The Kingdom Assignment

Last Sunday at New Hope, seven New Hopers volunteered to participate in "The Kingdom Assignment." This assignment is based on the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) where three servants were each given a large sum of money to invest for their master who then goes on a journey and later returns expecting a return on his servants' investments. Likewise, our volunteers were each given a large sum of money, $100, to invest in the Kingdom of God. They were also given three instructions.

1. This is not your money, but God's.
2. Do something outside the walls of the church to further God's kingdom.
3. Return in 30 days and tell us what you did with the money.
   

Other churches who have tried this assignment have seen their members respond to this challenge in a variety of ways (see links below) from simply giving to a needy family to starting a new ministry, sometimes resulting in the $100 being multiplied many times over. So be sure to check ComBlog next month to find out how our volunteers invested their $100 and the results of their investments. All of us at New Hope are waiting with great interest. :)

• Click here to Listen to Dave's teaching on the Parable of the Talents and the Kingdom Assignment.

The Kingdom Assignment is based on a book and teaching by Denny Belles. Check out the following links to see how other churches have "invested" using the Kingdom Assignment.

• ABC's Person of the Week
• St. Barnabas Parish
  
• Evangelical Covenant Church
  

Psalm 119

Our worship team usually begins our Sunday worship services with the reading of a Psalm. They have been going consecutively through the book of Psalms until Psalm 119, and then for some mysterious reason (maybe because it is the longest chapter in the Bible) they skipped it for another time. Well, last Sunday Eric Randall had a clever idea for his sermon which also corrected that curious omission. Eric made little slips of paper each one printed with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet, each one representing the title of a section of Psalm 119, an acrostic poem. He then had each of us pick a couple of the slips of paper at random and which ever sections we had, those we were to read and pray about as we took turns until we had all read and prayed over the entire Psalm. It was an ingenious and painless way for all of us to read, consider and pray through Psalm 119, both the longest psalm and the longest chapter in the Bible.          -click for photos-