Our Framework for Responsible Ministry Partnership
TheGospelPreached.org is a unique ministry that curates video content from other ministries rather than creating original content. This role as a content curator presents several important ethical issues that we take seriously. We want to address four of these issues and provide our perspective on each:
- Copyright and intellectual property
- Using video segments and excerpts
- Financial stewardship and the free nature of the Gospel
- The curation process and content perspective
1. Copyright and Intellectual Property
The laws that govern how to use other people’s internet content have been around for a while and are pretty well established. We work hard to follow all these laws, but if we miss something, it’s an honest mistake that we’ll fix right away once we know about it. Here are the principles that guide how we approach this:
Legal Compliance:
- We properly credit the creators and owners of the video content
- We abide by all copyright, data privacy, and content protection regulations specific to each provider
- We can’t ‘clone’ a video that someone has put online and post it on our website without their permission. However, we do embed videos on our website using YouTube’s embedded video player. YouTube does allow the owners of the videos to turn off embedding permissions.
- When video quality or technical issues prevent effective use of YouTube’s embedded player, we may request a direct copy of the video from the content owner and sign a separate agreement with specific terms for usage.
Laws change over time, and it can be challenging to keep up. We’re committed to keeping up with the changes and putting them into practice as soon as we learn about them.
Moral Standards Beyond Legal Requirements: As a faith-based organization, we follow additional guidelines that aren’t necessarily legally binding but that we believe are morally important.
- We will not publish content snippets that could distort the original author’s intended message
- We notify content creators when we feature their material and provide opportunities to address any concerns they may have
2. Using Video Segments and Excerpts
Preachers consistently emphasize that context is crucial when reading the Bible, and this same principle applies when viewing sermonized material. From time to time, we highlight specific segments from sermons or present excerpts from various messages together when they address particular themes we’re exploring.
Our Approach to Partial Content:
- We reference content portions by setting start and stop points within YouTube’s embedded player. This technically prevents us from creating stand-alone excerpts without having the full video content readily available for viewing.
- We always keep the complete video accessible, allowing viewers to rewind and view the full video when they want to explore the context.
- When we feature video segments, we present them in a way that makes it obvious they are part of a larger message.
Accountability to Original Sources: Content owners and presenters may occasionally correct us, and we welcome these corrections. We allow them—the original sources of the messages—to comment on the content and website, and we display their comments.
3. Financial Stewardship and the Free Nature of the Gospel
As a non-profit entity, we recognize that ministries often rely on their online content to generate offerings that support their ministry. We also understand that donors contribute to spread the Gospel and provide ministry services to those unable to financially support these efforts.
Our Financial Framework:
- We do not accept donations from viewers but instead direct them to contribute to featured ministries. We provide clear links to their websites to facilitate donations.
- We track the number of donations we refer to ministry websites to measure our effectiveness in directing support to them.
- We may also release our own podcasts and sermons. When we do create original content, we will treat it the same way we treat other ministries – allowing donations specifically for that original content while maintaining our policy of not accepting donations for our curation work.
Future Sustainability: We are currently supported by individuals and organizations who donate labor, technology, services, and funds to our mission. In the future, we plan to fund operations through activities like merchandise sales, with the proceeds supporting things like website maintenance, administration, and development of new features.
4. The Curation Process and Content Perspective
Every individual and ministry has a unique perspective. The self-worth that emerges when we value our God-given distinctiveness frees us to appreciate others’ uniqueness, without comparison or demands that they think like us. While we may share common values, the one value that we are passionate about will define our calling and the focus of our ministry.
This passion drives us to emphasize certain aspects of God’s character and His work in the world. When we honor these different passions and callings rather than trying to make everyone prioritize the same things, we create something collectively that none of us could accomplish individually – a fuller, richer understanding of who God is and what He desires for His people.
Our commitment to being interdenominational and inclusive across church sizes, geographic regions, and ethnicities demonstrates our belief that diversity within the unified Body of Christ is both possible and valuable. However, the responsibility for harmonizing these diverse ministry perspectives lies with us as curators, and our own viewpoint inevitably influences how we categorize content and make curation choices.
The content categories we use—’Abundant Life,’ ‘Calling and Purpose,’ ‘Grace and the Cross,’ ‘The Church and the World,’ ‘The Holy Spirit’—reflect our viewpoint on what matters most to believers from our perspective. We acknowledge that this reflects our own bias based on our passions and values. We anticipate questions about our curation decisions and categories and welcome the dialogue.
While we value input from church leadership and the communities we serve, the final decisions about what to curate and how to categorize content remain ours. We make these decisions prayerfully, recognizing our accountability to the broader Body of Christ and that if we make mistakes, we’ll be accountable for them – which is simply part of the burden of having a calling.