What’s going on... January 2007

Sunday Services

January 7 – Rev. George Bennett,  “The Peacemakers and the Persecuted”

Prayer may be the only real action. How is that?  Prayer is the only thing that changes the human heart.  Prayer (inner work) softens our hardness of the heart.  Through prayer there can be a change in character. You can become different with the help of God.  Through prayer and meditation a new person is born.  This conversion may be a great drama or it may be like mine in the tradition of William James with the slower educational type. And what of the persecuted?  Despite the sentimental tradition there is no virtue in martyrdom. I am capable of persecuting myself.  When I find this prayerful setting aside my fundamentalist thinking in favor of the serenity of God's peace I am tempted to back slide into various forms of fear, anger and despondency.   That is the real persecution.

January 14 -  Rev. Jane Page , “The Sacred Depths of Nature”

How can our scientific understanding of Nature call forth religious responses?  Jane will share how "religious naturalism" influences her thoughts and actions.

January 21 - Sue Lacy ,  “JUUST Change Follow-up”

Our congregation received a JUUST Change Grant from the UUA last year.  These grants are designed to help congregations with their anti-oppression work.  Sue Lacy is the JUUST Change Consultant working with us on our Restoration Fund Project, Accepting Difference in Valdosta , GA.   Ms. Lacy is President of Round River Consulting in Akron , Ohio .  She has years of experience in community organizing and anti-oppression work.  Many of you met Sue last April when she first visited Valdosta for conversations with a number of people in our wider community.  Plans for her second visit to Valdosta and the JUUST Change discussion scheduled for January 20 are discussed elsewhere in this newsletter.  We are delighted that she will be the speaker at our Sunday service during this visit to our area.

                The UUA in introducing this new service at the 2005 General Assembly quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words: “The soul shapes the world that I live in.  It grows by evolving new states of being.” They went on to state that these words “aptly describe the vision of a new service offered by the UUA, the JUUST Change Anti-Oppression Consultancy.”  A coordinator of the program “likened the JUUST Change name to the Nike ad, ‘Just Do It,’ but with our own UU twist, our commitment to work for justice.”(quoted from www.uua.org, 8/2/05)  Our participation in this program has been invaluable as we develop our local social justice project.

January 28 - Dr. Michael Stoltzfus, “Religious Pluralism and Dialogue”

We will examine the desirability, even the absolute necessity, of positive relationships between people of different faith traditions.  Although people of distinct religions have lived alongside each other for centuries, modern weapons of mass destruction and the war on terrorism add a special urgency to do so knowledgeably, since religious extremism threatens the very fabric of life on earth.  Religion, at its worst, fosters suspicion, hate, and violence directed towards those who are different.  Religion, at its best, urges proponents to relate justly and tenderly with all people.  In our world of rapidly increasing modes of communication, not just a sense of survival but also the noblest impetuses of people of faith should lead them to understand, esteem and learn from other religious traditions.

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  Meditation Group

The Meditation Group is meeting regularly in the sanctuary Sunday mornings at 9:30 AM.  You are welcome to participate.  If you would like to know more about the group speak with Dee Tait.  

Religious Education for Our Children

The RE program for children meets at 9:30 AM each Sunday morning.  Contacts:  Mya Storey, Susan Bailey.

 

   

Social Action Activities  

Break Bread Together

Our date for meal deliveries with the Break Bread Together program is the 2^nd Monday of each month.  If you can deliver meals on this day beginning about 11:00 AM, please contact Frank Asbury.  

Martin Luther King March

Saturday, January 13.

Members of our congregation have participated in the march over recent years.  In light of our JUUST Change meeting the following week, we would especially like to be a clear presence this year.  We’ll be carrying our banner to identify our group.  We need as many of our congregation as possible to march.  Lineup for the march is at 10:30 AM at the Valdosta Board of Education parking lot.  The march ends at the MLK monument on S. Ashley St .  Transportation will be provided back to the BOE.  Contact:  Lars Leader .

Rev. Jane A. Page, Minister, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Statesboro, serves our congregation in Valdosta each month.  She is available for conferences and special services when she is in Valdosta .  Web Page: http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/~janepage/

 

 

 

 

JUUST Change Grant Project

Editor's Note:  The following event will be re-scheduled to a later date.  (Modified Jan. 4, 2006)

  Sue Lacy , our JUUST Change Anti-Oppression Consultant, will return to Valdosta on a future weekend.  the weekend of January 19-21, 2007.   Members of our Social Concerns Committee, Betty Derrick, Lars Leader , and Susan Bailey, will meet with her for a strategy session on Friday.  The community contacts, with whom Sue Lacy spoke during her visit in April, have been invited to participate in a conversation on Saturday, January 20.  We will provide a light lunch at noon at the UU church and Sue will facilitate the conversation.  Our Social Concerns committee members will sit in on this conversation, which will be the first time our community contacts have met as a group.  Although we must wait to see how this conversation develops, it is our hope that the outcome will be the creation of a progressive coalition of diverse community members with shared responsibility and some agreement about what the next steps should be.  As discussed at our congregational discussion in December, we anticipate that our Restoration Fund may be used as seed money for this endeavor.

The Social Concerns Committee was glad that a number of our members participated in the discussion after the service on December 10.  As you are aware over recent months the community contacts for this project have shared their thoughts with our congregation at Sunday services. The committee hopes these talks and the December discussion have fully engaged our congregation in the goal to develop a truly meaningful social justice thrust for our wider community.  It is clear we are still learning together about the needs of our community as well as how our small group can best affect change where change is needed.   The UUA, at our request, extended the time period of our grant, which makes possible Sue Lacy ’s return to Valdosta this month to facilitate this meeting with our community contacts. 

Although our community contacts have been invited, specific plans for the January meeting are still in process.  The Social Concerns Committee may be in touch early in January seeking volunteers to prepare the church for this visit and in providing the lunch for our guests. Contact: Betty Derrick.    

Guest at Your Table -- 2006-2007

Please return your Guest at Your Table boxes containing your contributions for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) at one of the first two Sunday services in January.  Information about UUSC can be found at www.uusc.org.  If  you are not already a member, consider joining.  Many of our members support the UUSC with an annual membership in addition to special gifts like Guest at Your Table.  

Counting Valdosta’s Homeless

The South Georgia Coalition to End Homelessness is using part of a Community Development Block Grant from the city of Valdosta to conduct a point-in-time count during the last week of January 2007 to determine the actual number of homeless people in the city.  The Coalition is partnering with VSU to work out the logistics of the count. Jane Osborn, associate director of 2-1-1, who is directly involved with planning the city-wide count, says Valdosta has always been undercounted in terms of its homeless population because there is not a good way to conduct such a count.   Weeks after the initial count, a focus group will be formed with a group of homeless people in the area to identify why they are homeless, when they first became homeless, what services they use and what services are needed that are not currently provided.

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About Our Members and Friends

Displaying of the art was completed faster than anticipated but that Dee Tait plans to be there in March 2007 when Michael's paintings will be the first featured!

 

Keep in your thoughts …

v   Our members and friends who have recently lost loved ones.

v   We extend best wishes to René, Jerry, and Madison as they relocate to north Georgia .

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INVITATION TO MEMBERSHIP If you are interested in becoming a member of our fellowship, we encourage you to talk with our President, Lars Leader .  We welcome your questions, and we extend an open invitation to all who want to join our liberal community of faith.

 

 

 

UU Board News: In January, the Board will begin meeting once a month on a Wednesday early in the month at 6:00 PM.  The first meeting on this schedule will be Wednesday, January 10.

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Newsletter

Editor:  Betty Derrick

Website:  Carol Stiles

January 15: Deadline for the February newsletter.  Because of travel plans your editor must ask that you strictly adhere to this month’s deadline.  Thanks!  

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Treasurer's Report

Doug Tanner

November 30, 2006

General Fund                                        $22,322.49             

Restoration Fund                                 $11,715.64             

Total (Cash in Bank Accounts)         $34,038.13     

                        

OUTSTANDING DEBT                                     

  Mortgage                                            $18,897.20              

OPERATING RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS:        

                                                

                                             November              Year to Date

Receipts:                                                                                      

  Plate                                     143.00                      671.00

  Pledge                                  595.00                     5,025.00

  Rent                                      240.00                    1,200.00

  Interest Income                      265.00                      540.00

  TOTAL RECEIPTS            1,243.00                 7,436.00 

Disbursements:                                                   

  Mortgage                            500.00                   2,500.00

  Speaker's Expenses            750.00                    3,100.00

  Repairs and Maint.              159.00                     417.00

  News Letter                           0.00                      228.20

  Supplies                                 0.00                        75.47

  UUA dues                              0.00                  1,960.00

  Utilities                               180.74                     912.44

  Advertising                             0.00                         0.00

  Other                                   15.00                       75.00

  TOTAL DISBURS.        1,604.74                   9,268.11 

NET RECEIPT (DISBURSEMENT)         ($361.74)                ($1,832.11)

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  UUA TRUSTEE TIDBITS                            Joan Lund

May I be among the first to wish you and your congregation a fine 2007. May you prosper and grow in a manner amenable to your aspirations and goals. One of the frequently addressed topics in our UUA is governance. As you know our District Board was one of the first to adopt policy governance and many others have followed their lead. Church boards across our UUA are also studying and often times changing their boards to follow this model. Although not an expert in policy governance, I believe one of the questions needing to be asked when considering policy governance is, “What is the difference between management and leadership”?

        Management is what is done to make an organization run smoothly. Sometimes leaders are satisfied by doing management things and are too often satisfied with, and rewarded by keeping the congregation and certain individuals happy. While management-type leaders often ask if they are doing things right, leadership involves continually asking if right things are being done. According to Rev. Dr. Gilbert Rendle, Alban Institute, studies show there are two types of church members: those who have been in the congregation over 20 years and those who have been there 10 years or less. Each group has different values: long-term members value a “team” approach to fixing wrongs, deferred gratification, and saving money; short-term members are more individual-centered. As individuals they want to spend money because its worth today is more than it will be tomorrow. For various reasons long-term members may become the leaders at church. Leaders, whether long or short term members, need ways to work with both groups, because leadership trumps management.

        I offer from Dr. Rendle the following suggestions for making leadership work: keep your congregation focused and informed (surprised people don’t behave well); remember change comes from the “edges” of your congregation, not the center; be models of civility so that expressing oneself occurs at a meeting rather than the parking lot; keep folks in the conversation by using descriptive rather than evaluative language, i.e. describing, rather than evaluating what was wrong with it; and when necessary, leaders need to get nurturing by a colleague or someone else outside the church because leaders cannot be nurtured by the congregation they are trying to serve.

        Please know your UUA Board of Trustees is always asking if the right things are being done. Our Board profits when we hear from you through me. I do take your concerns seriously and they are brought to the Board. Thanks for your continued support. I can be reached at jlund@uua.org. The best to you all in 2007.

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UU Activities and Announcements

Further information is posted on the bulletin board in the R.E. wing at the church.  Also check your Sunday Order of Service for announcements. 

January 13 Celebrated Speakers Series:  Dave Barry, Vero Beach , FL

January 13 Southeast Cluster Program: The Great Story with Connie Barlow and Michael Dowd, Boca Raton , FL

January 19-21 Renaissance Module – Curriculum, Tallahassee , FL

January 20 Leadership in Congregational Life: A New Way of Thinking, 9:00AM-4:00PM Orlando, First Unitarian Church of Orlando , FL

January 28 Installation of the Reverends Meredith Garmon and LoraKim Joyner, Gainesville , FL

Now is the Time: Leading Congregations into a Multi-racial, Multi-Cultural Future

February 16–18 in Arlington , Virginia

The Unitarian Universalist Association’s General Assembly last summer asked each congregation to participate in or host at least one program this year devoted to our struggles to walk our talk with regard to racism and diversity. Our Florida District Director would like to be kept informed about what’s going on in our congregation.  The UUA is hosting a weekend program to help with this goal.   Featuring Dr. Jacqueline Lewis, formerly Alban Institute consultant for Cultural Boundaries, now Senior Minister of Vision, Worship and the Arts at Middle Collegiate Church in New York City , and philosopher activist Dr. Mark A. Hicks, Associate Professor of Educational Transformation at George Mason University, Virginia, this conference will ask participants to shape the conversation as to how we might move our congregations more faithfully in fulfilling our dreams of compassion, equity, and social justice.   You can register on line at: www.uua.org/cde/nowisthetime2007/ , (deadline is no later than January 16).

Leadership in Congregational Life: A New Way of Thinking 

January 20, 2007 at the First Unitarian Church of Orlando

Do you think of yourself as a leader? I hope so, for one of the things we can do at the District level is to cultivate healthy and happy leaders. Many of us come into congregational leadership hopeful, eager to serve and make a difference. We often also come naive about the dynamics of voluntary communities and the complexities of congregational workings that inhibit change and growth. Too often, congregational leaders end up frustrated, feeling picked on or at least unappreciated. Far too often, congregations fill vacancies with any willing warm body and far too often committees become one-person shows that burn out good people and collapse when they move on. We can do better!

The District Leadership Council hosts this daylong workshop in leading congregational systems. If you are a current or emerging leader in your congregation, you are urged you to attend. Each congregation is invited to bring a team of no fewer than two, no more than five. Participants will each bring a case study for practice. You will learn how leadership makes you a different kind of member; why resistance to change is both normal and good; how people cope with anxiety or fear; and some practical tips on self-care and self-management. By the way, all of this will help you in your home and work settings as well.  Please register by January 10 using the registration form included in this packet. Registration fees start at $55 per person, with a graduated discount offered depending on your team size.  

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©Forward Through the Ages A New Stewardship Development Program

Every (yes, every!) Unitarian Universalist congregation could use help with stewardship (commitment to our faith expressed in financial giving). Many efforts are poorly conceived and

even more poorly executed. We seem broadly captive to the “get it over fast” and “don’t ask” mindset. The results are underfunded ministries and undercapitalized programs.  The UUA is launching a demonstration project, free to participating congregations, developed by Wayne B. Clark to find a new way. Distinguishing between ‘fundraising’ that emphasizes what’s in it for a recipient, ‘stewardship’ addresses our spiritual need to be generous givers. Put simply, healthy congregations know stewardship precedes fundraising.

“Forward Through the Ages (FORTH) is a multi-year, systemic stewardship development program designed to promote growth and help fulfill congregational mission. There are five phases: Receiving and Accepting, Growing and Investing, Returning and Restoring, Giving Generously, and Applying Recent Learning. Each phase has five components: stewardship education, joyful giving, ministry and good works, the annual budget drive, and planned giving.” Participating congregations will receive training in all phases of FORTH by a site-visit, and ongoing follow-up via telephone conferencing and email exchanges. If your congregation would like to apply, complete the on-line application at: www.uua.org/cde/fundraising/ForwardAges.doc  

(by March 1, 2007). Questions can be addressed to Wayne Clark at wclark@uua.org .

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At the Church-in-the-Woods  

New Hope Christian Fellowship - Sunday evenings: Choir practice at 5:00 PM. Service at 6:00 PM.  

Taoist Tai Chi – Beginners Class: 5:30-6:30 PM; Continuing Class: 6:30-8:00 PM.  A new Beginners Class will start January 8.  Betty Derrick is a member of the group and would be glad to answer questions.  

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The Smart Church Part 3                 Connie Goodbread

What are the most important things going on in and around your congregation?  What are the issues that most concern the people in the community that your congregation serves? If you knew the answer to this, your congregation could offer programs that would address those issues. Where are the people located in the larger community who would most likely be attracted to your congregation? If you knew the answer to this question you would be able to focus marketing on those areas. How do these people like to be contacted? The answer to this question will save time, energy and money and reach people in the way they are most likely to hear your message. What is the growth in your area? Is your congregation growing at the same rate as the larger the community? Does your congregation want to grow? Does your congregation serve the larger community by being the Unitarian Universalist congregation that is needed? When is the last time your congregation had a demographics survey done? A demographic survey would answer these questions and many more. How much time does the Board of Trustees focus on the unimportant? Focusing on the unimportant is an easy trap to fall into. We all understand the small issues that come up in our congregation so it is easy for us to spend time on them. The Board of Trustees focusing on the minutia is common but not the best use of their time, energy or expertise. Are the standing committees of your congregation trusted to make decisions? Are leaders empowered to make decisions? What is the most important reason for your Board of Trustees to exist?  Boards of Trustees are Deacons. They are the elected stewardship body of the congregation. The Board should be focused on the big picture, upholding the values of the congregation, making and carrying out policy. They should be keeping the congregation on mission heading toward the vision. They should understand their responsibilities. They should be empowered and supported. They should be allowed to lead. Serving on the Board of Trustees is an honor. Nominating Committees should understand all of this when they ask members to serve on the Board of Trustees. Whom do we serve? There are polarities that exist in congregations. Each of the ends of these polarities is of equal importance. An example would be outreach and serving members (inreach). If we neglect one or the other of these important aspects of ministry the congregation will suffer. Our ministry needs to balance both sides of the polarities. Another polarity example is funding property and funding programs – we need both. Another: new member programs and long time member programs. I am sure that you could think of more examples.