When St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Casper received an extra $12,000 for missionary work, its members couldn't decide on one good way to spend the money.

"We'd been talking since we got the money in January. We have a church that works by consensus, and we had 78 ideas we just couldn't seem to get narrowed down," said Kay Flores, a postulant for priesthood and member of St. Stephen's. "We have great ideas, but we have too many. We want to see what people want to fix in the world."

So, Flores said, the church decided to give everyone in the congregation money - but just enough for each person to do a bit of individual good and "to see where the energy of the congregation is."

Each member - about 50 in total - had $25 to spend in a week. The next Sunday, they were to report back to the congregation with their idea, how well it worked on a small scale, and why it would work for the church's remaining $11,000.

The money came from the Episcopal Foundation of Wyoming, which, working in conjunction with the Episcopal Diocese, decided to stimulate missions projects in congregations throughout the state. Officially called the "Mustard Seed Mission," the mission investment project was meant to help each church help others, according to The Rev. John Smylie, a member of the foundation's board and leader of Casper's St. Mark's Episcopal Church.

"So often, our churches have to work so much just to survive, especially in the smaller areas," he said. "This was our way of getting our membership thinking outside of our own four walls."

"They came up with the idea where each congregation would get $12,000 with no stipulations," said Andrew Kerr, communication, education and outreach coordinator with the diocese. "They could just write a check to a charity for $12,000, but the idea was that they'd get involved."

And get involved they did.

Members of St. Stephen's came to church the next Sunday having made charitable contributions all over the city.

A nursing home resident gave her $25 back to her nursing home. A local food bank received money from other church members.

Flores gave her money to a scholarship program to send middle school children to science camp and for leadership training.

"We've had success with less bullying, and less dropout in school," Flores said. "It reaches out far."

Another woman spent her $25 to have the locks changed on an abused woman's house.

One man refurbished a bicycle to give to someone without transportation. With his $25 allotment, he was able to buy the parts, and rebuild the bike himself.

"The neat thing is that in most cases, it wasn't just writing a check off. Someone was personally involved to make that [money] really stretch," Kerr said.

St. Mark's decided to develop a program for assisting at-risk women and children. Smylie said the church is working with school administrators and teachers to develop a long-term training plan for at-risk families so they can prepare food for themselves, probably using the kitchen available in the church.

"It's really exciting what they're doing, seeing how people are getting involved," Kerr said. "This has taken root all over Wyoming, and each project looks different."

Contact reporter Megan Lee at (307) 266-0616 or megan.lee@trib.com. Read her DogBlog at tribtown.trib.com/MeganLee/blog.