Should Churches Give Away Their Content?

I’ve read a lot of blog posts about the announcement from LifeChurch.TV that they’re giving away all of their content for other churches to use for free.

Here’s the introduction/disclaimer on their website:

“At LifeChurch.tv, we are passionately motivated by the desire to see lives changed – across as many miles and in as many places as possible. In our pursuit of that goal, it is our intention to maximize the effectiveness of the resources with which God has trusted us.

Therefore, this website is available to pastors and churches worldwide to provide access to and usage of an entire library of LifeChurch.tv creative materials – at absolutely no charge. Materials include outlines from a wide variety of message series, with corresponding promotional design graphics and videos, broadcast-quality opening videos and more. And every bit of it is free – all you do is browse through the site to find any resources that might be helpful to you and set-up a login to download those resources.

In return, all we ask is that content is used in a non-commercial application in which the overall mission is to lead people to Christ. That’s absolutely it. And if a free gift with no strings attached seems too good to be true – well, isn’t that why we’re all doing what we’re doing anyway?”

Blogs from pastors – especially church planting pastors – are talking about this as being “Kingdom minded”. I tend to agree, but I also have to stop and think it through.

· I’m wondering out loud if this move by LifeChurch will affect other churches that currently sell their materials?

· I’m wondering if because LifeChurch has done this will the users of this content begin to look at pay-to-use content as being less worthy or useful?

· I’m wondering if LifeChurch has considered the copyright implications of content that wasn’t created entirely from scratch or from buy-out resources (no licensing issues)?

· Furthermore, I’m wondering if there will be negative repercussions for churches that do charge?

Time will tell how those questions are answered. And the copyright question had better already been considered and dealt with by now! 

I’ve stated publicly that I think mega churches should help out smaller churches, so it’s no surprise that at first glance, I’m groovy with this move by LifeChurch. No doubt, this is an interesting and seemingly wonderful concept. But I’m still thinking this through, looking at it both short and long term, and trying to see where this could have unexpected negative results.

How can free be negative? Good question! Here’s a few thoughts to consider:

· If it’s free and everyone can use it, what will happen when 10 churches in a 15 mile radius all use the same printed materials, the same mailers and the same graphics? Imagine moving to a new area and getting nearly a dozen postcards in the mail near Easter promoting the same thing at different churches. Will that create a sense of confusion and – maybe worse – a sense of something weird?

· If it’s free and everyone can use it, how will visitors to your church react when you’re doing a series that was just done at the last church they visited?

· It it’s free and everyone can use it, will churches stop using it because they don’t want to be a “me too” church? Will the usage of this new resource dry up as quickly as it gushed forth because it was over saturated?

Should content be sold by churches?

So if free could be negative, does that mean pay-to-use is better? No.

Having been on staff at three mega churches in a Media role, I’ve spent countless hours (months) creating new content. Often I’ll work very hard to make the graphics or sound “just right”, only to realize that other than DVD copies of the message, it’s a one-hit-wonder. All that time and effort for one message or maybe at most one series. In terms of a useful life span, creative content has a very limited shelf life.

Selling content to support the Media ministry was an attractive option. It might only net a few thousand dollars a year, but that’s a few thousand more than I had in my budget, so it’s “free” money to spend on upgrades or personnel. Not a bad thing!

But here’s the rub: If I was paid by my church to create the content and use it in church, am I not already compensated for the product?

If I sell the product and the profits go back to the Media ministry – and not to my personal wallet – does that make it OK? If I sell products that I created for my church on my own website or through a distribution company like WorshipHouseMedia.com or SermonSpice.com, am I asking to be paid twice for work I already completed? Hmmmm.

What if the church has a production team that’s not paid by the church (no salaries, no equipment, no resources) but instead creates content that they give to their church but sell to other churches? Does that make it cleaner or is it just semantics?

The potential problem I see is that the two (a “production team” and the church) are inseparable in most church situations. The production team, equipment, office space, salaries and other things are a shared resource so how can it really be different? Hmmmm again.

I don’t have the answer here, but this move by the folks at LifeChurch.TV certainly has some interesting implications. In fact, I’d love to hear from them on this and see what they think. And I’m also interested to hear what you think. Comment below.

Note: I know this can be a touchy subject for some people, so if your emotions are charged up after reading this, take some time to think your thoughts out before commenting below.

Also, just to be clear: I’m totally in favor of what LifeChurch is doing! I am simply trying to think beyond the “oh, this is new and cool!” and look at all of the implications.

By Anthony Coppedge (http://www.anthonycoppedge.com/)

Anthony is a respected consultant who has committed himself to the church
marketplace.  Sought after by today’s fast-growing churches, Anthony brings
a wealth of knowledge, experience and practical know-how to the table.  By
focusing on helping churches develop Media & Communications technologies and
team-building strategies with clear upgrade paths, Anthony helps churches to
be good stewards of their resources and personnel.