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PODCAST

Selling Jesus

sellingjesus.org

We want to highlight and exalt the radical generosity of God’s heart, confront the commercialization of Christianity, promote the biblical teaching that ministry should be supported but never sold, explore the history of how we"ve gotten to this point where it"s a respectable sin to monetize ministry, and take a deep dive in the Scripture’s teaching on the subject. Our evangelical cultural moment has a serious blind spot in this area, and we hope to be a voice of reform. And our priority is to take

religion & spirituality christianity

All Episodes

00:26:41

Bible Publishers - Stewards or Gatekeepers?

Selling Jesus ·

2023/12/23

Read the article and footnotes here. Let’s imagine that your pastor gets up one Sunday morning and announces: “If anyone wants to share passages from the Bible they need to ask me for permission first. I have to do this in order to carefully steward God’s Word, because people might abuse it. That said, I’ll be very generous in giving permission. I’ll even let you share it for free if you’re only using small portions. But if you use large portions, I’ll expect some payment to cover the costs of

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00:55:44

James the Worship Composer - Christians Who Sell Jesus

Selling Jesus ·

2023/12/13

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. James is a worship leader. When he was single he wrote some of his best worship songs in the evenings while working at a bookstore to make ends meet. His heart’s passion is to serve the Church with Bible-saturated, God-centered, beautiful music that will point people to Christ. In the days of MySpace

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00:14:51

Should Christian Ministry Be Supported by Ads?

Selling Jesus ·

2023/12/02

The 1998 movie The Truman Show is a film about a man named Truman Burbank who—unaware—lived his entire life inside a simulated reality TV show. In order to pay for the show, the producers filled Truman’s world with cleverly placed ads of all kinds, even within conversations that Truman had with his wife (who was really a paid actress). At one point Truman and his wife are in the middle of an intense conversation, and she suddenly holds up a product and says with fake chipperness: “Why don’t you let

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00:12:41

Biblical Counseling Should Be Free

Selling Jesus ·

2023/11/24

The biblical counseling movement was founded on the conviction that the Bible is sufficient for solving all non-medical problems that humans face. The central figure behind this return to Scripture was Jay Adams, who shocked the world with a bold and controversial claim “that the task of counseling was a theological enterprise that should be primarily informed by a commitment to God’s Word.” While this claim draws fire from both inside and outside the Church, its truth has been proven by both

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00:07:54

Should Preachers Be Paid?

Selling Jesus ·

2023/11/17

Conley Owens argues that the Bible is clear that ministers should be financially supported. In the same context that Jesus commanded the disciples to “freely give” their message, he acknowledged that the worker is “worthy of his food” (Matt. 10:10). Paul also argued for the right of a minister to earn a living as he does ministry (1 Cor. 9:1-14). Ministry should be supported, but it shouldn’t be sold. So long as the gospel worker makes no exchange for his message, he is free to receive support

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00:25:23

Steve the Biblical Counselor - Christians Who Sell Jesus

Selling Jesus ·

2023/11/11

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. Recommended reading (even though, sadly, none of these books are free): Competent to Counsel The Biblical Counseling Movement after Adams Counseling the Hard Cases Speaking Truth in Love Check out this article: Charging Fees for Biblical Counseling? by Deborah Dewart Steve is a biblical

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00:06:38

Obligation and Compulsion - Conversation 6

Selling Jesus ·

2023/11/04

As Tim and his pastor continue their conversations, they tackle the question: Where should our sense of obligation lie when giving to support Christian ministry - to God or to man? Looking at biblical illustrations like a soldier's wages and an ox treading grain, they walk through 1 Corinthians 9 to see how Paul unpacks the idea of "mediated obligation." Giving should stem from love of and obligation to God, not indebtedness to one of his servants. This is the difference between

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00:14:23

Jane the Free Thinker - "Everything Is Ministry,...

Selling Jesus ·

2023/10/28

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. Our intention is to engage with practical matters and have an open conversation about how each person can follow more closely in Christ's footsteps and give ministry freely. Jane believes that there are no guiding principles in Scripture regarding money and ministry because “everything is ministry, if

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00:08:57

What's up with Paul? - Conversation 5

Selling Jesus ·

2023/10/20

As Tim and his pastor continue their conversations, they try their best to grapple with some passages from the Apostle Paul that can be confusing. Why is Paul willing to receive money from people in some circumstances and unwilling in others? Walking through key passages in 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, they explore the distinction Paul makes between reciprocity (payment in exchange for preaching) which he rejects, and co-labor (sharing resources to spread the gospel further), which he permits

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00:50:45

Joe the Author - Christians Who Sell Jesus

Selling Jesus ·

2023/10/10

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. Our intention is to engage with practical matters and have an open conversation about how each person can follow more closely in Christ's footsteps and give ministry freely. Joe is a gifted author who writes books to help churches be healthier. He has valuable biblical teaching to share, and he

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01:06:11

The Bondage of the Word - Copyright & the Bible

Selling Jesus ·

2023/10/06

For nearly a century, copyright legislation has been subtly but effectively applied, misused and abused in regard to the Word of God in order to chain the Bible to a new pulpit, differing in kind but not in essence from the restrictive practice so loudly decried in the Middle Ages. While the contemporary difference can be described in terms of dollars and cents, the net effect is identical: the free and unhindered access by God’s people to the revealed truth of his Word is restricted once more, this

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00:29:14

Does Jesus’ Command to “Freely Give” Apply Today?

Selling Jesus ·

2023/09/12

People often attempt to justify the Jesus trade by dismissing the command of Christ in Matthew 10:8 as irrelevant to Christians today. They say that the command to freely give just doesn’t apply to us anymore, so we can sell the spiritual and the sacred without any problem now. In this episode Conley Owens addresses the issue and argues that the command of Christ does indeed apply to us today. Conley is the author of The Dorean Principle: A Biblical Response to the Commercialization of Christianity,

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00:52:56

Typical Objections to the Biblical Teaching that...

Selling Jesus ·

2023/09/07

In this episode Jon, Conley, and Andrew discuss some of the common objections that typically come up when Christians encounter resistance to the Jesus trade. There are a lot of people with their entire lives invested in a system that monetizes ministry like everything else on the market, and when we point out that the Bible condemns the sale of ministry, but commends the support of ministry through the free generosity of God’s people, there are a few knee-jerk reactions that tend to come up often

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00:21:31

The History of the Jesus Trade - Conversation 4

Selling Jesus ·

2023/08/26

As Tim and his pastor continue their conversations, they discuss the history of how we got to this point in history where the monetization of ministry is so normal and such a respectable sin. They talk about how the early church had standards about money and ministry that would be foreign to us today, and how examples like Martin Luther's put most modern believers to shame. Finally, they unpack the way the American sprint towards wealth and materialism over the last 100+ years led to a series of

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00:12:49

The Command of Christ - Conversation 3

Selling Jesus ·

2023/08/19

As Tim and his pastor continue their conversations, they discuss the interpretation of Matthew 10:8-11 and other key verses that help shed light on the difference between selling ministry and supporting ministry. They look at how believers should give support out of obligation to God, not man, and why Jesus' command to freely give applies to us today. sellingjesus.org | thedoreanprinciple.org | copy.church

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00:12:36

Pragmatism vs Principle - Conversation 2

Selling Jesus ·

2023/08/14

As Tim and his pastor continue their conversations, they explore how the tendency to do "whatever works" has often triumphed over obeying Scripture, especially when it comes to money and ministry. They look at examples of how Christians can be tempted to sell spiritual things for the sake of expediency and outcomes that are perceived as beneficial to God's Kingdom. They also discuss the temptation to judge success by results instead of faithfulness to Scripture. It's important to

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00:08:35

Our Lavish God - Conversation 1

Selling Jesus ·

2023/08/02

With this short conversation between Tim and his pastor, we want to set the foundation for further discussions of generosity and biblical thinking about money and ministry. And that foundation is that we worship a stunningly lavish God who did not even spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, and freely gives us all things. sellingjesus.org | thedoreanprinciple.org | copy.church

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00:17:18

What God Thought about Truth-Selling in Ancient Israel

Selling Jesus ·

2023/07/18

Read the written version of this article here. Truth was already being sold way back in the 8th century BC in the time of the prophet Micah, and what he wrote has implications for today’s monetizing of ministry. So, I invite you to join me in taking out the microscope and meditating on Micah 3:11. "Could it be possible that the richest, most materialistic societies in all of human history (Western nations) might have a tendency to do what is right in their own eyes regarding money and

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00:11:00

A Google Engineer's Journey to Clarity on What...

Selling Jesus ·

2023/07/18

Conley Owens is a pastor at Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church and a software engineer. This is his story of discovering the Bible’s view of ministry fundraising. "I don’t know who may be listening to this or watching this. Maybe you are a pastor who has been selling ministry material for a long time. Maybe you are a new Christian who has never even been involved in ministry. Regardless, I hope you will join us here on this channel in our pursuit of both personal reformation and global

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00:23:17

Who Really Owns God's Word? - Jon's Journey to Freely...

Selling Jesus ·

2023/07/18

Through many twists and turns, Jon comes to the conviction that God is actually the owner of his Word, and that the commercialization and legal restriction of it is contrary to the gospel, the spirit of Christ, and Scripture itself. Visit his website ⁠copy.church to learn more. sellingjesus.org | thedoreanprinciple.org | copy.church

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