S4 • Star Tribune

MQR[N£WS UN QUmlONS

Prior Lake churchgoers set out with $100 and a duty

The Rev. Steve Haschig challenged his congregation at Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church in Prior Lake by giving 30 people $100 each and asking them to go out into their com­munities and do some good.

What Inspired the "living to servo" assignment?

There's a book called "The Kingdom Assignment" written by a pastor couple in California inspired by the movie "Pay It Forward." They gave $100 to 100 members of their congre­gation and told them to use it for good.

What was your congrega­tion's wllvlng to serve" assign. ment?

On Sept. 19 at the time of the sermon I asked for volun­teers. I gave them each a blue envelope with $100 inside. I told them they were to invest this somehow outside the walls of Shepherd of the Lake Luther­an Church. They had 56 days to do the aSSignment. For those 56 days, members of our staff and greeters wore buttons, we were in the countdown. It got to be very, very exciting. We had one family in the congregation that actually talked about post­poning their vacation to attend worship on Nov. 14 and hear the stories. That day we had 500 more people in church than we usually have. Nov. 14 was prob­ably one of the most powerful

.and inspiring series of worship that I have ever experienced.

Have you ever done the "living to serve" assignment before?

We have not. But every year

8i11 Crum/Star Tribune The Rev. Steve Haschlg gave 30 volunteers 5100 each and told them to go out and use the money for good_

we do some kind of a project with a different emphasis.

Is there any slgnlflcance to the 56 days you gave people to use the money and report back?

There is not. We wanted to do this before Thanksgiving.

What stories have you heard that have surprised you?

I'm not sure that I'm sur­prised by any of the stories; I am deeply moved by the stories. I was surprised that people spent much more time thinking about the $100 than I thought they would. They called each other, they talked with each other, they prayed with each other. One person said, "I've never thought so much about 100 in my entire life." One person said he put it on his dresser and looked at it every day, hoping to think of a good way to use it.

What were the results? This $100 was turned into

literally tens of thousands of dollars, spent as far away as Russia. One woman wanted to help with the tragedy at the elementary school there. She's up to about $7,000 of money ' that she is sending directly to Russia.

Are you recording the sto­ries In any way?

All 30 stories are being published in a book in mid­December.

Will there be another round of "living to serve?"

We're certain there will be some form or variation of this.

How has your congregation responded?

One of the wonderful ben­efits of this is many people said they were now going to go out and do the same thing on their own. Some with more than $100, some with less than $100. So it was far more than 30 people who participated.

Could you have done this without money?

We certainly could have ac­complished some of the things that we did without money. We believe that everything we have really belongs to God. We talk a lot about the fact that we have come into the world with noth­ing, and we go out with noth­ing and everything we have in between is God's. But the fact that the people did have the $100 in their hands made this much more effective and dra­matic.

Shim Kantor

Page 6/Oetober 220M/PRIOR LAKE AMERICAN

Shepherd of the Lake hands out money and a mission By Erlka Wittekind Staff Writer

llunng a recent worship service at Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church. Rev. Steve Haschlg asked (or 30 volunteers to receive $100 each.

There was a catch, though - they had to use the money to help others.

"Wetold them this $100 isnot their money. It's God's money, just as we believe everything we have really belongs to GOO," JlMChig $I'Iid.

That didn't dampen the enthusiasm. Haschig had no shortage of volunteers as he asked for a cross·sectlon of long·time parishioners, visitors, elementary school students, teenagers and others.

On Nov. 14, the 30 volunteers will report back on how they

spent their $100 to improve the world around them,

It's called the "kingdom assignment·· _ an Idea that originated when a church in California decided 10 give 100 o( Its members $100 each and sent them out on a mission to help others. The couple who started it was inspired by the movie "Pay it Forward," star· ring Haley Joel Osment as a boy who helps three people and then asks each of them to "pay It forward" by helping three more people, and SO On.

Since then, the "kingdom assignment" idea has taken off at churches across the country.

"It's incredible what has happened in the country and in the world as a result of these challenges," said Jane Weiers, a member of Shepherd of the Lake's stewardship committee.

Shepherd of the Lake decided to take part after a member brought the Idea to a meeting of the stewardship committee. Haschlg said the concept per· fectly aligned with the church's mission statement: "Growing in faith, living to serve."

·'Those six words capture the heart of what we are trying to do here," he said.

The congregation reacted wi th surprise and enthusiasm when Haschlg announced what they were doing. One woman who was jus! visiting the chur<:h shouted out, ''I'm coming back."

After the service, another woman who had come to church a few times and hadn't. been sure If she would come back approached Haschig in tears. She told him she felt moved by God to volunteer for the kingdom assignment.

"She was hardly able to get the words out," he said. "She said, 'This day has changed my llfe.' That captured forme theday really, really well."

Several dozen other members of the church decided to use their own money to participate,

The ~tewardship commit­tee is hoping even more people will take an Interest in the next few months. As another way of promoting the effort, the pastors. greeters., ushers and other visible people are wearing buttons each day with !I countdown until Nov. 14, They're hoping those who don't already know will see the buttons and ask what they mean.

"This has raised a lot of buzz already,'· Weiers said,

Erika Witrekindcanbereached at ewittekind@swpub.rom.

Volunteers show tbe 1100 bUis they received to help others during a recent service at Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church, (Submitted photo)

Changing the world with $1 00 Churchgoers see rewards of 'Living to Serve' By Erika Wittekind Staff Writer

When Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church gave 30 people each $100 and the assignment to use it to help others, Bob Relling tucked the bill in the corner of the mirror on his dresser, then spent days agomzmg over his options.

"What was I going to do with it, how could I use it most wisely, what would do the most good?" Relling said during Sunday's service. "I couldn't stop thinking about how the church was expecting some great story, something that would have people cheering or touch them in a special way to bring tears to their eyes ~omething that would really unpress them. This wasn't an assignment that I took lightly."

. Relling ended up working WIth another $100 recipient, John Malotky, to host a silent auction benefiting Habitat for Humanity. Some participants also embarked on ambitious fund·raising drives, like the woman who's working on raising $10,000 for the families aftected by the terrorist attack at a Russtan school, or the woman whose friends helped her purchase 266 Bibles for Chinese Christians.

Others made blankets for halfway houses, crafted warm hats for the homeless, provided help to an orphanage in India helped the family of a cancer' patient, and more.

"These 30 people have made a difference," Rev. Steve Haschig said Sunday, the day participants were supposed to report back to the congregation about how they used the money to help others. "Not only have they made a difference, they have changed the world."

All three services that morning were packed. Jane Weiers, a member of the stewardship team that planned the program, said she had heard of families who cancelled vacations or hunting trips to be able to hear the stories.

"This is one of the most powerful and emotional Sunday mornings Shepherd

Thomas Cunningham, 10, displays photos from his trip to Sharing and Caring Hands Children's Center in Min­neapolis, where he and' his fanlily dropped ofT donations. (Photos by Erika Wittekind)

of tlle Lake has had in a long time," Haschig said during the final service.

The "Living to Serve" project started Sept. 19, when during each service, Haschig asked for 10 volunteers to come forward and sit at the front. He asked for a mixture of charter members, long·time members, recent joiners, visitors and young people.

Maloiky recalled feeling strangely compelled to volunteer, then surprised to find the envelope containing $100 under his chair. "Was this for real?" he thought at the time.

He soon realized the assignment wasn't about the money at all. "It made you start thinking about the many things you could do with the resources and talents God has given you," he said.

After reading the book that inspired the project "The Kingdom Assignm~nt," Malotky thought hard about

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