Monday, 19 May 2008

• Parable of the Talents: Update

  
  by mr. oak

  it's been 3 weeks since our church decided to try out the parable of the talents.  Just to catch you up, our youth group is currently trying to raise money to attend a huge conference in Philadelphia called JAMA.  This is the first time we would be going to a conference like this featuring many different pastors and christian artists and needless to say, we're all pretty excited to go.  however, we're pretty short on funds so we decided as part of the fundraising effort to try Jesus' parable of the talents.  the challenge was to take $20 and go out and double it, triple it...the hope is for students to learn how to use money for God. 

  so far at this point, the students are buzzing....

  our youngest member of our group probably struggled the most.  the first week he came up to me declaring that he had no gifts to share!  telling him to dig deep into himself, i challenged him to think big and that anything can be used.  pondering deeply, i saw he was struggling with this challenge...so i asked him, "what do you like?".  he said "candy."  and i said "well, there you go."  2 weeks later, he doubled his money.

  2 other students decided to test their baking skills and made brownies, cake, cupcakes and croissants.  what normally would've been another sunday where they would eat lunch tucked away in a corner room, they were out in the middle of the church's cafeteria selling their goods.  the important part was they were chatting and talking to a bunch of the congregants - young and old....all clamoring to get a piece of their baked goods.  they were talking to people they never talked to before and finding that a sense of community can really build around a table of sugary goods.  and...at the end of the day, they had made $200.

  our youngest teacher decided to try his hand in the challenge and immediately made business cards.  for the past few years he has been building a music studio for himself and decided it was time to use the space for others.  passing the business cards out he offered services to record and mix music for anyone interested and then take all those proceeds and donate it to church.  at $45 a song he already has 9 songs lined up for a whopping $405.

  these are just a few things that's happening in our church right now.  in addition to the money being raise, people are learning more about themselves, about others, and what they're truly capable of as a whole. 

  2 more weeks left and i'm excited to find out how all of this ends up...more updates later.

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