Recently the Charlotte Observer carried the story of one church’s unusual beginning for a capital campaign. Instead of taking an offering, Elevation Church gave $40,000 to the congregation to spend on doing good deeds. The pastor, Steven Furtick, said that his church borrowed the idea from another congregation and it worked to great effect. Worshippers were stunned to find that they were given envelopes with amounts from $5 all the way to $1,000. The congregation did a variety of good deeds, including buying lunches, giving flowers, buying gas, donating to charity, helping the homeless, paying for prescriptions and many more. Futrick wanted to do this to get service and kindness into the DNA of his congregation.