When the Riviera United Methodist Church in Redondo Beach, California, needed more money than the Sunday collections were bringing in, the Rev. Orlie White remembered the Biblical parable of the talents. Putting that parable into practice, Rev. White filled a collection place with ten-dollar bills and invited each of his 200 parishioners to take one. He asked them to use the money to try to make more money, then to return the original ten dollars and the amount it had earned to the church. One woman bought needles and yarn and crocheted covers for clothes hangars, which she sold for a profit of $38. Another used the money to enter a bowling tournament and won a $75 prize for the church. A man and his wife pooled their stake and bought a share of stock for $20; three months later, they sold it for more than $50.

By the end of the year, the original $2,000 had grown into $8,000.

Author unknown. If anyone has a proprietary interest in this story please authenticate and I will be happy to credit, or remove, as the circumstances dictate.

Thanks to WITandWISDOM™ – April 1, 1999