Chris Treanor

Stewardship

Chairman

As most of you know, June has traditionally been our Time & Talent month, and this year is no exception. Time & Talent Sunday this year will be June14th (mark your calendars!). For those of you who don't know, Time & Talent is when the Stewardship committee specifically invites members of Zion to sign up for committee work or volunteer for activities and to engage more actively in the life of Zion. But there is no need to wait until June to get involved or to increase your engagement. At Zion, every day is Time and Talent day. Every committee, every group, every activity would love more help and is always looking for additional participation.

If you are one of the many members of Zion who is currently involved in the life of the church, then you can skip to the next section of the newsletter. Thank you. If on the other hand, you are one of the members of the congregation who is still "fixin' to get started," to become involved, then read on.

Which one of these applies to you?
"I am too busy"
"I have enough friends"
"Zion is my (pick one)… wife's/husband's/parents'/kids' thing"
"I want to get involved but I don't know how to"
"There is nothing that interests me"
"I have enough charities"
"I'm not into the "churchy" stuff" blah, blah, blah.......

PLEASE! When you get right down to it, we all have a hundred reasons (excuses) to not get involved, but as you rationalize (as I did for twenty years) consider this:

Zion has over 600 opportunities to get involved from making prayer shawls to attending wine tastings to collecting for food pantries to helping with the Interfaith Hospitality Network to singing in the choir to spring clean up etc. Clearly something for everyone.

Every single activity could use more help. With over 600 opportunities and fewer than 400 active members, demand for assistance far outstrips supply.
 

You'll enjoy yourself.
 

You'll be glad you did it.
 

While I could go on and try to shame you into involvement, I think the best testimony for getting involved comes from something John Nicodemus wrote a few years back. If you don't know John, he is that guy who stands outside the CEB smoking and sometimes snarling at small children. John wrote:

Before we joined Zion, I thought that I had no time for anything other than what was already consumed by my private
and professional life. Surprisingly, the opportunity to contribute my time and talent has opened huge blocks of time that I didn’t know were available. I have found that the rewards gained from participating in Clean Up Day, making Senior Baskets, helping with Containers for Christ, imagining the joy of a needy child with a gift from the Giving Tree, Ushering, impatiently waiting for a technician from the Geek Squad to show up at the CEB on a Wednesday afternoon to fix the problem with the Library wireless network connection, helping to stir the soup which Angela makes for Soup Supper before Vespers, setting up and taking down for our IHN guests, helping someone in need of comfort through Stephen Ministry …and even serving on various Committees and the Church Council far out weigh any effort that I expend or any expense that we incur.

Please follow John's example and take the first step. You won't regret it.