Bloomington First Church of the Nazarene on January 17 accepted a challenge to take $5,000 and multiply it for a Haiti earthquake relief offering on January 31.
Scott and Kelcey Bradley's Dairy Queen in Bloomington collected $1 from the sale of every Blizzard ice cream dessert on January 29, and sold four times as many as usual.
Brett Vieth, 8, suggested his family take their seed money and sell homemade cookies by the dozen. They started with $60 and returned $600.
Editor’s note: On January 17, a few days following the 7.0 earthquake that devastated Haiti’s capital, Bloomington First Church of the Nazarene in Illinois, USA, sent its 250 attendees home with envelopes of cash varying from $5 to $100.
The leadership team challenged the congregation to ask God how to invest the amounts each had received to bring back a larger return. What everyone brought back on January 31 would be given as an offering to Nazarene Compassionate Ministries’ Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund.
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On January 31, the congregation celebrated what God had done. What started as $5,000 in seed money returned $37,403.94. Nearly 300 were in attendance. Senior Pastor Scott Sherwood describes what happened.
Engage: How did the church gather the return and offer it to God?
Sherwood: While our band sang their original song entitled “Ravaged,” congregants approached one of five baskets spread out along the front of the room. As each person placed their offering in a basket, one of our leaders spoke to them the words of Matthew 25:23: “'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'”
Engage: What was the atmosphere like that morning?
Sherwood: It was electric. Our elementary children joined us in the sanctuary and were all very excited about giving their increase to the offering along with everyone else. Rev. Dan McCall, our outreach pastor, was already scheduled to preach on the topic “Give All You Can.”
Engage: What were some of the stories that people shared of how God led them to use the money for Haiti?
Lisa Davis: I immediately felt God telling me to get my piano students involved. I figured 13 can increase better than one. I gave them each $5 in an envelope. They came back in one week with $174 in donations. Our family also baked heart-shaped cookies and called them "hearts for Haiti." …. This challenge has truly been one of the best things we've ever done as a family. I have sensed a spirit of both purpose and unity throughout this entire experience!
Sally Stoneking: I started knitting in November for fun. When I received my envelope, I decided to buy more yarn and sell scarves. Using Facebook I was able to sell the four I had already made, plus I received orders for 11 more. God is good!
Todd Keller: We decided to host a Kids’ Movie Night and give parents a night off. Donations were accepted. We had just enough in our envelopes to buy the food and popcorn for the movie night. Our children helped their mom cook the meal, mailed invitations, and helped set our church sanctuary. We played games, gave out prizes, enjoyed a meal and watched a movie. We were so pleased with the 91 children and 11 volunteers. Start: $150. End: $1,203.
The Bradley family owns a Dairy Queen in Bloomington. The couple offered to give $1 for every Blizzard purchased on January 29.
Kelcey Bradley: We had a raffle and sold those tickets for $1, we also collected donations. On that Friday we sold four times as many Blizzards as we usually do on a Friday in January.Start: $115. End: $1,205.26
Engage: You gave out new envelopes to everyone in attendance. What was inside?
Sherwood: Just like the first Sunday, each household was asked to pray over their envelope before they opened them. After prayer, everyone opened their envelopes to find a single piece of paper with a single word on each: “Life.” On the reverse was the verse from John: “I have come that you might have life, and that more abundant.” Then, just as we did the first Sunday, we held our envelopes over our heads and said, “This is not mine. It is on loan from God.”
Each one was challenged to handle their entire life just exactly as they had their envelopes the past two weeks.
Engage: What has God been teaching you and your leadership team through this three-week journey?
Sherwood: We have learned that God inspires plans (this sermon series was planned 8 months ago) and that he uses divinely ordered planning to prepare us for divine moments we can’t possibly see coming. We need to allow God to inspire our planning so that we are in a position to be used by Him in any given moment.
We learned to trust each other and to trust God. None of us is as smart as all of us, and all of us together are not as smart as God. You’d think that’d be obvious, but we need reminding.
Lastly, as stated above, we learned the pure unadulterated joy of losing ourselves in obedient service to others.
Engage: Will your leadership team change anything about the way you lead following this three-week emphasis on John Wesley’s mandate, “Gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can”?
Sherwood: This experience has solidified my resolve to make sure that we continually live within our means and look for ways to give more to others, not less.
When the new denominational apportionment system kicks in [for paying World Evangelism Fund (WEF)], our church will be saving close to $25,000. The new formula will put us at about 16.5% giving to the larger cause [of global missions], whereas we have consistently been at 20% for years.
Our board has been talking for over a year about the need for us to keep these funds from being spent on ourselves. Our sense is that American churches should not be finding ways to give less to others, but if anything, should be giving more.
I am excited about the prospect of telling every family who tithes to our local church that by doing so they are supporting the worldwide cause of the gospel. I believe this simple shift will also ensure that our giving to others will continue to increase even though the denomination isn’t telling us it has to.
We’re more sure than ever that the greatest joy in life lies not in merely being blessed, but in being a pipeline of his blessing.