'Parable of the Talents' tells of two servants who pleased their master by taking care of his money and increasing his investment. Now a Twin Cities congregation has been issued a similar task: Use 'God's money' to help others and see how much it grows.
It all started when a pastor at St. James Lutheran Church in Burnsville gave Sandy Sokolik and 39 other parishioners $100 bills.
The money didn't belong to them. It belonged to God.
Their mission? Increase the money in the next eight weeks and use it for good outside of St. James church.
Sokolik spent many sleepless nights mulling over the spiritual assignment of a lifetime: How would Jesus spend 100 bucks?
The Rev. Will Nordmark presented the challenge Jan. 8. Volunteers will report in March how they used the anonymously donated $4,000.
"My first reaction was why did I go up there — why did I volunteer?" Sokolik said. "I thought, what does God want me to do with this $100? I'm still a little nervous because I keep thinking it's an enormous responsibility when they say it's God's money."
The project, known around the world as the Kingdom Assignment, is based on the Bible's "Parable of the Talents" in Matthew 25:14-30.
The project started in 2000 at Coast Hills Community Church in Aliso Viejo, Calif., when founder the Rev. Denny Bellesi and his wife, Leesa, gave 100 people each $100 bills. Three months later, that $10,000 was turned into more than $100,000. The assignment spread internationally from there.
Nordmark first heard of the project when two parishioners told him about the book "The Kingdom Assignment," written by the Bellesis. They had read it separately and each thought it would be an inspiring project to start at St. James.
"Everything we have is God's gift to us," Nordmark said. "(I hope) we have a greater appreciation of the fact that everything we have and are is God's gift."
USES ARE DIVERSE
It took a little praying, but Sokolik soon realized her mission was to help her friend's son, who is battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. Scott Stafne, 33, of Minneapolis was diagnosed with the disease almost two years ago.
ALS is a disease characterized by progressive loss of neurological functions affecting nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, according to the ALS Association. Degeneration of motor neurons makes the brain unable to initiate and control muscle movement and eventually leads to death.
Stafne first experienced a faint twitch on his left arm. The twitch spread to his whole left side within months. Stafne figured it was a pinched nerve. It wasn't. His doctor told Stafne in August 2004 he most likely had only a few years to live.
Three weeks earlier, he and his wife, Kirsten, discovered she was pregnant with their first child. Stafne told friends the good news — and the bad. Today his daughter, Eva, is a crawling 10-month-old. He jokes he's giving his daughter his motor skills as the disease takes them away.
"The intent is to keep me around as long as possible to be whatever father I can be for my daughter," Stafne said. "It's like never operating with the notion things will be OK."
There's no cure for ALS. Stafne's only hope is to raise funds for more research to find one. His goal is to raise $100,000 by 2007. So far he's reached $26,000.
To help, Sokolik sent about 70 letters to friends and family telling them about Stafne and asking them to donate to the ALS Therapy Development Foundation. She donated her $100 to get the ball rolling.
Lannette Benning, 32, another volunteer for the project, already raised $1,400 from family and friends to help transport 10 donated vehicles to Hurricane Katrina survivors in Biloxi, Miss. She returned last week from Biloxi, where she was working with other church members to rebuild homes.
"Of course, everybody needs something in Biloxi," Benning said.
But once she saw the devastation, still very evident, Benning had second thoughts on the best use for the money. She thought about giving it to an elderly couple who lost their home and are being pressured by a casino to sell their land. She considered giving it to the church where she stayed. But by the end of her eight-day visit, she stuck with her original plan to use it to transport the vehicles.
"I want to be able to make as big of an impact as soon as it's possible," she said.
Siana Adrian, an eighth-grader at Nicollet Junior High School in Burnsville, knew the same day she got the $100 what to do with it. The 13-year-old is using the money to buy M&M mini tubes for neighbors and friends to fill with quarters. Each tube holds $14.
Siana is donating the money to Feed My Starving Children, a Minnesota nonprofit group feeding hungry children in the neediest parts of the world. She also wants to organize 10 people to volunteer for a day packaging food for the organization.
Judy Nelson, 64, is raising donations to buy computers and stands for severely injured veterans in the hospital. Nelson, a member of the American Legion in Savage, has raised $1,600 so far, including her start-up $100.
Two other volunteers are making care packages for pregnant mothers, newborns and AIDS patients in Africa.
Another is asking friends to cook meals for single mothers and people who have lost their jobs.
SPREADING THE ASSIGNMENT LOCALLY
At least two other churches in Minnesota have completed the Kingdom Assignment. St. Bartholomew Catholic Church in Wayzata organized it in 2004. Their 100 members raised a little more than $105,000 and helped countless people.
Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church in Prior Lake also started the project the same year, calling it Living to Serve. Volunteers raised more than $28,000, made about 85 hats, scarves and fleece blankets and fed 363 families Thanksgiving dinner.
The church is working on Part 2 of the project, which focuses on service work in the community.
Nordmark said even people who didn't volunteer for the assignment during his church service took on the challenge by themselves with their own money.
But what if someone "buries" the money?
"If they do that, that's part of the parable too," Nordmark said. " (But) I do not have a fear that anybody's going to bury it."
So far, the other churches said no one has.
Maricella Miranda can be reached at 651-228-5421 or mmiranda@pioneerpress.com.
How it started
The Kingdom Assignment is based on the "Parable of the Talents." In the biblical story, God gave three servants equal sums of talents, or money. One multiplied his money five times, another two. The third buried it. God rewarded those who were faithful with the talents and banished the one who did nothing with it.
Pastor Denny Bellesi and his wife, Leesa, first thought of the assignment in 1985 after founding Coast Hills Community Church in Aliso Viejo, Calif. The idea came from youth groups, which used $5 and $10 bills for the assignment. The couple knew they had to use $100 bills if they were going to get the attention of adults.
In 2000, Hollywood premiered the movie "Pay it Forward," a film that encouraged doing good things for others. Denny Bellesi knew it was time to randomly give 100 parishioners $100 bills. The rules: The money was God's and needed to be used to grow his kingdom.
His church turned the $10,000 into more than $100,000. Today, thousands of churches in all 50 states have taken on the assignment, Leesa Bellesi said. It also has reached churches around the world, including ones in Australia and Indonesia, and helped with world disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami in Southeast Asia.
There's also a Kingdom Assignment II, asking people to sell something of significance and donate the funds to the Sept. 11 relief effort, and a Kingdom Assignment III, asking people to donate 90 minutes within 90 days to someone in need.
Learn more about the Kingdom Assignment at www.kingdomassignment.com.