The Currency of Christian Hedonism

How we view money, ministry, and financial transparency.

Jesus was clear. Where your treasure is, there will be your heart (Matthew 6:21). You can’t serve God and money (Matthew 6:24). If God is our treasure, money simply becomes a means to pursue as much of God as possible and to share him with others. That’s why we call money the “currency of Christian Hedonism.�

DG is called to spread gospel-based passion for the supremacy of God

• Which satisfies the trusting heart,
• Inclines it to renounce all sinful and many innocent comforts in this world,
• For the sake of giving more freely,
• Loving more deeply, and
• Displaying the infinite worth of Christ more truly.

Therefore, how we spread a passion for God is crucial for our integrity and authenticity.

Paul’s Example: “We Are Not Peddlers of God’s Word�

Since spreading a passion for the all-satisfying Christ is our first and overwhelming aim, we look to Paul’s example of how to remove every obstacle to this goal. In 2 Corinthians 2:17 Paul says,

We are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

In Paul’s day, like ours, some used the word of God to make money. They peddled it. Marketing was the strategy. Money was the goal. Paul was zealous to distance himself from both the motive and the appearance of money-greedy teachers. And he warns Timothy of such men in 1 Timothy 6:3–5.

[These false teachers] are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. 6 Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.

So how could Paul distance himself from these false “super-apostles�? One way was to refuse to seek payment for preaching the gospel. He explains this in 2 Corinthians 11:5–12.

I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles . . . Did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge?  I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you.  And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way . . . And what I do I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do.

God honored Paul’s commitment to make the gospel free by putting it in the hearts of churches he had planted in other places to help him make it free for others. He won people to Christ by his authenticity and by not charging for the gospel, and the result was that new believers supported this very strategy with their gifts. And these gifts from other churches were not payment for the gospel; rather they were enabling Paul to offer it to others without payment.

Paul was persuaded that appearances of peddling the gospel of free grace would put a stumbling block in the way of the gospel. It would make it harder for people to see the true nature of the message and the Savior. This is the way he argues in 1 Corinthians 9:6–19:

• Is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living . . . Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
• What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
• For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.

So we see three motives—or three ways of expressing one motive—that moved Paul not to charge money for the word of God: 1) to remove every obstacle to the gospel of Christ; 2) to increase his heavenly reward; 3) to win more people to Christ.

If the appearance of peddling the word of God hindered people from coming to Christ in Paul’s day, it is probably all the more true in our day. That’s why for us the issue is not merely, What is permitted? But, What best magnifies the all-satisfying, all-caring, all-providing Christ, as God helps us discern our situation?

Implications for Desiring God’s strategy

Give, Give, Give: A Relief Agency not a Grocery Store

Suppose we think of the message of Desiring God (DG) as food and DG as the means of distribution. Is DG a grocery store or a relief agency? How we view ourselves determines how we operate.

There’s nothing wrong with grocery stores, but when calamity strikes, we need relief agencies. They are designed to figure out ways to get food and supplies to people whose lives are at risk. That’s why we believe DG is called to be more like a relief agency. Our mission is not merely to sell competitively priced products in the marketplace, but to aggressively seek ways to get life-saving truth into the hands people ravaged by the worst calamity ever to befall human beings: sin.

Whatever-You-Can-Afford

Even for resources that we sell we have a whatever-you-can-afford policy. This communicates a message that underlies the whole ministry: we are here to serve and help and spread a passion for the supremacy of God. We will trust God to help us make up the “losses� (which are really gains) in ministering to the poor.

Donor Supported Ministry

Our goal is to expand our reach more and more to unbelievers and nominal believers and believers who have not learned to magnify Christ by being radically satisfied in him. Therefore, we are making our message as accessible and free as possible so that we remove the stumbling block of the appearance of “peddling� God’s word. And that means, like Paul, we must be increasingly dependent on the support of people who have been helped by our ministry and want others to be helped too.

Financial Accountability and Transparency

We are actively pursuing both internal and external means of financial accountability. The independent consulting and audit firm, Larson Allen, currently advises us on internal controls and conducts our annual audit. And we are pursuing membership with the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

View our most recent audited year-end financial statements.