FCOC encourages people to ‘give radically’

MT. PLEASANT - When Faith Christian Outreach Church (FCOC) Pastor Monte Knudsen presented his Radical Giving campaign to the members of his church, he set a goal of $6,000 dollars, believing it was going to be hard work to reach. His congregation responded by surpassing that goal by $20,000 dollars.

'Christmas became the whole issue of how do we give to each other because of God's love?” Monte said of how the idea came about.

Starting in November, the pastor asked his church to help raise money, not for any specific cause or charity, but simply out of kindness and compassion for everyone.

'We had a dream that asked what would it look like to radically give to people, not because they deserved it or because they were or weren't needy, but just to love them. So the way we thought of doing that best was monetarily and to do something unexpectedly,” Monte said.

'Asking people to give above and beyond, especially at Christmastime, is a lot,” Peggy Knudsen, Monte's wife, noted.

When the pastor challenged his members to think about what it means to give radically, what he wanted to home in on was the unconditional aspect of love - love that does not discriminate, 'love without conditions and without strings.”

The enthusiasm with which the FCOC community, which includes about 1,200 members, responded to the campaign completely blew away both Monte and Peggy.

'The moment I announced it, we had someone ask, ‘Can I match that with $6,000?' and of course I said, ‘sure',” Monte said.

In just a month, the church raised $25,000, and donations are expected to continue coming in through Christmas. While some of the funds have gone to the church's Giving Tree, which supports families in need, the rest of the funds are spontaneously being distributed back to the community. In the past several weeks, groups of church staff have started taking the donations to local grocery stores and gas stations to help pay for people's groceries and gas. The church has also stood in stores, handing out holiday cards with $100 bills slotted inside.

Last Tuesday, FCOC took part in Mt. Pleasant Hy-Vee's Pay It Forward week, standing by checkout lines and offering to pay for people's items. In several hours, the group paid $4,000 worth of groceries and then traveled to the Hy-Vee in Fairfield the following Thursday to do the same in that other community. The church has several locations throughout southeast Iowa, including Burlington, and wants to give and cover those communities as well.

Willy Amos, the store manager for Hy-Vee in Mt. Pleasant explained that having the church come in was 'very cool” and 'really pumped everyone up,” especially the employees.

'Everyone was kind of watching and hanging around, making suggestions. They would tell [FCOC], ‘oh, she's going through a rough time right now,' … it really got everyone into the giving spirit. We still have folks speaking about it now, how much fun they had, and it helps the morale of everyone involved,” Amos said.

'One woman was even moved to tears,” the store manager said of the reaction of one of the recipients.

Peggy and Monte explained that one of the greatest parts of the campaign has been seeing people's reactions. While it wasn't in their original goal to inspire recipients to want to pay it forward, since beginning to give out the donations, several people have approached the church to give back.

'We've had people come in and want to give us money and we'll tell them that's not what we do but they'll ask how they can give back, and that's really cool … we didn't go in with that in mind but if it's what comes from the campaign, then that's a good thing too,” Peggy remarked.

Others have simply been shocked and confused by the random act of kindness.

'Some people ask us ‘why? I don't need anything' and we just say, ‘because of love,' and it's very powerful. People become very overwhelmed and emotional,” Monte added.

As staff have handed out cash, they have also been taking videos and pictures of people's reactions, which will be compiled into a video and shared with church members during FCOC's Christmas Eve service.

'I'm really looking forward to that,” Peggy explained. 'It'll be great to let them see the fruits of their labors.”

The church plans to continue showing up at stores and local shops to handing out gift cards and cash to random people. While Peggy and Monte are still working through the current year's donations and have not yet begun to think about making the campaign an annual event, the pair have noted that multiple local businesses and churches have reached out to ask about future collaborations.

'As a church, we do feel we have a responsibility to give back to the community, it's part of the calling … when we give radically our community is better for it,” Peggy said.