Are you looking for a chance to reach out and serve others both locally and internationally? Then come to Hometown Missions June 1-3! This Diocesan event which moves around the Diocese each year will be held in Augusta this year. Participants will begin on Friday night by taking part in a meal packing event in partnership with Rise Against Hunger, an international organization dedicated to fighting hunger across the globe. We anticipate packing between 10,000 and 20,000 meals during our two hours on Friday night, at the cost of only 29 cents per meal! Then on Saturday participants will divide into smaller groups to go to different worksites throughout the Augusta area. Some work sites will work with individual members of local congregations and some will work with local organizations. We will be spending the night on Friday and Saturday at The Church of the Good Shepherd, Augusta, and will attend Sunday worship there, before the event concludes with lunch on Sunday.

This event will offer at least eight volunteer hours, and possibly more, for those students who need volunteer hours for school.

The cost of the event is $115 for those who sign up before May 15. After May 15, the cost increases to $125, so sign up early! We also welcome donations to help cover the cost of the meal packing event on Friday night. If you would like to make a donation to support this ministry, please contact Canon Joshua Varner at the Diocesan Office.

Additional information about specific work sites and fun activities can be found on the youth website for the diocese, which is  http://youth.georgiaepiscopal.org. Direct registration is also found at  http://bit.ly/HometownMissions2018.

Sign up now, and plan to enjoy a weekend of service, worship, and fun at Hometown Missions!

Last year's Hometown Mission in Albany.

Churches have a well-documented tendency to say the seven last words for an organization, "We never did it that way before." What is less appreciated is the trouble with saying, "We tried that once and it didn't work for us." 

If your congregation tried something that didn't work, it may well be that whatever it is is not for your group. But sometimes I hear from a congregation that they tried a second service or some outreach ministry that failed only to learn that this was 20 years ago, or that it was tried with no real leadership and little buy-in from the congregation. There can be all sorts of reasons why some great idea fails to get off the ground. And in the church we can be more than a little risk averse. Succeeding always means that there will be failures along the way. Understanding why something didn't work is an important part of the learning.  

The Need for a Postmortem 

Following any new event or months into the launch of a new program, it's time to step back from the doing of the event or program to assess how well it met objectives and why. For example, following the first Trunk or Treat at King of Peace, all of us knew the turnout wasn't what we hoped for, but it took a little work to think about why that happened and to plan for how to improve things for the next year. If we had just done the event, without stopping to reflect on what happened and why, it would have been easy to simply say that we had tried it and it didn't work for us. Nine years later, the event thrives in part because of the assessment and the changes made which more closely involved the preschool and the Scout troops and transformed the event. 

No matter whether a program or event is a clear winner or fails to work in the way you hoped, assessing what happened, how it met your objectives and what you can learn from it is vital. Here in the diocesan office, we accomplish this by surveying after events to collect data on how we did. We then use that input to shape future events. This way we have been able to improve Clergy Conferences, Diocesan Conventions and our Wardens and Treasurer's Workshop to name a few. 

Trying Old Things Anew 

Whether it's adding a worship service, a ministry or an event, any time you hear others saying, "We tried that and it didn't work for us" pay attention. It may well be that this is an idea that won't work in your context. It may also be an opportunity to spend time figuring out what went wrong last time and whether the context has changed, or any other key dynamic is different. It may well be that hidden within the things your congregation has done before is a great idea that needs nurturing rather than tossing out. In any case, you'll be better served by not just moving on, but by stopping to ask some questions, understand what happened, and discuss what you can learn from the past experience. 

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue 

Canon to the Ordinary