Friday, January 26, 2007

$100 project becomes a challenge and an experiment

I just noticed that my invitation for others to join us in the $100 project has been picked up by several other places. Catherine Claire at BreakPoint's The Point blog invited their readers to join "The $100 Challenge" and suggest ideas for how $100 could be used creatively and productively for the kingdom. Several other BreakPoint bloggers have also given follow-up suggestions, some about various aspects of global justice and mission. And then Boundless Line, the blog for Focus on the Family's Boundless.org, picked up on it, calling it "The $100 Experiment."

For those of you joining in, let me just say that the idea has been circulating for some time and has been known as "The Kingdom Assignment" or other Christian versions of "paying it forward." And of course it all goes back to the parable of the talents. So it's nothing new, but I'm happy that a bunch of folks are giving the idea new life.

And by the way, if you're deterred by not having $100 available to invest, you might be surprised - several of my Calvin seminar participants "just happened" to get amounts of $100 after we found out that our official funding for the project wasn't available. So God may well provide you with the opportunity and the funds to do this.

Another way of looking at this: a blogger tagged her friends with the question, "What would you do with $100 to do the most good?" I'm no good at tagging people, since I never have any idea if anybody actually reads this blog, but let's see . . . how about Lisa and/or Dave at Strangely Dim (or Dave can post at his Loud Time), Mark Goodyear, L.L. Barkat, Craver, Margaret Feinberg. Go ahead, tag all your friends with some form of this question. Besides your usual giving or tithing, how would you use $100 for the sake of the kingdom, especially in ways that multiply its impact?

5 comments:

L.L. Barkat said...

Thanks for the tag, Al. I'll follow up next week, but maybe on my Green Inventions blog, since I just did a tagged post over on Seedlings last week. (Oh, I can't keep up with the pace of these sports!!)

Unknown said...

Hey Al,

Just for the record, I'm reading, and maybe I'll just have to start thinking of my own idea for $100.

Anonymous said...

Hi Al - Leesa Bellesi here, my husband Denny and I wrote the Kingdom Assignment. I had set up my computer to google alert me every time the KA came up and here you are. Thank you for reminding people that it is all about the Parable of the Talents and to the glory of God. We think the Parable is the convicting piece that is what takes the idea to not just an assignment, but a way of life, being good stewards of everything God gives us, our Talents, our Treasure and our Time. In fact we did two more assignments with our congregation, Coast Hills Community Church in Aliso Viejo, CA that focused on all three. I'd love to send you a free copy of the KA. Go to our website www.kingdomassignment.com and send me your address. Wonderful.
God's richest blessings to you, your family, your ministry and your daily assignments for Him -
Leesa and Denny Bellesi
Laguna Beach, CA

Anonymous said...

Al, iron sharpens iron, man. Let me think about this some more, but I'm in. (And if I forget, feel free to give me a nudge.)

David Zimmerman said...

I tagged my friend Mr. Steve with your challenge, and he managed to make me laugh quite a bit while simultaneously introducing me to an organization I'd not run across.

http://cinemaschool.blogspot.com/

I'm relieved to note that so far nobody's opted to buy $100 worth of Tag body spray. That stuff makes me gag.