It ran its course. What did we learn from it? The "it" being the $100 Challenge. Sometime before the first of this year God challenged me to step out in faith and challenge our church in a unique way. Each week a different person offered up a $100 bill. It could not be the same person throughout the year. Consequently, it wouldn't be a bunch of rich people taking hundreds off that tree in the backyard. It would be single moms, high school seniors, retirees, college students...well you get the picture---people that $100 bill meant a lot to. Since it had to be a $100 bill and not a check or a bunch of twenties, it had to be premeditated. We didn't drum up business or guilt people into giving it. I was fine if it only happened two weeks, then oh well. I only reminded people a couple of times that there was an opening if they wanted to give the hundred. I wanted people to learn to hear God's voice. But the giving was only part of it. The other part was small groups (our cpr groups) took the hundred and did something for some person or people in the community in Christ's name. We wanted to make the name of Jesus famous. After all, Christians are to be representatives of Christ. So our people began to open their collectives eyes around the community to seek out and find those in need. We wanted to find those that were marginalized. We wanted to find those that could use a pick me up. The important thing was for a group to get together on what they did...who they helped. We helped organizations that are already doing stuff helpful. We helped with some water bills, and power bills as you could imagine. It was great to see the creativity and the care that went into the blessing. ---This was God's idea, and He made some things about it plain. One of the things is that it was for a season. I certainly hope folks learned that it's easier to part with a $100 than they realized. I also hope that people learned how to look around and see people that perhaps they didn't even see in need in the past. Mostly, I hope that God was glorified by any and all of this. What will we do this year? I don't know. Pray hard.
To Living Truth Church: Thank you for your obedience in the giving of over $5,000 a hundred dollars at a time. It's the small things that add up to big things. God bless.
