In This Issue:

  

 

7 a.m.

The Community Depot would like to announce its first annual Joan Bailey Center Charity Auction to be held at Mathis Auditorium on Saturday, March 22, 2014.  The doors will open at 5:30 p.m. for a preview of auction items. Items will include extraordinary pieces of furniture, home decor items, clothes and other fine art objects. Live auction to start around 7:30 p.m.  Silent auction will run concurrently.  All auction items are to benefit The American Red Cross, Easter Seals,  and the Humane Society - Valdosta.

The Community Depot is now accepting donations for the silent and live auction.  We can schedule a Pick-up at your convenience.  Please contact Joan Bailey, Phyllis Hiers, or Ralph Jackson. 229-561-9343.

Christ Episcopal Church has been awarded a Diamond Sponsor Award by The Community Depot for outstanding support.  Christ Church will be recognized at the Auction Event on March 22, 2014.

We will be taking pictures for the next month of our parishioners to help our new rector.  Please plan to stop by and have a casual photo taken, before or after services.   Please contact Frances Guice if you have questions.

 

Feb. 23: Bonnie & Jeff Hanson - Christ Church 2014 Budget

March 2: Julius & Julia Ariail - Dominican Republic Mission  

March 9:  Patricia Marks - First Church in the new world

March 16: Karen Gunter - St. Francis Ministry for Animals

March 23: Lucy Tomberlin - Elder law and End-of-Life Issues

March 30: Clinton Beeland - Exploring the Roots of Symbols

April 6: Irene Dodd - Crucifixion and Easter art

When I was growing up, one of my favorite toys was a slinky. Slinky is a toy made out of recompressed spring that is formed in the shape of a spiral. It can perform a number of tricks and will re-form itself with the aid of gravity and its own momentum. I had to share this toy with my sister, and we once disagreed on whose turn it was to have control. From that experience, I will warn you that if you play tug of war with a slinky, it very likely will not return to the original spiral shape!

 

A few years ago Hans Finzel wrote a book entitled, Change is Like A Slinky. He uses the book to talk about the organizational climate of "change or perish." Finzel is primarily a motivational speaker/writer, but has a number of good suggestions regarding dealing with the ever-present reality of change. Here are five of his principles, along with my interpretation/perspective:

• You have to take it out of the box to have fun with it. Denying that change is occurring all around us is one way to assure that we will miss the opportunity to handle change in a productive manner. Congregations often get into a difficult place when they ignore signs that things are different; they get into an even more difficult place, however, when they fail to recognize the good things that can ultimately come from change.

• Somebody has to launch it on its way. John Kotter is arguably the leading authority on the subject of change. Kotter says that in order for change to happen, the group must have a sense of urgency. I worked with a new pastor who felt the congregation needed to take note of its financial situation. Consequently, he addressed the leadership with the following scenario: "based on our current financial condition, if we do not make significant changes in our giving patterns, the church will close in about 15 years." Nobody in the room, other than the new pastor, felt any sense that they needed to make changes - in fact, one person stated, "sounds like we are in good shape - I could be dead in 15 years!"

• It is messy, noisy, and chaotic. Even when we use a slinky in the proper manner (not for tug of war), it can get tangled up or lose its intended direction or fall out of our hands and make a terrible clanging noise. Change is the same way. It is chaotic because we are not used to having to do things differently; and when we do agree to start making strides toward change we are usually entering uncharted territory and thus it gets messy and confusing before we figure it out.

• The course it takes, once it begins, is entirely unpredictable. True enough. Our best planning and strategizing needs a Plan B and perhaps a Plan C. Like the Olympic skiers many of us have been watching over the last few days, even when we start down a path that has some familiarity, we do not know exactly how to navigate all of the turns. Further, we will encounter unexpected terrain with different dips and curves. Hopefully, where we land will have some semblance to what we hoped at the beginning, but rarely will it look exactly the way we anticipated it would look.

Before it is launched, it has stored potential energy. When launched, that energy force becomes kinetic energy. This is another way of saying that change frequently takes on a life of its own and often leads to different outcomes than we imagined at the start. Change can be powerful.

It's time for softball sign-ups.  If you're interested in playing on the church softball league this season for Christ Church, please contact Paul Stevenson as soon as possible. 

Registration is open for the 2014 season of Summer Camp at Honey Creek. There is another action packed, memory filled summer planned this year. Don't delay in registering for camp! Spots are already starting to fill. If you are registered before March 1 and the $75 deposit is in, you will receive a discount on the camp tuition. Camp tuition is $425. If you register before March 1, you will receive a $25 discount. A link to the summer camp online registration can be found here.  

New articles in the online Vineyard this week include: Revised Church Bylaws, Adult Class on Medical Ethics, Blocks into Blankets. Online Vineyard