Younger people are making a change in how they conduct silent auctions. Kudos to them.
I was always uncomfortable with the old way of holding silent auctions. Items were laid out on a table with bid sheets beside each one. This style of fundraiser waited for one person to outbid the previous name on the sign-up sheet. In some cases it got quite competitive as a few people played one-upmanship with the others. In all cases, the person who offered the most money got to take the item home.
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Recently, I witnessed a new way of holding such an auction.
Items were laid out on a table with the name of the donor and a suggested value. Beside each item was an envelope. People viewed the items and were given the opportunity to buy $4 tickets, as many or as few as they liked. The tickets were placed in the envelopes of choice. When the auction closed, one ticket was drawn from each envelope and that person received the prize.
This style of auction gives everyone an equal chance to participate, regardless of the size of their pocketbook and who else wants the same item. It made me think back to the way non-competitive games gradually became part of our youth activities. This helped us think about different values, and therefore we saw how we could treat each other in different ways.
The Apostle Paul suggested we might become “fools for Christ’s sake.” Fools are seen to be those people who reflect a different perspective from others around them. In a world propelled by economic competition, a ticket auction makes the highest-bidder status irrelevant.
Dare we become fools in Christ’s name?
