Proclaimer Blog
T4G: a few reflections: the value of free
The number of free books you get given at US conferences is Stupid (spelt with a capital letter deliberately). This despite the fact that one of them was UK Celebrity Pastor Christopher Ash's Listen Up (good move Good Book!). I came away with over 30 – 18 from the main sessions and then loads more from a breakout I attended on blogging. I guess in marketing terms I can see the catch – here are mainly pastors and if you can get a pastor to endorse your book in a large congregation you may get on sales. But over 30! It did seem a litle ridiculous. I'll write a review of one or two in the coming days. But for now, I'm interested to reflect on the value of free.
There's plenty of charity research (so I'm told) that says that people give more when they're buying something. That's why charities often give away pins or small gifts. Similarly some churches find that charging a nominal amount for an event (say £1) is more effective than saying it is free. We're suspicious of free. That is certainly true of the books. I'm happy to take them, but I'm under no illusion why I've been given them.
I wonder if there is something here in the way that free grace is so hard for us, in our human nature, to accept. It's very difficult to accept that something comes with no strings attached or that we have not had to work for it. Does that explain, to some extent anyway, self righteousness and the way that generation after generation keeps adding to the gospel some form of works?