Florida church gets big return on small investments - USATODAY.com

By Rick Neale, Florida Today

TITUSVILLE, Fla. — Craft and sell 175 crosses out of plastic canvas. Collect cash donations. Conduct a garage sale.

That's how Tamara McAmis converted $50 into a cigar box stuffed with $1,274 during a charitable "reverse offering" organized by Indian River City United Methodist Church.

The last weekend of May, the Titusville church distributed $50 bills to 212 families in its congregation, Executive Pastor Tony Bowick said. The instructions: Use your talents, imaginations and entrepreneurial skills to multiply that investment.

By Sunday afternoon, those households had more than doubled that $10,600 outlay into a little more than $24,500, Bowick said.

That represents a 131% return in a 10-week span. A few families remain busy with bake sales and other ongoing projects, and will turn in their proceeds later.

"God's math is different than ours," Senior Pastor Jim Govatos said.

via www.usatoday.com

What a great idea - a vivid hands-on demonstration of spiritual principles applied in the physical world.

It is such an old idea that it seems new.

Jesus used a story with some similarities as a teaching parable about being good stewards and investors of what God has placed in our hands.

"The church will donate half of the proceeds to the North Brevard Charities Sharing Center next week. The other half will help fund the church's ongoing charitable work, Bowick said, including home handyman fix-ups, auto repairs and relief for the financially downtrodden."