When does ministry become a den of thieves?

I had a challenging discussion this morning. The essence of the discussion revolved around the issue of at what point does a ministry or church cross the line of buying and selling religion for a profit, versus a worker of God who deserves his wages.



In Matthew 21:12-13 we learn that "Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. "It is written," he said to them, "My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers."



In contrast, Jesus told the 72 he sent out to preach the gospel, "Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house."



A ministry can be supported either by donations or by providing goods and services for pay. So why was Jesus concerned about the buying and selling in the temple. It seems to me that the temple was the facility used to share the gospel. What Jesus witnessed was profiteers who set up business at the temple selling the required sacrifices probably at highly inflated prices.



At that time the actual temple was to be supported by the tithes and temple tax. The merchants were in essence private business people using the church's rules to make extraordinary profits. It reminds me of going to a ball game and the only places that sell food are the vendors inside. The food is always much more expensive there because they have a captive audience. These merchants were using the same philosophy to get wealthy.



I believe there were probably two things Jesus was trying to communicate. First, the purpose of the church is to be a "House of prayer" not a place to conduct business. Secondly, he condemned these merchants as a "den of robbers." I believe the fact that they leveraged the authority of the church to make extra profit angered the Lord.



The question I would like to better understand is, if we have a job with a church or a ministry, and we are trying to carry out the mission of furthering the gospel of Jesus, is there a point where our charges for products and services have inappropriately leveraged God's Word for personal gain? If so, at what point have we crossed the line?