I understand. The only way to get paid for your music is for people to buy it. The only way they will buy it is if they are interested in it. The only way for people to be interested in it is to hear it. The only way for people to hear it is to buy it. Kind of a catch-22. You've gotta cut that circle somewhere, and the only place you can cut it is to not get paid for it, at least at some point. Maybe you could release an album for free and susequent ones would be for-profit.

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Christian labels also have a very clear defined vision of what Christian music is that doesn't leave as much room for expression as I'd like

Replace "Christian" with any other genre and you'd still have a true statement. In all honesty, it's the crap I hear on TV classified as Christian music that annoys me. That "My God Is an Awesome God" crap-ola. But I have a number of albums from groups that consider themselves Christian and whose lyrics point in that direction, but who aren't didactic about it. (Pedro the Lion and U2 come to mind.)