CHRIST THE KING EPISCOPAL CHURCH NOVEMBER 2015 Giving Thanks It’s been an incredible year at Christ the King! For the past few weeks, I have been anticipating and planning for Advent. The First Sunday of Advent formally marks the beginning of a new liturgical year in the Church, and as such, I’ve caught myself looking back on what we’ve accomplished. While I never realized it before, it seems that our liturgical year ends on Thanksgiving Weekend—and that seems like a fitting place to reflect on all that we as a parish have accomplished this past year. Mutual Ministry Review A year ago, the Mission Committee and I participated in our first Parish Mutual Ministry Review (MMR). The MMR process highlights what is working well in the parish, and what our goals for the upcoming year should be. The goals we identified last year were to 1) finish renovating St. Giles’ Hall, 2) increase Sunday attendance, and 3) promote an awareness of our Episcopal/ Anglican brand within the community. And so, for the past year, we have tracked our progress on these three fronts in this newsletter. However, over the course of the year, sometimes those updates might appear too incremental, so at the risk of 1 New Parish Focus Groups Forming Fr. Matt is gathering parishioners who would like to serve on one of three “Parish Focus Groups” centered around Programs, Worship, and Buildings. These groups would meet about once every- other month, with a few email exchanges between meetings. These groups would help the parish by allowing Fr. Matt to test out ideas and build support for new projects. If you are interested in serving on any of these groups, please let Fr. Matt know. Diocesan Convention Nov. 13-14 Fr. Matt will be attending the Diocesan Convention in Redding on Nov. 13-14. Interested in learning more about the Diocese? Fr. Matt is always looking for volunteers to serve as delegates to next year’s convention! NEWSLETTER Making Disciples | Raising Up Saints | Transforming Communities for Christ News and Notes
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CHRIST THE KING EPISCOPAL CHURCH NOVEMBER 2015
Giving Thanks It’s been an incredible year at Christ the King! For the past few weeks, I have been anticipating and planning for Advent. The First Sunday of Advent formally marks the beginning of a new liturgical year in the Church, and as such, I’ve caught myself looking back on what we’ve accomplished. While I never realized it before, it seems that our liturgical year ends on Thanksgiving Weekend—and that seems like a fitting place to reflect on all that we as a parish have accomplished this past year.
Mutual Ministry Review A year ago, the Mission Committee and I participated in our first Parish Mutual Ministry Review (MMR). The MMR process highlights what is working well in the parish, and what our goals for the upcoming year should be. The goals we identified last year were to 1) finish renovating St. Giles’ Hall, 2) increase Sunday attendance, and 3) promote an awareness of our Episcopal/Anglican brand within the community. And so, for the past year, we have tracked our progress on these three fronts in this newsletter. However, over the course of the year, sometimes those updates might appear too incremental, so at the risk of
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New Parish Focus Groups Forming
Fr. Matt is gathering parishioners who would like to serve on one of three “Parish Focus Groups” centered around Programs, Worship, and Buildings. These groups would meet about once every-other month, with a few email exchanges between meetings. These groups would help the parish by allowing Fr. Matt to test out ideas and build support for new projects. If you are interested in serving on any of these groups, please let Fr. Matt know.
Diocesan Convention Nov.
13-14
Fr. Matt will be attending the Diocesan Convention in Redding on Nov. 13-14. Interested in learning more about the Diocese? Fr. Matt is always looking for volunteers to serve as delegates to next year’s convention!
NEWSLETTERMaking Disciples | Raising Up Saints | Transforming Communities for Christ
News and Notes
CHRIST THE KING EPISCOPAL CHURCH NOVEMBER 2015
seeming too proud, let me state what great strides we have made in the past year. St. Giles’ Hall: Primary work is completed and St. Giles’ Hall has been wonderfully received! A year ago, we had just finished framing the exterior walls, and work was just beginning on the interior walls—a year later, the building looks fantastic, and we are quickly realizing our goal of sharing this space with the community! We have had a number of groups express their desire to utilize St. Giles’ Hall, including the local Girl Scout Troop and a local exercise class for Moms. In its first month, we have hosted a variety of events which demonstrate the space’s flexibility. St. Giles’ has hosted a parish-wide luncheon, a weekly Bible Study, Lego Sunday School, and the Deanery Convocation. Increase Sunday Attendance: As the chart on the following page suggests, weekly attendance at Sunday services is up nearly 40% from last year! This has been for two reasons: the first is that our current members have increased how often they attend, and, secondly, we have also welcomed a number of new visitors to our worship. Our burgeoning children’s and family ministries also seems to be playing a pivotal role in attracting new members to our weekly worship. Increase an Episcopal/Anglican Brand Awareness: This goal has seen the most multi-faceted approach towards meeting our goal. A completely revamped website was introduced in February, and we have been much more active on social media (Facebook). We have also been present in the community, providing a Lego play table at the Quincy Farmers’ Market over the summer. We have continued to utilize the local newspaper to share highlights in the parish’s ministry with the local community.
Giving thanks and moving forward The successes we have accomplished have been the product of a tremendous amount of hard work of so many of our parishioners. 2015 will certainly be remembered as a year of remarkable growth! With the new year approaching, we will continue to sustain the growth in these areas as we begin to focus on promoting the financial well-being of the parish. As a parish, we have much for which to be grateful, just as we have much to look forward to! Happy Thanksgiving!
-Fr. Matt
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Warmth Drive Continues
Christ the King has partnered with the Plumas County Probation Department in their Winter Warmth Drive. You may have noticed the large bin in the sanctuary. If you have a new, or slightly used warmth item that you’d like to donate, we encourage you to bring it by the Church. So far, the Parish has filled one bin, and we hope to fill a second by Thanksgiving! Thank you for your support of this wonderful outreach project as we partner with groups in our community.
Christmas Pageant Planning Meeting
December 6th
We have had a wonder influx of new children and their families at Christ the King—so much so that it’s time to start planning a Christmas Pageant! There will be a short planning meeting after the service on Sunday, December 6th. The pageant will be on December 20th as a part of the Advent Children's Church Service. Fr. Matt can’t wait to see all the Angels, Shepherds, and Sheep around the manger--it should be great fun for everyone young and old!
CHRIST THE KING EPISCOPAL CHURCH NOVEMBER 2015
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Prayer List
Birthdays:
Anniversaries: The Hoovers
For those expecting a child: Kris & Carly
Jamie & Maurice In thanksgiving for newborns:
For those in the hospital: Dan
For those in need of healing: Chris
Margaret Torrey Klytia Leila
Quincy Robin Joseph Betty
For those who have died:
For those in need:
For those who travel:
Special Concerns:
Christians in the Holy Land Syrian Refugee Crisis
For those about to be Baptized
CTK Mission Priorities
St. Giles’ Hall Renovations:
St. Giles’ Hall is finished!
Weekly Attendance: Here is a comparison of our October attendance reports from 2014 and 2015:
As you can see, our weekly attendance has gone up dramatically year-to-year. In the past six weeks, our average Sunday Attendance has been nearly 24!
Anglican/Episcopal Brand Awareness: Christ the King was at the Quincy Safe Trick-or-Treat distributing candy and Lego Sunday School Cards. We are garnering a lot of enthusiasm and interest in our growing Children’s ministries! Are you following Christ the King on Facebook? Be sure to “like” our posts. Facebook tracks user engagement to determine which posts are displayed—just one “like” will roughly double the number of people who see a post in their feed!