Quality versus Cost

It is unanimous! Everyone would like our Sunday School material to be less costly. That includes us here at the publishing house.

I work for a nonprofit organization. We don't pay dividends to shareholders or big bonuses to upper management. For nearly all our products, we charge a price that returns to the publishing house only enough to sustain our ministry at a level that fulfills our vision: to be the "publisher and provider of choice for products and services that are faithful to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions." We want to be good enough so that you, and others, come to us first.

So what does it mean when a congregation says, "We can no longer afford to purchase your Sunday School material?" Our prices have not skyrocketed. The economy is relatively stable. But, I'm sure that many congregations, probably all congregations, struggle to allocate limited financial resources to a limitless number of ministry possibilities.

How then do congregations respond to tight finances? Probably the same way a family does.

• They buy the best quality (in personnel, equipment, and materials) that they can afford, but they don't overspend.
• They prioritize to get those things that they value most and do not purchase those things they don't really want or need.

So, I find myself wondering: what if our Sunday School material were of lower quality and cost?

• Is there a lower quality, lower price, at which more congregations would buy our material?
• Or would even fewer congregations buy our material if it were cheaper, lower in price and quality?

God bless you as you wrestle with cost and quality as you teach God's children His Word!