INDIANAPOLIS | Three flat-screen TVs just outside the sanctuary show the pastor selling his third book and DVD set titled "Smart Money Management."

Nearby, two cashiers wait to sell the items. Or you can shop online. Visa and Mastercard are accepted.

And to help promote foot traffic through the door, the church has invested in an ambitious ad campaign using billboards and city buses.

At New Life Worship Center, the ministry is run like a business. And right now, business is booming.

Begun in 2001 with help from the 10,000-member Eastern Star Church, New Life already has grown to 3,500 weekly attendees. In the past two years, it has bought two church buildings for nearly $6 million, more than half of which is already paid off.

While that underscores the financial prowess of the church, which has locations on Lafayette Road and Boulevard Place, it is a power almost entirely controlled by a four-member board that shares almost no information with the congregation.

Some outside the church worry that the lack of openness makes New Life vulnerable to abuse. And some theologians say the focus on money is a far cry from the call Jesus made to avoid the temptations of wealth.

Yet the church has won over a growing group of followers who are attracted to a message that flows neatly into the business-oriented approach: that empowerment can be both spiritual and economic, and that freedom from bondage is found both in faith and a good credit rating.

Based on the Northwestside, New Life in some ways embodies the 21st-century black church. It is a church, for example, with a traditional food pantry.

But its signature ministry is a program aimed at getting members out of debt.

"We can sit there and preach civil rights," said New Life member Ondalere Helm, 34. "But if we are not economically stable, you can't have an impact."

Helm, a single mother mired in debt and working a temp job just four years ago, epitomizes that transition.

At New Life, Helm entered the debt reduction program and received guidance on how to pay down her debts and raise her credit score.

The church bought a home and leased it to her for two years while she cleaned up her credit. The payoff comes this fall, when she will have an option to buy it. If she can't get a loan through a bank, the church's side ministry, New Life Development, will offer her financing.

Helm calls it "awesome" and said it is part of a broader turnaround in her life that saw her win a full-time job at Dow Chemical and three promotions in three years.

"Just be faithful to God, and he will give you the desires of your heart. And if you desire to be financially comfortable, that's what you will get," she said.

Helm credits her success in part to New Life pastor John Ramsey, whose preaching, she says, inspired her. "I believe that when the Bible talks about the Gospel -- the 'Good News' -- I really believe that the good news is not a Gospel of enablement but a Gospel of empowerment," said Ramsey, 43, who has spent half his life in ministry.

Wherever Jesus went, Ramsey says, he left empowered people in his wake.

"I think a lot of my message is about taking personal responsibility," he said. "At the end of the day, no matter what I have been through, I have to ask, how long am I going to allow myself to be a victim?"

Empowerment has always been a part of teaching in the black church, said Ron Sommerville, an associate professor at the Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis. But he said newer churches like New Life and Eastern Star have given that message preeminence.

"They have focused now on what they see as the new agenda for African-American churches," Sommerville said, "and that is not so much political enfranchisement and political empowerment, but economic development."

But Sommerville said caution is needed.

"The pitfall is that we are bastardizing the Scripture and the Gospel message of Jesus to make it say something that it clearly does not," he said, "and also overlooking passages that talk about voluntary poverty and the evils of mammon -- wealth -- and how corruptive the desire for wealth can be."

The church's advertising, active sales tactics and small circle of leaders signal a potential for trouble to Craig Blomberg, a professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary who has studied prosperity theology.

But Ramsey said his message isn't one that automatically equates growing faith with growing wealth. In fact, he said the church's ability to raise money allows it to do good.

Church leaders bought the former Mount Paran Baptist Church, at 34th Street and Boulevard Place, in an effort to help a faltering black neighborhood. The church hopes to set up debt reduction, GED programs and job training efforts there.

"We're hoping to go into that neighborhood and instill some hope," said Steve Nelson, the church's vice president of administration.

The church's four-member board -- including Ramsey and Nelson -- makes all major church decisions, such as the purchase of the Mount Paran property, without going to its congregation for a vote.

New Life's board also includes gospel music industry guru and NASCAR executive Max Siegel, who lives in North Carolina, and Indianapolis corporate attorney Angel Shelton.

Blomberg said churches with 3,500 regular attendees typically have larger boards, go to the congregation with votes on important matters and don't rely on members who live out of state.

Another area of concern is financial accountability, Blomberg said.

Ramsey and the board don't regularly present the congregation with budget information. Ramsey said outside accountants do quarterly audits. But the results are available only to the board.

Even Ramsey's salary -- and those of his staff -- are not disclosed to the congregation.

"We don't have anything to hide, but we believe it is important for people to have that confidentiality," Ramsey said.

But such financial secrecy could give rise to temptations, Blomberg said.

"Why set yourself up for accusations that would be hard or harder to deny?" he asked.

In the end, the scholars say the congregation decides whether it is comfortable with its pastoral leadership.

Karen James joined the church two years ago, entered the debt reduction program and, at 42, says she has found a new focus for her life. James said she sees God's blessing on the church and is comfortable with the business approach.

"They are literally running it like a small corporation," James said. "With our tithes and offerings, you are actually investing in the kingdom."