Buying and Selling in Church

[xDenax]

It was my understand that per https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+21:12-13, Christians tend not to engage in commerce inside their church buildings. A friend of mine is having an event at her church where people are invited to set up a booth for their own personal business to sell items. A percentage goes to the church and the rest goes to the individual. Is this common or is this something most churches would not do?

 

[oi_antz]

It was my understand that per https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+21:12-13, Christians tend not to engage in commerce inside their church buildings. A friend of mine is having an event at her church where people are invited to set up a booth for their own personal business to sell items. A percentage goes to the church and the rest goes to the individual. Is this common or is this something most churches would not do?

I think it's great! I know of churches that have op shops attached. I got some really nice dress shirts from one place for $3 each. I know of churches that quite often have garage sales (yard sales) as you are describing. It's a great way to invite public to informally share the community spirit without being confronted by uncomfortable truths.

I think Jesus just flipped out because He expected them to have not been so plainly corrupt when the Messiah was worshipped on His way in. Given the contrast of those outside the temple and those inside, they might have even been thumbing their nose at Him, so to speak. The temple procedures had become an industry. God never intended for people to be exploited and literally extorted for the simple need to feel forgiven.

What you are describing here is nothing like what Jesus was upset about in that passage.

 

[Liberasit]

It was my understand that per https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+21:12-13, Christians tend not to engage in commerce inside their church buildings. A friend of mine is having an event at her church where people are invited to set up a booth for their own personal business to sell items. A percentage goes to the church and the rest goes to the individual. Is this common or is this something most churches would not do?

This happens in my fellowship.

It's a very good way of out reaching to our local community.

 

[Llewelyn Stevenson]

I know my denomination in my childhood would not even hold a cake sale in the church. Not sure if there are congregations that still hold these views, though I don't think this equates to what was happening in the temple. Firstly you had to buy temple money to purchase your sacrifice at an exorbitant exchange rate, and then you had to buy your sacrifice. There were other things. Jesus saw how this oppressed the poor and it angered him as God never condones usury among his people.

 

[AvilaSurfer]

We don't have any "sales" unless 100% of the profits go to a church fund.

 

[Job8]

It was my understand that per https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+21:12-13, Christians tend not to engage in commerce inside their church buildings. A friend of mine is having an event at her church where people are invited to set up a booth for their own personal business to sell items. A percentage goes to the church and the rest goes to the individual. Is this common or is this something most churches would not do?

This is clearly a contravention of Bible teaching.

 

[ChetSinger]

Our church hasn't done what's described in the OP and I think our congregation would have divided opinions over it. The only on-property sales I can recall have been visiting speakers setting up tables to sell their books, DVDs, etc.

 

[South Bound]

It was my understand that per https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+21:12-13, Christians tend not to engage in commerce inside their church buildings. A friend of mine is having an event at her church where people are invited to set up a booth for their own personal business to sell items. A percentage goes to the church and the rest goes to the individual. Is this common or is this something most churches would not do?

Depends what they're selling.

We have a thrift shop and a variety of fund raisers throughout the year.

 

[ViaCrucis]

There's no dogmatic position on such a thing, certainly not one based on the cited passage which isn't a flat condemnation of buying/selling within sacred grounds, but a very specific condemnation of the way money-changers in the Temple were ripping people off and abusing them.

So setting up a bake sale in the narthex of a church (as an example) is hardly a problem.

I would, however, condemn turning part of a church into a storefront, for example setting up a Starbucks or a McDonalds would be rather inappropriate.

So it's not a rigid, dogmatic, black and white issue; but a case-by-case issue. And, again, the Gospel text cited in the OP wouldn't really apply in the vast majority of cases--even in cases where I (and many others) would consider it deeply inappropriate.

In a large way it comes down to a recognition between the sacred and the profane. That having a bake sale would be completely fine. Installing a full scale bakery, probably not so fine. But opinions on such things are going to differ--that's where I stand. I don't think having a bake sale confuses the line between sacred and profane, while using part of the church as a profit-making enterprise is definitely a confusion of the two. The church is sacred, the building itself is sacred, because it is consecrated to the specific purpose of being where the faithful gather to receive Word and Sacrament.

The issue is firmly in the grey area, neither black or white.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[annafullofgrace]

There's no dogmatic position on such a thing, certainly not one based on the cited passage which isn't a flat condemnation of buying/selling within sacred grounds, but a very specific condemnation of the way money-changers in the Temple were ripping people off and abusing them.

So setting up a bake sale in the narthex of a church (as an example) is hardly a problem.

I would, however, condemn turning part of a church into a storefront, for example setting up a Starbucks or a McDonalds would be rather inappropriate.

So it's not a rigid, dogmatic, black and white issue; but a case-by-case issue. And, again, the Gospel text cited in the OP wouldn't really apply in the vast majority of cases--even in cases where I (and many others) would consider it deeply inappropriate.

In a large way it comes down to a recognition between the sacred and the profane. That having a bake sale would be completely fine. Installing a full scale bakery, probably not so fine. But opinions on such things are going to differ--that's where I stand. I don't think having a bake sale confuses the line between sacred and profane, while using part of the church as a profit-making enterprise is definitely a confusion of the two. The church is sacred, the building itself is sacred, because it is consecrated to the specific purpose of being where the faithful gather to receive Word and Sacrament.

The issue is firmly in the grey area, neither black or white.

-CryptoLutheran

I'd agree with this...typically anything that is asking the congregation for anything monetary goes across our council first and everything is a case by case basis.