The "Acts" Challenges

Heroes | Prayer | Money | April Fools

Month 1 - "Heroes" Challenges:

H1. Five Acts:

• To meet this challenge, Monday - Friday do a random act of kindness for someone different, each day, five days straight. Examples: Helped the elderly or disabled, put someone's shopping cart away for them, put money in an expired parking meter, make breakfast or dinner for your spouse unexpectedly, help a neighbor fix something, etc... google it, come up with your own, be creative, the only limit is your imagination.

H2. Pen & Paper:

• To complete this challenge, simply write a letter "to whom it may concern" about your personal reasons for why you chose Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior This letter is simply like a journal or diary entry. The goal is not to write it and do a mass email; it's simply to cause you to recall through an action your reasons for choosing Jesus. This will also help you to focus your reasons so that you are better prepared when someone asks you about your faith.

H3. Smile:

• Complete this challenge by resolving to smile for one entire day as a reminder that Jesus is your source of joy and self-image. When you wake up, smile before you get out of bed. When you are walking around your house or place of work, smile. When you are talking to someone in person or over the phone, smile. While composing every text or email that day, smile. In bed that night, smile yourself to sleep.

H4. Think Like Jesus:

• Do all three of the following to meet this challenge:
  (though they can be, they do not have to be all have to be with the same person)
  • Purposefully start a relationship with a non-believer.
  • Show love and acceptance to someone who you would normally have kept your distance from because you were being judgmental.
  • Listen intently to someone else's belief system, and ask questions. They might just ask questions back and listen to your beliefs. If so, share your reasons for your belief from your personal story with God.

H5. All in One:

• To meet this challenge sit down and read (or listen) to the entire book of Acts in one sitting. Some will be able to do this with 2 hours of uninterrupted time. If you cannot do this in one sitting, try to do it in just a few sittings.

Month 2 - "Prayer" Challenges:

P1. Sweet Hour of Prayer:

• To complete this challenge take 1 whole hour to go off somewhere and be alone with God. During this hour of prayer be real with God, use no “prayer language,” and spend some of this time just listening to God.

P2. Drop and Give Him TEN:

• Complete this challenge by spending 10 minutes, at the same time of the day, everyday for 7 days straight praying for others. It could be 1 person each day, multiple people each day, or the same person for all 7 days. This could be family members, church brothers or sisters (you could use the church prayer list for that week), friends, co-workers, missionaries, etc… just to give you a few to think of.

P3. Thankfulness:

• To meet this challenge thank God for something different 3 separate times a day for 5 days straight.

Month 3 - "Money" Challenges:

M1. First Time Tither:

• Simply commit, for the first time, to habitual percentage giving of the first 10% of your earnings, given to God on a regular basis.

M2. Raising the Bar:

• This challenge is for someone who already tithes and gives on a regular basis. To complete this challenge simply increase your giving by a certain percentage this year.

M3. Easter Offering:

• Pray and decide on an amount to give toward the Easter offering this year. To complete this challenge, give what the Lord has laid on your heart toward the 2012 Easter offering on April 8th.

M4. Supporting Missions:

• In addition to normal giving, complete this challenge by choosing a mission to give to on a regular basis. The church has many that you can support directly through the church (listed on the church website) or you can choose one of your own. If you already give to a mission, then to complete this challenge you will increase your giving to that mission, or pick another one to start supporting.

M5. Drive-through Generosity:

• When in a fast food drive through, pay for the car behind you, and tell the cashier that when the car gets to the window, tell the people in that car “God is good.”

Month 4 - "April Fools " Challenges:

AF1. Interruption / Invitation:

• To complete this challenge: I viewed and responded to a “God interruption” as a “God invitation” to join in His work. I wrote/typed up a quick synopsis of the event and saved the synopsis in a place where I will see it regularly.

AF2. Experience God:

• To meet this challenge I experienced God’s presence by recognizing 4 events (in no specific time frame) where God worked in or around my life (1 of these events can be the event from the AF1 event). I quickly made a short note of each event as they happened, either written in a journal, on a piece of paper, or typed and saved as an electronic journal or document of some sort.

AF3. Worship:

• Complete this challenge by acting on your faith as worship (faith + deeds = worship). The wording of this challenge is purposefully vague. It is up to you as to what event in your life is an act of worship, just so long as you recognize that it was a combination of faith and action (deeds). This is to be a separate event from AF1 where it does not require a “God interruption” to initiate the act of worship (though God does present specific opportunities for us to worship, we have the freedom to initiate worship (faith + deeds) ourselves).