book of Daniel in Prophecy and get, what? Five people attend? And most of them from our church? And yes, we all enjoyed the video very much! But when we offer food, three hundred respond! So we order another video series? Really? We have to learn the pulse of our community! We have to show and act the gospel, not just speak it!"
Amen.
Here, take a look at this. George printed it on his printer, at home, this morning. He got to Bible Chapel half an hour early and passed it out in the neighborhood. Total cost? Yeah, it'd be well under a buck, and no where near a thousand dollars.
And six people then attended Bible Chapel who never had before.
Now maybe they'll no more get baptized then the few who showed up for "A Pale Horse Rides" or whatever that was we purchased, but I'm guessing that we can afford to do what George did a heckuva lot more times than we can afford such videos!
He spent several thousand times LESS! And had twice as many show up!
Or consider our food pantry. We aid 16 plus homes each month. Nearly 100 separate individuals receive food. And a spiritual message. And our name recognition is greatly increased.
Cost to run it? Over $500 per month. Cost to the church? $200 per month. By being proper stewards of the tithes and offerings, they joined with a local charity, that kicks in a matching $200 and picks up the $150 in delivery costs.
$5,000 for three people? Or $5,000 for OVER TWO YEARS of feeding Jesus's sheep? Because that's what $5,000 would get - it would pay $200 per month for two whole years, with a bit left over.
How many is the food ministry bringing in? Well, it's brought in at least one person who consistently visits and works on the food program. And it's aided another who is regularly taking lessons. And it's aided another couple that is thinking of joining. Is it the cause?
No. But it's a "contributing factor". And none can doubt that someone will come and be baptized one day, who learned of us first through a bag of food. Or our advertisements - because every halfway and sober living home we tend to has one of our postcards on a bulletin board or refrigerator.
Cost benefit analysis boring? Need more reasons to shun over priced video presentations?
Well, what would Jesus do? What did he do? Did he say, "Feed my sheep?" Or play them a movie?
What's that? There were no movies back then? Well, there were no cures for leprosy or blindness, and he did those miracles. Why couldn't he have caused a giant screen to show an amazing video series with explosions and fire and dragons and such? Give the people on the Mount a real show, not just a sermon about boring beatitudes?
I think we err to stray from Christ's example. No, it's not just about food as an evangelical ministry, that is just an example, and one that I'm obviously personally familiar with. Christ also healed the sick, visited the imprisoned, clothed the naked, and in general aided those who needed aid - and he did such FIRST, then gave the verbal message.
Show - then tell. Show by actions. Not tell by glitz and glamor.
It need not be a food ministry, there are other means of evangelizing, from the cards that George printed in a moment at pennies of cost, to a store ran by us that gives out clothes and furnishing to any who have need.
But no where in this are over-priced videos that only preach to the choir. No where in this is wasting the hard earned donated dollars on stuff that should only have cost 30 cents. No where in this is making Lee and men far worse than Lee rich while those locally go without.
