Jenni on Skype: jclayville 
In my last Worship Confessional, I talked about how Matt gave away a good chunk of the church’s money to illustrate THIS parable.
I shouldn’t say he “gave” the money away as much as he put the money in OUR hands and challenged us to make it work for God’s glory. And if we’re being technical about it, Matt actually gave us what HE was tithing to the church… so he LITERALLY gave his tithe TO the church.
Matt handed out an envelope of different amounts of money to every adult in attendance. We have seven weeks to take that money… invest it… and turn it around to help those in greater need.
So… here are the details:
On April 4th, which is Easter… we at Church at Bethany will be making an IMPACT Offering with every cent that comes out of this experiment. This unknown total amount will be distributed 50% to the homeless & low income students of the Beaverton School District (local) and 50% to Children of the Nations (global).
So, how are we going to make an IMPACT? Here’s what Matt suggested on Sunday:
1. Sell Some Stuff – We all have things setting around in our garage or storage unit that could be sold in a garage sale or on eBay! You could donate also donate cars, rental houses, or even stocks. Like the early church did in Acts–bring the proceeds to the church on Easter and make an IMPACT!
2. Stop Monthly Fees – We all have things being charged monthly to our credit or debit card that we don’t use. Cancel or downgrade your Netflix, Health club, internet, phone, wine of the month club, or season tickets. Ask yourself do I NEED this monthly fee? If not cancel it! Give your savings on Easter and make an IMPACT!
3. Invest – Buy yarn and knit a sweater and sell it. Have your kids operate a lemonade stand. Take a little bit of money and combine a skill that you have and give the proceeds on Easter to make an IMPACT!
Brian and I together received $50.
We are still talking about how we as a family are going to make this money work for us so that we can better give. We decided to open this up to our greater family… YOU. We want to ask you for two things:
1. SUGGESTIONS! – We really want to hear your ideas of how we can make this $50 not only double, triple or even quadruple… but maybe even quintuple? Maybe if your suggestions are REALLY awesome, the quintuples might have sextuplets!
2. GIVE! – We’d like to invite you to partner with us and give generously. Matt’s goal for our little church plant was to give away $7,500 on Easter Sunday. Brian and I would love nothing more than to write a check that could cover the majority of that. Here’s the deal though… though we’re using a PayPal button and you could easily use your credit card… we’re asking you to PLEASE not give from credit. We don’t want you to give what you don’t have… so please, if you partner with us, only partner with REAL money you have.
I’ve made it easy by placing this little “donate” button to the sidebar here on the right where it says “IMPACT Offering”.
So…
… will you partner with us?
What should we do with our $50?
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UPDATE (04.04.10)
I love the idea of having some kids make a lemonade stand and steal their money. Wait, is that not what you said?
LOVE YOU!
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jenni Reply:
February 17th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
NERD! That’s what MATT said. He’s almost the devil.
… ALMOST…
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Love this. Matt must be a very talented almost devil…
We only have real money these days. The fake stuff costs too much.
(And I think we’ll be in, just need to consult the beautiful one)
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jenni Reply:
February 17th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
you must ALWAYS consult the beautiful one…
… i need some of your creative ideas on how to make more money with my $50 though. maybe you can write me some songs and i can play with my open guitar case downtown somewhere.
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David Reply:
February 17th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
If you get Chance & Pax in on the busking act you might stand a chance of getting a good return on the money.
By yourself, you’ll likely get missed like that millionaire violin dude in the subway a couple of years back.
He was an actual big deal, but it made not a scrap of difference.
And my songs don’t really translate to guitar very well. You should know that.
But the beautiful one and I will see what we can come up with for you to grow that cash.
Meanwhile…our car still hasn’t sold :-/
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Sell your children. Chance is worth at least 10,000. Pax…maybe a little less.
No, but seriously, you should bake some stuff (which you’re good at) and then stand in front of a movie theater or mall (might need to get permission to do this) to sell it with your kids. No half-decent person is going to say no to Chance. Serious.
Or you can recruit some high schoolers to do the same at their school. High schoolers have money. College students do not. High schoolers also love food. Maybe pick a sporting event? You only have to stay till after halftime and you can make bank. For reals.
You also might need to ask your Church to produce a letter for the congregation that says you are legit and not trying to make money for yourself. It should talk about the organizations your money is going to, of course.
Um. More thoughts later. Can you tell that I have fundraised before?
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jenni Reply:
February 18th, 2010 at 7:53 am
these are some GREAT ideas. love it, helen! keep ‘em coming!!!
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What a neat concept. I love giving! If it were me, I’d buy as many copies of this book (http://www.amazon.com/Blessed-Life-Achieving-Guaranteed-Financial/dp/0830736352) as I could, write this link on the inside cover (http://thecity.org/audioarchive/pwpa09-10-221eb.mp3), and give it out.
We have recently been learning that multiplying our giving is so much more than what we in the natural can do. It wasn’t in how the disciples divided up the loaves and fish, but in the blessing that came from their obedience and faith
I’m looking forward to seeing what your family decides to do. What a great opportunity to show your kids the concept of generosity, good stewardship and community.
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