Mike Bain.
In 1993, the Hollywood movie, Indecent Proposal forced married couples to confront a question so obscene no one would have dared speak it aloud:
Would you sell what is sacred if the price was high enough?
A billionaire offers a financially desperate couple one million dollars for one night with the wife. The shock wasn’t the offer — it was the fact that desperation made the unthinkable suddenly negotiable.
That’s the moral rot Scripture warns us about.
- Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew (Genesis 25:29–34).
- Israel repeatedly traded God’s holiness for idols (Jeremiah 2:11).
- Judas sold Christ for thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:15).
Every one of them made the same fatal mistake: They treated what was sacred as if it were common.
And now, unbelievably, the church is doing the same.
The Churches Indecent Proposal
We have reached the point where churches — financially desperate, spiritually anaemic, and terrified of offending anyone — are accepting their own version of the billionaire’s offer:
Rent out the sanctuary. Open the doors to anything. Treat holy ground like a community hall. Swap reverence for revenue.
On Saturday, I attended a funeral in a Presbyterian church/community centre. Less than 24 hours later, the congregation would gather in the same room to worship the living God.
The service contained no Scripture. Christ was mentioned once — in a blasphemous throwaway line. And the coffin was carried out to AC/DC’s Hells Bells blasting through the speakers.
This is not about judging the deceased. This is about judging the church.
How did we get to the point where “Hells Bells” echoes through the same space where we claim the Holy Spirit dwells?
Scripture is not vague about this:
- “Do not give what is holy to dogs.” — Matthew 7:6
- “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” — Matthew 21:13
- “You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary.” — Leviticus 19:30
Jesus overturned tables because the sacred had been commercialised. Today, we don’t just allow the tables — we rent them out.
In 2019, I was refused access to a church hall for a presentation on When a Nation Forgets God — because condemning sodomy might offend someone.
So, let’s be brutally honest:
- A church hall cannot host biblical truth
- but it can host Hells Bells
- and a service with no Scripture
- and a tribute that mocks Christ
- because the cheque cleared.
That is not “community engagement.” That is not “being relevant.” That is not “loving our neighbours.”
That is an indecent proposal — and many churches are saying yes.
Once, the church building stood at the centre of the town. Once, the church people were respected as the holders of morals, integrity, values, and faith.
Now?
Many churches are restaurants, bars, or private homes. And the ones still standing are renting themselves out to survive.
God warned Israel about this exact slide:
“They have profaned My holy name… they have made no distinction between the holy and the common.” — Ezekiel 22:26
That is today’s church. No distinction. No reverence. No shame.
The question from 1993 has come full circle:
What would you trade for financial security? The couple faced it. Now the church does too.
And today’s culture? They’d take the deal without blinking.
This is not nostalgia. This is Scripture.
God commands His people to guard what is sacred — not because buildings are magical, but because what happens inside them shapes the soul of a community.
A church that treats its sanctuary as common will produce a congregation that treats worship as optional.
A church that rents out its holy space will eventually rent out its holy convictions.
And a church that trades reverence for revenue will soon discover it has nothing left worth selling.
