The Sustainist

Training the Inclusive Brain

I have been teaching community to use the process of Mutual Invitation for over 30 years. With a group of 5 to 12 people, Mutual Invitation ensures everyone is invited to share with the option to pass or to pass for now.  Much has been said about the effectiveness of the process – it helps people listen, it honors each person, it builds self-esteem, it puts the powerful and the powerless on the same level, etc.   There are now communities that have been practicing this process for extended periods of time, and we see the long-term impact of this process.

“Since I have been using Mutual Invitation, I am more aware of who is excluded everywhere I go.”  This is a recurring comment I have heard about Mutual Invitation.  In reflecting on this, I notice that I am also very acutely aware of who is included or not in different environments, perhaps, I am benefiting from the accumulative effect of Mutual Invitation.

Once, I attended a meeting in which only a few persons spoke and the majority did not get a word in.  At the end of the meeting, I asked the leader, “How did you think the meeting went?” 

"Great!”  He said, “Everyone contributed and we all agreed with the decision!”

He honestly did not notice what I saw.  His brain was not conditioned to think inclusively in terms of actual verbal participation from each person in the group. 

I also recalled how new groups using Mutual Invitation the first time struggled with the process.  In particular, some would not remember who had been invited and needed to ask those who had not spoken to identify themselves. This is an indication that the brains of the people have not yet been trained to think inclusively.

How does Mutual Invitation work in training the inclusive brain? In order to be able to do Mutual Invitation, a person has to pay attention to who has been invited and who has not.  Over time, the brain expands its ability to notice who is included and who is not.  This ability extends beyond the time when one is practicing Mutual Invitation and comes into play in all kind of situations. 

The next time you participate in a gathering using Mutual Invitation, pay attention to what you are learning. As you listen and pay attention to each person and then from person to person, notice who is being invited.  Notice and affirm that you and the individuals in the group are learning not just the idea of building inclusive community, but developing a new pattern of thinking that is inclusive.  The pattern of thinking is key to developing our currencies of relationship, truth and wellness.

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: 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 August 6-11, 2015 Seattle, WA Gracious Leadership Training Intercultural Competency 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 4th Sunday of Easter (Year B) Acts 4:5-12    What did you learn from this text about healing and wellness?     Psalm 23    How do goodness and mercy follow you all the days of your life? 1 John 3:16-24   What does it mean to love one another in truth and action? John 10:10-11-18   What does this passage teach you about leadership?

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

The Holy Currency Mindset

Since Holy Currencies was published in 2013, many readers have embraced the Cycle of Blessings described in the book and began to practice and teach it to the people in their ministries.  Do a Google search on “holy currencies” and you will find sermons, study guides, discussion groups, diagrams, articles, and videos about this dynamic model of sustainable and missional ministry.  Here is the first part of a sermon given by the Rev. Heather Leslie Hammer of Lynnewood United Methodist Church, Pleasanton, CA on August 4, 2013 which demonstrated her adopting a holy currency mindset – seeing everything in terms of holy currency exchanges:

We are in the process of remodeling our kitchen. Some of you know what that is like. Last Tuesday we had to have everything out of the kitchen—canned goods, baking goods, pots, pans, glassware, dishes, vases, candles, cookbooks, and then there's what our family calls the miscellaneous drawer! Oh, my goodness! We have a corner cupboard that's hard to get to; you have to get down on your hands and knees and reach in to pull out the things that have worked their way into that far back corner over the 29 years we have lived in the house. And what surprises we found back there! Things we had completely forgotten we had. Wedding gifts, antique hand-me-downs from our parents, and things we honestly didn't remember ever having. In one of my more organized moments, I had made a list of all the things that were back in there. But I had long since forgotten all about the list, until I pulled it out this week. What good were those things doing, stored out of the way? Though at one point they were deemed to have been of value, now we had to admit that those "treasures" certainly were not ever being used. And if we hadn't missed those things in 29 years, would we ever even use them?

So off they went to the thrift store. Tri-Valley Haven has a new thrift store in Livermore on Railroad Avenue. It used to be run by Buenas Vidas Youth Ranch, which is no more. I hope Lynnewood will support this new thrift store perhaps by helping to refurbish it along with our Circuit. The building needs a lot of repair. I've been in this store many times. It is a gathering place of people looking for bargains and for food. Some one had donated a big box of bananas on Monday when I was there dropping off my box of "treasures." While I looked around, a man came in and took some of the free bananas, maybe 8. It made me glad to think that his family would be having bananas for dinner and for breakfast. While I was there I spotted a hand-made chalice. It made me wonder who had made it, and who had donated it; and then I thought, we could use another chalice here at church for communion. I bought it for $2. That $2 will be supper for a woman and her child at TriValley Haven, a shelter for families suffering from domestic violence. And then I thought about the people working at the thrift store. This place is giving women jobs. It's giving children inexpensive clothes to wear to school. It's giving families who move to this area pots and pans to set up a kitchen. Maybe someone will even put to use that yellow metal fondue pot I brought in.

Thrift stores are places of recycling. Treasures aren't much good stored in corner cabinets. They are meant to be shared and used. In fact, a real treasure is one that converts into relationship and wellness and grace and truth.

Have you adopted a Holy Currencies mindset?  How would you experience people, places, and things if you have?  What changes will you make in the way you use your resources?

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: 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 August 6-11, 2015 Seattle, WA Gracious Leadership Training Intercultural Competency 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 3rd Sunday of Easter (Year B) Acts 3:12-19    What does it mean to repent?     Psalm 4    What helps you fall asleep in peace each night? 1 John 3:1-7   What does it mean for us to be called children of God? Luke 24:36b-48   What might cause you to be frightened of the risen Jesus?

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

I notice . . . I wonder . . .

In his book, Finding Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi said that attention is the most precious resource that we have.  (P. 103.)  Paying attention can make the difference between stuck in a boring job to finding fulfillment in the same job.  “A supermarket clerk who pays genuine attention to customers, a physician concerned about the total well-being of patients rather than specific symptoms only, a news reporter who considers truth at least as important as the sensational interest when writing a story, can transform a routine job with ephemeral consequences into one that makes a difference.” (p.103)

When we pay attention to whatever we are doing and the people with whom we are doing it and the environment in which we are doing it, we add value to what we do. When we pay attention, we might discover the truth of the people and environment as they are and not as we want them to be.  And we might be surprised by new ideas, options and solutions we have not considered.  We may discover the reason why we do such things and the contribution it gives to create a sustainable community.

One of the gracious leadership skills we teach at the Kaleidoscope Institute is the completion of the sentences:

         I notice . . .

         I wonder . . .

These sentences invite us to pay attention first and then be curious.  Try this today. Take a moment at anytime during the day.  Stop whatever you are doing and complete these sentences.  What do you notice about yourself?  What do you notice about the environment?  What do you notice about the people around you?  What do you wonder about yourself, others and the environment? 

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: 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 August 6-11, 2015 Seattle, WA Gracious Leadership Training Intercultural Competency 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 Easter (Year B) Acts 4:32-35    How does the text challenge your understanding of community? Psalm 133    How does God ordain the blessing of life in your community? 1 John 1:1-2:2   What word of life will pass on to the next generation? John 20:19-31   What did you learn from this text about faith?

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

The Butterfly Effect

The twitter page of Chris Rosati (https://twitter.com/bcrosati) described him as a “Father, husband, friend. Founder of Inspire MEdia. Making the most of every day and trying to make a difference.”  Rosati also has ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) but this condition did not stop him from being true to himself- trying to make the world a better place.  He wanted to test out the “butterfly effect” which proposes that a single butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the globe can, in theory, start a hurricane on the other. Rosati wondered if the butterfly effect could work with “kindness.” 

He went to the diner in his hometown, Durham, North Carolina and gave 2 girls each $50 with the simple instruction: do something kind.  He had forgotten all about it until he got an email with pictures from a village in Africa with people holding signs that read, “Thanks a lot for spreading kindness — Chris Rosati.”

The two girls responsible, 13-year-old Kate Cameron and her 10-year-old sister Anna, gave the $100 dollars to pay for a feast to help the village in Sierra Leone to celebrate being Ebola-Free.  How did they know about this need?  Their father was a Peace Corps worker there – currency of relationship at work which make the initial exchange of money to truth and wellness.  In the video that captured this story, Anna said, “It inspired me.”  And Kate said, “I would definitely encourage other people to do it.”

Now that Rosati had proved that the butterfly effect actually works with kindness, he wanted to “get a whole lot of butterflies to flap their wings.”  In February 2015, he launched a campaign to give out hundreds of little butterfly grants — $50 each — to any kid who wanted to start changing the world.  So, are we ready for a hurricane of kindness?

The power of network – currency of relationship – is what empowers the butterfly effect of kindness.  When we trust the network to spread truth, wellness, and gracious leadership, we empower the cycle of blessings that may accomplish more than we can ask or imagine.

How would you invite your church members to test the butterfly effect?  How would you initiate this exchange – the first flap of the wings?

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: 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 August 6-11, 2015 Seattle, WA Gracious Leadership Training Intercultural Competency 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 Easter (Year B) Isaiah 25:6-9    What would it be like for God to swallow death forever? Psalm 118:1-2,14-24    What does it mean for the rejected stone to become the cornerstone? 1 Corinthians 15:1-11   How has Christ appeared to you? John 20:1-18   What can you learn from Mary about staying in the empty tomb? Mark 16:1-8   How might you be afraid of Easter?

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