What am I supposed to do with this?

A few years ago, a church in Atlanta did something a little different. When time came to pass the offering plates, the church was asked to keep their money in their pockets & instead take an envelope out of the plates as they were passed & not open the envelope until they were told to. After everyone got an envelope, they were told that inside was anywhere from $5 to $50 - the challenge for the next couple of weeks was to take the money they found in their envelope and use it for God's Kingdom in some way other than for something 'at church'.

The first reaction of many folks was 'Well what are we supposed to do? We usually let the leadership decide how it's going to be spent. I have no idea of what to do...." But after about two weeks, the idea began to 'click' with people all across the church. Really incredible stories came out of how people had prayed, asked God to show them opportunities and he did! Below are some of the examples of what people said they did with the money:

• "I am sending the money to a couple who takes in crack babies and who feed and help find employment for the homeless."

• "We have a very precious Christian neighbor who works at our elementary school and is a blessing to hundreds of kids every day. We found out that her husband had been in the hospital for a while, and we knew that her bills must be piling up, although she always praises God every day. So we got together with [others] and our $15 turned into $100 [to help her with her expenses]."

• "I am taking the money with me to Bolivia to help with the college education of a girl there. She is 20 years old and the oldest of six children. She has worked since she was 8 years old to support her family and is currently director over eight Compassion Centers in Santa Cruz. . . I was at my Dad's house in Florida this past weekend, and I shared the story of what Andy had done at church and how I was taking my $5 plus to Bolivia. Each time I told the story, people gave me money [to help with this girl's education]."

• "I gave the money to a lady with two children who is going through a divorce. When I gave her the money, she told me she had just told God that morning that she didn't have enough money for milk for the kids."

• "I was in Kids R Us. . . [T]here was a woman ahead of me who was purchasing warm clothing for her daughter, who was with her. [T]he woman gave [the cashier] a small amount of money toward the purchase. She was putting the clothes on layaway. She walked out of the store with nothing she had purchased. I put myself in her shoes and imagined how it would feel to have to wait to get warm clothes for my children. . .I wanted to pay off her balance right then and there, but I didn't want to make a scene or embarrass her. When you gave out the money that Sunday morning, I knew exactly what I needed to do with it. I went back to Kids R Us and had them look up the transaction. They allowed me to pay off the balance. On the way, I stopped and purchased an adult Bible and a children's Bible to include with the clothes."

• "Six of us put our money together and made sack lunches with it. We went downtown one night and handed out 45 lunches."

• "I bought cookie dough with my $5 and made cookies for the local nursing home."

If you were a part of that church what do you think would you have done with 'extra' money and the instructions to go out and use it for God's Kingdom? More specific to our situation at Central Church, what will you do with the 'extra' time given to you with our new format with no 'set' Sunday PM program?

Having a congregation to work together with in God's Kingdom is such a great blessing! We can do so many things when we pool our resources. At the same time God calls for us to live out our faith in him in other ways besides through coming to a building with other believers to learn, worship and encourage. We as a congregation have been challenged this month to step out in faith and learn to think in a new way about who we are, what we believe and how we are to live out our faith in Jesus.

In the book of Acts and in other New Testament writings we see that disciples are to use their spiritual gifts and resources for God's Kingdom in many different ways. Some of those gifts and resources go toward strengthening and maturing the church in a variety of ways while some gifts and resources go toward doing good to all people (Galatians 6:9-10).

It's tempting for some to 'just want to go to church' again on Sunday PM's and not take up the challenge to grow and develop. James (chpt. 4) writes that we need to be careful not to make plans in our life that would preclude us from being able to do the good that is right in front of us. Our leadership at Central has come to a point where we realize that what is good might not always be the best choice (Philippians 1:9-11) - what've we've been doing has been good and has taken us to a great place and now...

...to continue growing in the Lord, it's time to step out and mature in our faith in Jesus and his calling by taking the time we normally use on Sunday nights as a group and instead finding new and stronger ways of growing in our families, in our communities and in the different groups and needs among us as a church.

What has God put on your heart thus far about what you and/or your family will do with the time? Will you do something on Sundays or will you use that time on Sunday PM to free you up at another time throughout the week? What are some ideas that you feel drawn to?