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Joel | Write Awareness's avatar

Thereโ€™s nothing wrong with charging for your work. In fact, itโ€™s important to give people the opportunity to compensate you for the value you provide. Looking forward to the new courses!

Butch Howard's avatar

The Gospel is free. The Scriptures are free. Ministry if priced is no longer a ministry it becomes a marketable commodity.

I have served my Lord for over 50 years without charge.

I will never place a cost on my work.

๐•ฎ๐–”๐–š๐–—๐–†๐–Œ๐–Š๐–”๐–š๐–˜ ๐•ฎ๐–๐–—๐–Ž๐–˜'s avatar

Firstly, the Scriptures are not free. You literally have to buy Bibles.

Are there ways to get Bibles free? Yes. But the predominant way is to sell Bibles. Why? To support the ministries who translate and make them.

Second, following your logic, virtually every ministry is eliminated as a valid ministry because all ministries sell in some capacity. They never thrive on donations alone. They write and sell books, lessons, courses, and/or activists subscriptions or ads to increase revenue and grow.

Money is an essential tool for ministries the world over.

Some have gotten greedy and twisted the Gospel, like the prosperity imbeciles, but every ministry sells in some way, shape, or form.

If God has convicted you not to charge, then donโ€™t charge. Follow Christ. But that doesnโ€™t mean every ministry that sells and earns money is a mere marketable commodity. To think so ignores the clear commands of Scripture.

Butch Howard's avatar

Listen. I donโ€™t rant about those who charge for ministry. I absolutely disagree with it but itโ€™s not my place.

I donโ€™t know why you felt the need to โ€œencourageโ€ us to monetize our Substack account.

I have been doing this a very long time. God has supplied every need I have ever had without fees for ministry content.

๐•ฎ๐–”๐–š๐–—๐–†๐–Œ๐–Š๐–”๐–š๐–˜ ๐•ฎ๐–๐–—๐–Ž๐–˜'s avatar

Good. Congratulations.

If thatโ€™s the case, that God is supplying for you by other means, then what I wrote doesnโ€™t apply to you.

I donโ€™t understand your problem with what I wrote, and I also donโ€™t hear anything from you that contradicts my arguments.

It honestly sounds like youโ€™re upset for no good reason.

Just because God supplies for you without you charging for your content doesnโ€™t mean it will be that way for everyone nor does it mean that charge for some content as a ministry makes it a mere marketable commodity.

I felt the need to encourage others to monetize because there is a widespread misconception out there that no Christian should ever charge for content, and that is patently false and unbiblical.