If this post sounds angry, it’s because I am very angry. Just like Jesus.

The other day I heard about a disturbing situation in which a staff member from one church was fussing at a staff member from another church for stealing their ideas.

If the staff member being chastised had been caught bootlegging curriculum, selling the other church’s strategies as their own, or making a profit off of someone else’s unique methodologies, they would have deserved to be rebuked.
But that wasn’t the case. Not by a long shot.

I will not disclose the details of the confrontation.
I don’t want to jeopardize any relationships or hurt anyone’s reputation.

Just suffice it to say that I am deeply concerned by some trends I see in the body of Christ concerning the sharing of ideas and concepts.

And this is my prophetic warning to the growing number of churches who are more concerned about protecting “your” ideas than building the Kingdom:

You don’t own the copyright on God.

It makes me sick to my stomach to think about the future of Christianity in America if the best thing we can think up to do from 9 to 5 is to make sure no one is stealing our ideas.
Our ideas?
Our ideas?

Those who withhold the blessings and resources of God (they’re His) with clenched fists will find themselves in a very small and lonely place one day.

Those who, like these guys, invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into inventing systems not to withhold resources, but to give them away, will be abundantly blessed and supernaturally networked for strategic Kingdom impact.

The point here isn’t that churches shouldn’t charge for their resources. Go ahead. Sell a million books. Charge whatever you want for your series graphics. I’m serious. That stuff is expensive to create, and you can invest the revenue you generate from selling it back into ministry.
There’s nothing wrong with that at all.
What is wrong, and an abomination to God, is trying to patent things that belong solely to the Lord.

I am not blogging about this simply to blow off some steam. I did that already here in the office.
And I prayed over this entry for several days before going live with it.
But this is my wake up call to the body of Christ:

We need to repent, friends. For our territorial spirits. For prizing intellectual property rights above the glory of God. For being more concerned about who gets the credit for “best practices for getting people to heaven” while people all around us are going to hell.

Let’s give freely. Let’s sow generously.

There’s a time to protect creative content.
There’s a time to charge admission.
Profit isn’t evil. It’s often essential.

But it grieves the heart of God and violates the spirit of the Gospel of Christ when we start to litigate over who invented what technique so we can make another buck or elevate our church’s celebrity.

It’s time to rise above selfishness and aim all of our artillery at the same target.
Come on guys.
Let’s do better.
For the sake of Christ and His Gospel.

As for Elevation, please rip us off anytime you please.
Here’s a good place to get started.