Topic(s):  Church, Worship

Todd Clippard

I have always opposed church bazaars, yard sales, etc on the grounds that such violates the only Divinely authorized means of supporting the work of the church -- the free-will offering of her members (Acts 2:44-45; 4:32-37; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2; 2 Corinthians 8-9). Concerning the selling of goods and giving to the church, the examples listed above show Christians selling their goods and giving all or some of the monies to support the work of the church.

Generally speaking, the distribution of sermon tapes is for the propagation of the gospel of Christ. Churches of Christ do not charge admission to our worship assemblies or Gospel Meetings. Therefore, it seems inconsistent to require payment for one form of spreading the gospel, but not any other.

Therefore, technically, I do not see any difference in charging for sermon tapes to offset any costs incurred in their purchase and production. Practically, I see a difference in the intent of the action, but I'm not certain this provides authority for the practice.

I realize there are a host of potential problems and questions that may be asked in this regard. Personally, I have no problem with asking those who are members of the church, who have the ability to pay, to make some contribution to offset costs. I don't believe non-members should be asked to bear the same burden as members. How this would be determined and carried out raises even more questions.

Another problem with the offering of free tapes, videos, etc, is that brethren will "bleed the church dry" for "freebies." I recall a couple of years ago when we had a gospel meeting; I provided a sign-up sheet for free tapes of all the sermons. About 30 people signed up for all the tapes of the entire meeting. Every request was from a church member. Each set of tapes contained three cassettes with a sermon on each side. I ran labels and copied about 30 sets of tapes, requiring several hours of work. Unfortunately, by the time I finished making the tapes, I had lost the list of names! Can you guess how many people called or asked about their tapes? Not one! After distributing tapes to our members and a few others that I remembered seeing on the list, I have every remaining set stored in our media room.