A VERY interesting correspondence has been going on in the columns of “The Presbyterian” (Philadelphia) on the subject of church sales, etc. It is surprising to find in America, where one expects to find the most up-to-date methods in Church organisation, a considerable body of opinion condemning this method of collecting money for churches. We quote the following from one of the letters: “The Church is not authorised to enter the field of commerce or business for financial support even if the capital or merchandise is given to it for this purpose by generous and well-wishing friends. Sales of this kind involve the Church in unfair competition with its own members and others who take money out of their business—the same kind of business the Church is doing—and give it to the Church, thus enabling the Church to sell at an advantage over others in like business because the Church not only gets their money, but lessens their number of possible purchasers. Added to this, the Church does not usually pay taxes or rents, and the religious sentiment of the people is appealed to in securing these gifts to the Church to be sold by it to people who would have purchased the same thing from grocermen or others who are paying high taxes and rents, and at the same time contributing their time and money to the Church, their competitor in business.
The principle is just the same, whether the Church sells pies, ice-cream, corn, potatoes, town lots or other real estate, or investments for interest or rent by which transactions the Church is endeavouring to earn or make money for its own support. The Church has no Bible authority to solicit or accept gifts of this kind to be sold or owned and invested for income. Such things should be sold by the individual on his own responsibility, and then he should hand the money to the Church as his gift. The Church as an organisation should limit itself to this method of financial support. Nowhere does the Bible authorise the Church to earn or make money.
The first Church of Jerusalem was in extreme need, but it did not sell ice-cream, charge entrance fees to entertainments, rent its pews, or establish bench stands, or produce stores. Those having houses or other possessions sold them on their own responsibility, and after the sale the money remained their own, and they were at liberty to bring all, or any part of it, and lay it at the Apostles’ feet, which they did, and thereby avoided involving the Church in competitive sales of such things on the streets of Jerusalem. The plea that no profit is made or that the profit goes to worthy and needy causes does not justify the Church for engaging in these mercantile transactions. The business of the Church is spiritual and moral, preaching the Gospel, not secular. Merchandising by the Church without regard to profit is condemned by Jesus in John ii. 16, where He says: “Make not my Father’s house a house of merchandise.” God is jealous for His own plans, and will not tolerate substitution or change or attempts at improvement by men. He warned Moses against this, saying: “See thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the Mount” (Hebs. viii. 5). Cain rejected God’s direction to offer a bloody sacrifice in worship and tried to improve on God’s plan by bringing the fruit of the ground instead of the ‘firstlings of his flock’—a lamb, perhaps, to be slain and burned on the altar, but God rejected both Cain and his fruit.
There are people in the Church to-day who care little about what the Bible has to say. The Church, to them, is only another club or organisation, whose financial and social interests they want to promote in order to gain financial or social prestige for themselves. They must go somewhere to meet the people, and the Church not only offers the opportunity to meet the people of most influence in the community, but joining it satisfies to some extent their disturbed religious conscience. These people readily join in with and help to promote the various sales, entertainment, and social schemes of the Church, without question as to whether they are the proper work of the Church or not. By thus yielding to a secular commercial spirit, the Church has compromised with the world and opened the way for an unconverted membership who readily yield to a leadership that denies the truthfulness and authority of the Bible, and the Church to-day is in an appalling apostate condition as a consequence. The remedy is to get back to a truly Bible basis for church membership and its activities—J. M. Stanfield in the “Presbyterian” (24th Jan. 1929). How far things have gone in some of the American churches may be gathered from the following advertisements taken from a daily paper: “A grand ball will be given for the benefit of the church funds.” “A public tea will be given, with minstrels and mirth-provoking sensations, to conclude with a dance. Proceeds to go to the mission funds of the Church.” “A boxing bout will be pulled off under the auspices of the church.” At the beginning in these so-called churches things may not have been so bad. The world only asks for a little innocent diversion to begin with, and when it has not only got its head but its body in, like the camel in the story, there is no room for the Church. Moral: Keep the world on the outside, where it ought to be.