The Sustainist

Holy Currency Job Description

Since my book, Holy Currencies, was published last year, I have been getting requests to explore applying the Cycle of Blessings formed by the 6 Currencies – Time and Place, Money, Gracious Leadership, Relationship, Truth and Wellness – to different areas of ministries and organizations.  For example, I have had requests to apply the Cycle of Blessings to working with the incarcerated, helping seminary students to deal with money and debts constructively, and creating a pledge card incorporating the other currencies in addition to money. 

Here is one that I just put together – a volunteer job description incorporating Holy Currencies.  Notice how this job description, through the exploration of the wellness currency, takes care of one the biggest complaints from organizations that employ volunteers: the same people doing the same jobs again and again and at the same time; they complain that nobody else is willing to help while feeling overworked and burnt out.  Try to write a volunteer job description using the following outline for every volunteer you have in your organization. If you are a volunteer yourself and you don’t have a job description, try writing one yourself using the following template.  Working through this job description and having affirmation from the volunteer will not only create a more sustainable volunteer network but also create a more sustainable ministry.  

Holy Currency Volunteer Job Description

• Position Title A specific, descriptive title provides the volunteer with a sense of identity and ensures that salaried staff and other volunteers understand this particular role.
• Purpose of the Position Describe how the volunteer's work contributes to the mission of the ministry.
• Responsibilities Identify the volunteer position's specific responsibilities and duties.
• Qualifications This may include gifts, personal characteristics, skills, abilities, education, and/or experience required.

(Currency of Place)

• Ministry Location Where will the individual be working? Can the work be done at home or only on site, or at a particular site?

(Currency of Time)

• Time Commitment Include length of service, hours per week, hours per day. Include any special requirements such as weekend work.

(Currency of Wellness)

• Wellness plan Describe the sabbatical plan for this position – for example, for every 10 months of work, the volunteer will take 2 months off. For every 3 years in the same position, the volunteer will take a year off.  Include other wellness provision to foster physical, spiritual and relational wellness for the volunteer.

(Currency of Gracious Leadership)

• Training List the training that the volunteer will receive. Include general gracious leadership training that all positions receive, plus any position-specific training for this assignment. Include volunteer’s responsibility to train others to do the job while he/she takes his/her sabbatical.

(Currency of Relationship)

• Network Describe the relationship networks that the volunteer will be part of.  Include to whom will he/she be accountable both paid staff and other volunteers, committee, work group, taskforce, support group, spiritual director, worship community, etc.

(Currency of Money)

• Finance The budget for this ministry that the volunteer will have access to.  Reimbursement process for expenses. 

(Currency of Truth)

• Ministry Review Describe the process by which the volunteer will be evaluated.  How often will this be and who will be involved in this process?  This is also the time for the volunteer to share his/her experience, speaking the truth, so that the ministry can be continuously improved.

(Currency Exchange)

• Benefits What will the volunteer gain by taking this position?  What is the currency exchange? Include leadership skills, stronger relationship network, discernment of the truth about self, others and the world, development of wellness, etc.?

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: November 16-20, 2014 Memphis, TN Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries March 19-24, 2015 Los Angeles, CA Gracious Leadership Training Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training April 21-25, 2015 Sewanee, TN Gracious Leadership Training Missional Ministries in the Grace Margin (Register with Sewanee School of Theology, Beecken Center) July 20-25, 2015 Los Angeles, CA Gracious Leadership Training Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training   Register at:  www.kscopeinstitute.org

Reflection Questions for Proper 21 (Year A) Exodus 17:1-7    What/where is the rock that you can strike to give you sustaining water? Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16    What parable and mysteries of sustainability will you tell the next generation? Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32   What is the difference between our sense of fairness and God’s sense of fairness? Psalm 25:1-8   What does it mean to be led in God’s truth? Psalm 102:8-13   How do you connect with the different images of God in this text? Philippians 2:1-13   What does it mean to be of one mind with Christ? Matthew 21:23-32   What does this passage teach you about authority?

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

 

Still in the Wilderness

For churches that follow the Revised Common Lectionary, this Sunday is also the day we read the great story of Israelites crossing the Red Sea.  Having escaped from the oppression of slavery, the Israelite community entered into a new phase of their journey—how to live together as a free people.  They spent the next 40 years learning to be a sustainable community in the wilderness.  They faced many fears and uncertainties: where were food and water they needed?  What are the new rules now that we don’t have slave masters?  Each one of the struggles was met with sustainable solutions – manna from heaven, living water that gushed out of a rock, the ten commandments, etc. – calming their fears and moving the community toward greater sustainability.

The horrible event of September 11, 2001 had put the U.S. in the wilderness, but instead of meeting the challenge with constructive solutions that pull the people together creating a stronger, more sustainable community, we went the other way toward greater fear and unsustainability.   Instead of challenging the people to continue the self-giving spirit that exemplified the initial responses to the attacks, we fostered the illusion of wellness socially and financially.  Nine days after the attack, President Bush addressed the people of the United States this way, “Americans are asking:  What is expected of us?  . . . I ask your continued participation and confidence in the American economy.  Terrorists attacked a symbol of American prosperity.  They did not touch its source.  America is successful because of the hard work, and creativity, and enterprise of our people.  These were the true strengths of our economy before September 11th, and they are our strengths today.”  

In the years that followed, we the people went forth and borrowed money that we could not afford to pay back to buy stocks and real estate.  There would be no tax increases so we could spend more money to “participate in the economy” without asking the realistic questions: who was paying for the 2 wars we were fighting?  Instead of asking the people to give back into the community that would help us reestablish our security, we were encouraged to spend on borrowed money.  And finally, the illusionary wellness bubble burst in 2008 and we wondered why.  9-11 was the day that changed everything for the U.S. and why would we think “business as usual” would make us safe again?

Thirteen years after 9-11, we are still in the wilderness. The economy is recovering slightly and yet, fears and uncertainties abound.  Our President Obama just announced that we are going to war in Iraq and Syria!  While I support the need to address the threat of the so-called Islamic State, I can’t help but feel that this is “business as usual” again - fears, wars and spending money.  Perhaps it will take many more years for us to learn to deal with our fear constructively – certainly not through spending money we don’t have.  It is not too late to change course to refocus our energy on the heart of the issue – deal with our fear in life-giving constructive ways. Where is our manna from heaven?  Where is the rock that we can strike to give us living water?  How do we discover the new covenant of a sustainable future together?  How do we learn to share our resources fairly, equitably and with a self-giving spirit in this wilderness so that we can restart our journey toward a more secured and sustainable future?

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: November 16-20, 2014 Memphis, TN Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries March 19-24, 2015 Los Angeles, CA Gracious Leadership Training Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training April 21-25, 2015 Sewanee, TN Gracious Leadership Training Missional Ministries in the Grace Margin (Register with Sewanee School of Theology, Beecken Center) July 20-25, 2015 Los Angeles, CA Gracious Leadership Training Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training   Register at:  www.kscopeinstitute.org

Reflection Questions for Proper 19 (Year A) Exodus 14:19-31    How are you like the Egyptian army and how are you like the Israelites in this story? Psalm 114    What is the relationship between nature and the divine? Exodus 15:1b-11, 20-21   How have you been delivered and how do you celebrate it? Genesis 50:15-21   What did you learn from this passage about dealing with your fear? Psalm 102:8-13   How do you connect with the different images of God in this text? Romans 14:1-12   What did you learn from this passage about living in a multicultural community? Matthew 18:21-35   What does it mean to forgive from your heart?

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

 

Skid Row City Limit – Population: Too Many

Skid Row is a neighborhood of 10,000 people on the eastern end of downtown Los Angeles — with the largest concentration of homeless people in the country.  This year, it finally got its own designation sign.  It has the official looking green background with white letterings; but on closer inspection, I noticed the phrase “POP too many.”  In February 2014, activist General Jeff Page enlisted local street art crew Winston Death Squad to work with him and other Skid Row artists and residents to create the Skid Row City Limits mural on San Julian Street in the heart of Skid Row. In July the same people added “The Official Skid Row Map” in the panel next to the original piece.

Why do we need a sign to designate a place that most people would rather pretend that it doesn’t exist?   In fact, the city official would like to use the designation “Central City East” as new bars, lofts and restaurants started to pop up in skid row's traditional territory.  Years ago, the local firehouse was ordered to take "skid row" off its ambulances and rigs.

The reason for having such a mural is that it helps the city of Los Angeles to tell the truth by acknowledging that this great city, and our nation, is not well socially and economically.  How can we have so many homeless people in one of the wealthiest nations on earth?  To achieve wellness as a community, we must first develop our currency of truth.  The truth stops us from being in denial.  With the acknowledgement of our un-wellness, uncomfortable as it may be for many, we may have a better chance at addressing the issue constructively with long-term solutions.  Perhaps, beginning with the truth, we can move our city toward greater sustainability for all who live in it.

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: November 16-20, 2014 Memphis, TN Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries March 19-24, 2015 Los Angeles, CA Gracious Leadership Training Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training April 21-25, 2015 Sewanee, TN Gracious Leadership Training Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training July 20-25, 2015 Los Angeles, CA Gracious Leadership Training Missional Ministries in the Grace Margin (Register with Sewanee School of Theology, Beacon Center) Register at:  www.kscopeinstitute.org

Reflection Questions for Proper 18 (Year A) Exodus 13:1-14    What are the rituals that we need to practice in order for us to be part of the journey toward a sustainable future for all? Psalm 149  How are you being faithful and what do you rejoice about? Ezekiel 33:7-11   What does it mean for you to turn back from evil ways? Psalm 119:33-40   How do you incline your heart to God’s decrees? Romans 13:8-14   How is love the fulfilling of the law? Matthew 18:15-20   What do you learn from this text about building a sustainable community?

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