The Sustainist

The Survival of Vidiots

(Special announcement:  February 28 marks the 5^th anniversary of The Sustainist blog!  If you have found the blog helpful to you over the years, please make a donation to the Kaleidoscope Institute at www.kscopeinstitute.org)

Vidiots of Santa Monica, California, is probably one of the last surviving video rental stores in the country. It has been in existence for 30 years and boasts 50,000 titles and it was known for the care and expertise of its staff.  Three years ago, knowing that video stores cannot continue to exist in the old paradigm, the owners reorganized and turned it into a non-profit foundation envisioning that video stores may need to be a museum or library-type of organizations. 

January of this year, the store sadly announced that it would close in spite of the non-profit reorganization, which allows the organization to receive donations.  There was an outpouring of shock and support for keeping Vidiots alive.  Here are some of the things that people said:

“Contrary to what people say, not everything is available on Netflix or the Internet.  I went to UCLA, but my real film school was Vidiots,”

“And while we have all the online recommendations and referrals we could ever want, what’s missing are the places where fellow travelers can meet, randomly, irregularly, but in person, to compare notes.”

“A lot of people in the film industry got their education in the video aisles,”

". . . it's like a cultural center.  It's an experience we don't have anymore because of Netflix and streaming options. There's never that time you say to the clerk, who's a total movie junkie, 'Hey I'm looking for something kinda like this.' There's no browsing process, flipping through things in a tactile way, and talking to other people there [and asking], 'Hey what'd you think of this?'"

Indeed Vidiots did function as a cultural center; hosted community events through out the year including screenings and public discussions with filmmakers.  And just like a good Hollywood movie story with a happy ending, benefactors from the film industry came through with an undisclosed amount of money to keep Vidiots going for many more years to come. 

Just like Vidiots, many churches need to face the reality that they cannot continue in the old paradigm of church.  And if a church announced that it is closing, would the neighborhood community react with shock and come through with support to keep the church alive?  Will there be people in the neighborhood, who will spell out the things they got from the church that they can’t get on the internet?  

Vidiots knows its reason to be, that is, it knows what its purpose is to the community, and therefore, it can reorganize and find the support it needs to continue.   Can our churches do the same?  Do our churches know its reason to be in this diverse and fast changing world so that it can move away from the old paradigm and embrace a new missional way of being a church?

(To learn how to assist your congregation to shift from the old paradigm to a missional and sustainable paradigm, I invite you come to our Holy Currencies Training this Spring - March 19-24 in Los Angeles.  See information below.)

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: 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 November 1-5, 2015 Memphis, TN Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training www.kscopeinstitute.org

Reflection Questions for 2nd Sunday of Lent (Year B) Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16    How did you learn from this story about covenant with God? Psalm 22:22-30    What are the reasons for us to pray to God as expressed in this psalm? Romans 4:13-15   What does it mean to have faith? Mark 8:31-38   How does this story challenge your idea of a savior?

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

Closet Castaways

As a Christian of Chinese heritage, it is a struggle to know what to do in the year when Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, coincide with the start of the Lunar New Year.  For this year, I recalled a Chinese tradition that helped me make a compromise.  Growing up in Hong Kong, we were required to clean our homes from top to bottom and got rid of stuff that we didn’t need.   So, on Ash Wednesday, the day before the first day of the year, I cleaned my apartment, which I felt was a very appropriate thing to do.  Then I discovered many things in my closet that I didn’t remember owning! This got me thinking: how much stuff is in the closets of every household in the United States?

Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir, in their book Scarcity, called this forgotten stuff “closet castaways” and they “are so common that space, not money, becomes the scarce commodity.  People need to rent out self-storage facilities to house all their stuff.  Some estimate that over $12 billion is spent annually on self-storage, three times as much as is spent on music purchases.  In fact, the United States has more than two billion spare feet allocated to self-storage space.”

What happens if we think of these things as resources and invest them back into our communities?  Here is a story that can help us imagine how closet castaways can become resources.  Awhile ago, I was given a tour of the Life Enrichment Center in Dayton, Ohio, the mission of which is to “Work in collaboration with area-wide partners to provide life building, life sustaining services to the under-served in the greater Dayton community.” As part of their health and wellness program, they have a fully equipped gym in which people were working out, having conversations, and building social and physical wellness.  I asked the tour guide, a United Methodist pastor, where the equipment came from.  His eyes twinkled and with a big smile, he said, “It was easy.  I made announcements at the local churches and invited people to go through their garages to see if they have any gym equipment that they were not using.  In a couple of weeks, we had a fully equipped gym!”

Imagine 2 billion square feet worth of closet castaways reinvested back in our communities.  And once we clean out our giant closet and no longer need the storage space, imagine 12 billion dollars of storage fees being set free to be invested back into our economy!

For Lent this year, I invite my readers to find ways to reinvest your closet castaways back into your communities to create social, economic and ecological wellness.  Share this with your friends and invite them to do the same this Lent.  Maybe we can start of movement that can slowly convert this massive forgotten static stuff into dynamic useful resources for creating sustainable communities.

To learn more about these kind of innovative ideas for ministries, I invite you come to our Holy Currencies Training this Spring - March 19-24 in Los Angeles.  See information below.

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: 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 November 1-5, 2015 Memphis, TN Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training www.kscopeinstitute.org

Reflection Questions for 1st Sunday of Lent (Year B) Genesis 9:8-17    How do you recognize the sign of your covenant with humanity and/or with God? Psalm 25:1-9    What does it mean to ask God to show us God’s ways? 1 Peter 3:18-22   How can you be alive in the spirit? Mark 9:2-9   What temptation do you have being called a son or daughter of God?

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

Transfiguration

In the Gospel of Mark, God’s voice was heard twice.  The first time was during the baptism of Jesus when God said to Jesus, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” The second time is during an event called Transfiguration, in which Jesus led his disciples up to a high mountain and there they saw that “he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus.”  After Peter tried to fix the moment by proposing to build 3 dwellings for them, the voice of God said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!"           

At the beginning of the year when Christians celebrated the Baptism of Jesus, I invited my readers to affirm each person they encountered (in their family, neighborhood, workplace, school, etc.) as beloved child of God by silently saying, “You are a beloved child of God with whom God is well pleased.” Affirming the individual we meet as a beloved child of God is the beginning of a sacred relationship.  To deepen the relationship, we need the second affirmation that this beloved child of God deserved to be listened to.  Only by truly listening, we stop ourselves from “fixing” the person in a particular time and place ignoring the fact that everyone changes with time.  Like Peter in the Transfiguration story, they wanted to capture and fix that moment because it was “good.”  Listening will help us discern the truth of the others as they change and reveal themselves to us.

For this week, as you encounter different persons in your daily life, say silently to that person, “You are a beloved child of God and I will listen to you.”  In some cases, it might be appropriate to say it out loud! 

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: 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 November 1-5, 2015 Memphis, TN Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training www.kscopeinstitute.org

Reflection Questions for last Sunday after Epiphany (Year B) 2 Kings 2:1-12    What did you learn from this story about change? Psalm 50:1-6    What does it mean for God to be the judge? 1Corinthians 4:3-6   How do you let the light of the gospel shine in your darkness? Mark 9:2-9   What did you learn from this passage about change?

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

Right, Respect and Responsibilities

A sustainist community practices what I call the three R’s of inclusive community:

• Rights – What are the rights of people in this community?
• Respect – What does respect mean for the different groups and individuals in the community?
• Responsibilities – What are the responsibilities of each individual in upholding one another’s rights and respecting each person in the community?

Webster’s Dictionary defines right as "that which a person has a just claim to; power, privilege, etc.  that belongs to a person by law, nature, or traditions.” In a sustainist community, members know their rights.  They also respect other’s rights.  They know how to protect their own rights when they are not respected.  They also take responsibility to protect other’s rights even when they might not agree with their stands. The 3 R’s are like a 3-legged stool – if one leg is missing or shorter, the community will become unstable.  For example, someone who insists on his/her own rights but does not respect other’s rights is a bully.  Someone who claims his/her rights but does not take responsibility to support other’s rights is a spoiled brat. 

How does your community do with the 3 R’s?  In what ways can you teach your community to honor, claim and support the 3 R’s? 

The Kaleidoscope Institute is offering a number of intensive training institutes this year, which include our basic curriculum – Gracious Leadership Training and Holy Currencies. Through these training courses, participants will learn skills, tools and processes to enable their community to become more inclusive and sustainable.  The next one is going to be in Los Angeles, March 19-24, 2015.  You can find out more and register for the institute at our website:  www.kscopeinstitute.org. 

 

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: February 13-14, 2015 Oakland, CA Gracious Leadership Training I KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training (for Gracious Leadership I only) (Bilingual Spanish-English Event) 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 November 1-5, 2015 Memphis, TN Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training www.kscopeinstitute.org

Reflection Questions for 5th Sunday after Epiphany (Year B) Isaiah 40:21-31    What do you need to hear and notice in order to create sustainable community? Psalm 147:1-12, 21    What does it mean for you to have this relationship with God as depicted in this Psalm? 1Corinthians 9:16-23   How does under Christ’s law help you live in a diverse community? Mark 1:29-39   What did you learn from this passage about community transformation?

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