Hidden Costs of Free Material

I know that churches face tight budgets. I pray fervently that congregations would be spared making choices between increasing the sub-standard pay for their church workers or purchasing quality material for their Sunday School. The lure of free Sunday School material may be hard to resist.

But consider these hidden costs of free material.

• Loss of color art. Free material is usually all black and white. Gone is the full-color art work, craft pages, and stickers found in material that costs something. Loss of art results in less realism, and less comprehension.
• Cost of photocopies. Most free material is available through Internet download or perhaps as files on a CD; it offers exclusively reproducible student material. The local church is on the hook to print no only the teacher guides, but also all the student material. And, as most church workers know, copies on the church copier are not really free.
• Expectation of quality. There is a subtle price we pay in what we expect of free material. "Okay, there are some typos, but it's free." "Well, no, it's not really Lutheran, but it's free." "It's a little more work for our leaders and volunteers, but it's free."
• Weak theological content. This one deserves to be mentioned again. I have yet to see free Sunday School material with strong biblical, Christ-centered, truly Lutheran content.
• Lack of doctrinal review. This is the reason, of course, for weak doctrine: no free Sunday School curriculum offered today goes through the doctrinal review process used by all entities of The Lutheran Church---Missouri Synod.  

Is it truly worth using free material if it fails to teach God's clear Word of Law and Gospel? Near the end of his reign King David was moved to offer a sacrifice in thanks for God's compassion in the face of David's sin. Ironically, the sacrifice was made in the spot that would eventually become the location of Solomon's temple. David bought both the place of sacrifice and the wood and oxen from a Jebusite named Araunah, though Araunah had offered to give them to David for free. David's response? “I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24).

God bless you are you teach His children His Word.