If you search the Internet for various copyrighted Christian works (songs, articles, books) from 20 or more years ago, you will notice that many of them have disappeared.  When the work cannot be sold for profit, it isn’t distributed through commercial means – if at all!

I used to donate Christian media to my local library, but then I found out what they do with my donations:

1. It does NOT go on the shelves
2. It is put up for sale, to raise funds for the library to purchase what THEY want (which is obviously not what was donated)
3. Anything not sold may be destroyed

So if you are a Christian author/composer, when your work and ministry effort ages, it may very well be lost forever.  It’s ability to impact the minds and hearts of people (the ministry) is gone.  To me, that is a travesty.  I hope you, like me, want to leave a legacy.

One way to ensure the survival of Christian works, is by having many copies spread across the world.  If your work did not result in millions of copies, like the Bible, the odds increase that your ministry materials will not survive time.

To help prevent the permanent loss of your work and ministry, you might want to consider re-publishing it one last time with a Creative Commons license that allows certain types of redistribution/copying of your materials.  There are a variety of licenses you can pick from.   My personal favorite is the one that allows copying not for profit…

• CC BY-NC-SA: This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms.

CC BY-NC-SA includes the following elements:
BY  – Credit must be given to the creator
NC  – Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted
SA  – Adaptations must be shared under the same terms

This is an internationally recognized license.  It gives others the opportunity to make copies of your ministry works, increasing the odds that they will not be lost over time – and continue to have the impact of encouraging others in The Way, that you intend.  Please do this soon!