I came across this article/video the other day and it really repulsed me. You can check it out here

The reason why I was so frustrated is that the North American church has lost its faith in the power of the Gospel to transform lives. Now this above article is the most extreme, but I have heard of churches having attendance drives that at the end of the month they gave away ipods, ipads, kindles, and video game counsels.  This is not right and it plays into the consumeristic mindset that is so contrary to scripture. Now these churches quote scripture passages like “we are becoming all things to all me” or they justify their actions by saying that if one person is “saved” then it is worth it. But is it really? What message are you sending to that person – that the good news is not god enough that we had to lure you in with a childish stupid giveaway.

Now there are too many scriptures to quote to say how this is wrong. I think about what David wrote is Psalm 23 “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Just like a sheep, the only thing we need to desire is Jesus Himself. He is the one who will be with us in the dark seasons of life, and HE is the one who prepares a place for us in heaven. This is all we need, and in fact it is more than enough. If we want to give away anything in church, we should be giving something away to help the hurting, hungry, and sick of this world.

Here is my prayer:

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
(Philippians 3:8-11 ESV)