The Sustainist

Reverse Musical Chairs In Action

Guest post by Jeannie Johnson

Dear Eric (the Sustainist),

I've just come home from leading an EfM (Education for Ministry) Training for Diocesan Coordinators at Sewanee.  Your article about reverse musical chairs (See 10/20/13 post) came just before I left, and it was the perfect forum in which to try it out.

The group of EfM Coordinators, from all over the U.S., had just returned from a brief trip, and I thought it would be a good transition back into the training.  I did not introduce the exercise, except to say that, in classic EfM fashion, we are going to experience something and then reflect on it.

My co-trainer and I put three chairs in a row in the middle of the room (two facing one way and the one in the middle facing the opposite way).  We chose two people to begin.  Someone said "Oh, this is musical chairs, but we have too many chairs."  

We didn't say anything, and the music started.  When it stopped, they grabbed chairs, and we asked them to invite someone to join them, and to find out something about that person that the rest of us didn't know, and then to introduce that information to the group.  (If we had done this earlier in the training, I would have asked them to find out what the new person's gifts were -- but we had done other exercises earlier that showed that information to the group).  

We kept adding chairs and people until everyone was in the chairs in the middle of the room.  

I then asked them to reflect by saying "What did you experience?"  They talked about how much more fun it was to play when they knew they didn't have to fight for a chair.  They also said how inclusive it was, and how they enjoyed finding out about the "new" person.  And then they said how much this meant to them as new Diocesan Coordinators for EfM, because they realized that a big part of their job is to welcome people and include them into EfM!

Several people said they were going to use reverse musical chairs when they got home in their own Diocese and with their own EfM groups, and they all felt it was applicable in many different settings and situations.

I just thought you'd like to know!

Jeannie Johnson

Reflection Questions for Proper 29 (Year C) Jeremiah 23:1-6    How can you be a good shepherd of people? Canticle 16 – Luke 1:68-79  What does it mean to be a prophet of the most high? Colossians 1:11-20   What does this text help you understand Jesus the Christ? Luke 23:33-42   What does it mean to ask Jesus to remember you when he comes into his kingdom?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

Global Network of Compassion

I received many emails in a row yesterday with people committing themselves and their organization to make donations to help those whose lives impacted by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. Through the immediacy of mass media, we can see images of the devastation.  I have not met anyone who has not been moved by unimaginable loss that our brothers and sisters are experiencing in the Philippines.  The serge of emails and Facebook postings were signs of the wave of human compassion as expressed through our global networks.  Individuals and faith communities are mobilizing their networks – the United Church of Christ issued an appeal for $250,000, Episcopal Churches and Dioceses are raising money to channel through the Episcopal Relief and Development and Presbyterian Disaster Relief is on the move.  There is already a Wikipedia page listing the international responses.  The President of the United States has pledged aids that include mobilizing the military forces for the relief operation.

A disaster has a way of connecting people on a very basic human level – lets us help people who need food, water, medicine and shelters.  A disaster not only tests the effectiveness of our global network being employed for goodness and compassion, it also challenges the networks that have been created for destruction and turns them into forces for good, such as mobilizing the U.S. military for relief operations. 

I don’t wish for more disasters so that we can learn how to use our networks to sustain people and communities around the world.  I do pray that we learn from this one, again, and remember to choose to utilizing our global networks to spread goodness and compassion on a daily basis and not just as a response to a disaster.

Reflection Questions for Proper 28 (Year C) Isaiah 65:17-25    How does this vision challenge our society today? Canticle 9 – Isaiah 12:2-6  How do we draw water from the spring of salvation? 2 Thessalonians 3:6-14   What did you learn from this text about work and community? Luke 21:5-19   What does this text teach you about how to deal with change?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

Sustainability in Numbers

Ten families decide to covenant to provide more security to each other.  They each contribute $100 per month into a pool.  Each month together they save $1,000.  In a year they save $12,000.  In 5 years, they have $60,000. The pool is only going to be used when someone in one of the families has an emergency that requires a larger sum of money.  An individual family might not have the money to handle such an emergency but together through the pool, they can.  So, the key to having this security is trust amongst the families.  Now imagine a 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 families pooling their resources together to provide security for those amongst them who are in need.  Maybe we can lower the required contribution amount from each family and still be able to make this work for many more families.   The larger the number, the less each individual needs to contribute, the more resources that group will have and the more security the pool can provide. 

As the U.S. is rolling out the Affordable Care Act, we keep hearing that in order for this to work, we need young healthy people to buy insurance, now that it is more affordable.  Why should healthy people buy insurance if they are most likely not going to claim anything from it?  If I think about buying insurance as protecting myself only, then it makes little sense to buy insurance if I am healthy and young.  But buying insurance is not just about oneself. Like the hypothetical example I gave at the beginning of this post, it is about supporting the wellness of the larger community of which we are a part.

It sounds weird; buying insurance is part of our civic responsibilities.  In countries in which the government provides healthcare for everyone, the pooling process is embedded in the taxation process, very similar to how the U.S. provides Medicare for seniors.  The Affordable Care Act is not perfect, but it is a movement towards this sense of community wellness, forcing our privately owned insurance companies to play the benevolent community roles that they were supposed to play – no more turning down people with pre-existing medication conditions.  In order for this to work, not only do we need more healthy young people to buy insurance, we need to help people shift from focusing on individual benefit to communal wellness. There is power and sustainability in numbers.  The greater the number of people who contribute to the insurance pool, the less it will cost each person and the more wellness security more people will have, creating a more sustainable community.

Reflection Questions for Proper 27 (Year C) Haggai 1:15b-2:9    What did you learn from this text about God’s promise? Psalm 145:1-5, 18-21  How do we bless God’s name? 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17   What does it mean to be God’s fruit for salvation? Luke 20:27-38   What does it mean to be a child of the resurrection?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org