I just had an interesting conversation with a guy who was looking to get into affiliate marketing in a financial lead generation opportunity. We were talking extensively about some of the sites in the financial lead generation space who target Christians with specially designed landing pages to appeal to and generate trust in Christians merely because of an apparent shared belief.

He indicated that he didn’t feel comfortable taking a similar approach - selling his Christianity as a reason people should consider him as a business partner. He threw some Scripture my way throwing some Paul at me from 2 Corinthians:

Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God.

This created an interesting question about all “Christian” businesses and what we should be thinking about in doing our every day business. Are we profiting from “peddling the Word?”

I think the issue is intent and execution.

If our belief is hollow and we have no interest in ministering to our audience or the lost through what we do, I think we are definitely in trouble. If our focus in doing business with a Christian focus is on doing ministry, and in supporting that ministry through the commerce that we do, I think we are fine as long as we keep our focus where it belongs.

I take a look at sites like Abbey Press - where the proceeds of the sales benefit a monastery. Or to SinglesofFaith - where proceeds of a dating ministry with heavy emphasis on Faith development and service go to support inner-city outreach that members are invited to participate in. I think of C28 and JesusBranded that design clothing and accessories with Christian inspiration that put Scripture out there to inspire sharing among youth and young adults. I think of Alpha Omega and Sonlight who help Christian parents educate their kids with a focus on God’s Word.

I see no problem with these companies because I think that their heart and their execution are in the right place.

I look at companies like ChristianFaithFinancial, BigChurch and the variety of Christian BizOpp offers, etc and think that these folks have something big to worry about. The bottom line is this: As Christians, we have a tendancy to trust our own. Any jackass can throw up a site with “Christian” in the URL, and slap up a couple of crosses or an icthus and a badly chosen Bible verse on it and reel in the suckers. Trust me…it happens all the time.

As Christians in online business, we need to make sure that we live up to any claims we make and do the ministry work with all of our hearts, souls and strength.

As Christian consumers, we need to carefully analyze sites that market to us based on our “shared” Faith.

Try this sometime. If you go to a site that seems fishy in it’s faith basis - ask them what they believe, or ask them to point you at their “statement of faith” and you will know instantly what they are up to.

What do you think?