The Sustainist

Relationship, Relationship, Relationship

Last weekend, I facilitated a Holy Currencies Orientation focusing on the currency of relationship at the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Honolulu.  Tina and Walter Brownridge, the Dean, wrote an article for the Cathedral’s eNews.  Here is the article: 

This Sunday is Trinity Sunday and many clergy and theologians grapple with its meaning. Perhaps the best, short description of the meaning of the Trinity is found in understanding the dynamic and flowing relationship between the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity.  It can be understood as the Creator God as Lover, the Son of God as the Beloved and the Holy Spirit as Love. The key is relationship. In the same way, our time as Staff, Chapter and Lay Leadership with The Rev. Eric Law of the Kaleidoscope Institute was spent exploring the power of relationship.  

Father Eric Law, founder of the Kaleidoscope Institute, believes that the key to promoting fiscal, environmental and missional sustainability is to first focus on building sustainable relationships within an organization as well as creating deeper relationships that extend to the larger community.

During an all-day workshop at The Cathedral of St. Andrew this past Saturday, Father Eric Law provided both a theological and pragmatic framework for how parishioners and clergy can use gracious leadership to transform their church communities into more sustainable and missional ministries. Participants from the Cathedral, as well as from St. Peter's Episcopal Church, and Church of the Epiphany, created action plans which implemented the relational strategies presented during the workshop. 

Father Law suggested that we should act like water in order to make God's love flow.

The more we allow our time and talent and treasure to flow; the more sustainable, missional .... and loving our communities can become....That is, if we flow together as the many drops of water that become a roaring sea.

Mahalo Nui Loa

Tina and Walter+

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: 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 Trinity Sunday (Year B) Acts Isaiah 6:1-8    What did you learn from this vision about your call to ministry?    Psalm 29    How do you hear the voice of God? Romans 8:12-17   What does it mean for you to be led by the Spirit of God? John 3:1-17   What does “born of the spirit” mean?

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

Imaginative Play

In the book, Play, Stuart Brown reported the story of how Intel made the critical shift in paradigm through imaginative play.  This was the time when a company making only memory chips can no longer be a sustainable business. 

One day, [Andrew] Grove and [Gordon] Moore discussed the quandary in Grove’s office.  They realized that if they didn’t solve this problem, the board of directors would fire them and find people who could.  They imagined the replacements who would take their jobs and wondered what these superexecutives might do.  Grove looked at Moore and said, “Why don’t we do it ourselves?”  They then “fired” themselves, walking out the office door and walking back in as the better and smarter executives who would replace them.  Immediately after acting out that little moment of make-believe, the answer was crystal clear: they had to take the company out of the memory chip business, no matter the cost or internal resistance.  Eventually they steered the company into designing and creating microprocessors, for which Intel is now famous.”  (pp. 131-132)

Many churches are “stuck” in the old maintenance paradigm.  I wonder what would happen if church leaders imagine that they are all fired by God and then return to their ministry sites as supermissional leaders.  How would they move the people in the church from fear to grace, from holding onto power to sharing their gifts, from relating only with their circle of friends to listen to the truth of people living in their neighborhood?  What crazy ideas would they come up with that might actually work in fostering wellness in their communities?   Can we have some fun and play this out? 

As children, we naturally play the game of make-believe.  When we play, we suspend judgment and have fun experimenting and exploring new ideas and situations.   We need to do imaginative play more than ever if the church is to be relevant in the diverse and fast-changing world today. 

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: 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 Day of Pentecost (Year B) Acts 2:1-21    Was this more a miracle of the tongue or miracle of the ear?  What has been your own experience in communication?    Psalm 104:25-35    What will happen if we let God send forth the spirit to renew our community? Roman 8:22-27   How does the Spirit help you in your weakness? John 15:25026, 16:4b-15   What is the role of the Spirit in your life and ministry?

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

Saturday Morning Breakfast

Leaders from Three Willows United Church in Guelph, Ontario, who completed the yearlong Holy Currencies training in Toronto, was charged to create a missional and sustainable ministry.   Using the tools and models learned from the training, they created the following goal for a new ministry:

To provide a Saturday morning breakfast once a month for our church community and the community surrounding the church to assist in developing relationships between the two communities.

The first thing they did was walk around the neighborhood, and they discovered the church is the only large community facility besides a school. The community is mainly a residential area—middle income families and a few low income residences with a small plaza—and a pizza place as the only restaurant in the neighborhood.  They organized a group to visit other churches that offered breakfasts and based on the learning, they developed a plan to offer breakfast on the first Saturday of June, July and August 2014. 

The group invited church members to volunteer and advertised.  They requested $200 start-up funds from the Alex Black Outreach Fund.

GracEconomics: The breakfast menu was reasonably priced (full breakfast $6) allowing people to pay more if they wanted.  They also invited people to offer their time in exchange for breakfast. A volunteer was not sure about the breakfasts but had become glad to be a part of the outreach project.  This was his way of giving back to the church.  Another person indicated it was a place where she could afford to take all her grandchildren out for breakfast.

In order to ensure that people from the community and people from the church had opportunities to build relationships, they used six-foot tables encouraging people to sit with people they didn’t know. Using ideas inspired by the artist, Candy Chang, they created a display of a giant question mark with a blackboard in the middle where they wrote their answers to a question that they posted.   Many of the guests now ask what the question of the day is when they come in. 

During the start-up period, two of the church youths were accepted for a mission trip to Nicaragua in March 2015. They required $3,000 each for this mission trip. The youth needed a fundraiser; so the breakfast group suggested they partner with them. The youth group came out on a Saturday morning to help cook and serve. In August 2014 the breakfast group decided to continue with the Saturday morning breakfast because the breakfasts were successful. Working together with the youth, they raised approximately $3,000 from June 2014-March 2015 for the youth mission trip plus paid for the breakfast expenses. The youth applied for a grant and received $2,000 for their trip leaving each youth to pay $500.

Through this missional ministry, they have been building relationships with the youth and the youth learned new skills in the process. Neighbors and group homes from the community have been coming to the breakfasts. They have built real relationships with their neighbors.  One neighbor had a problem with the church’s parking lot lights shining in a bedroom. He indicated if we could find a solution he would help pay for it.  Another neighbor brought their grandchildren for breakfast Easter weekend and the children had fun drawing on the large blackboard and touring the church. This is now a missional and sustainable program serving 60-70 guests breakfast on the first Saturday of the month.

Another New Missional Ministry: The Saturday morning breakfast program will be providing the start-up funds for a new project in the fall of 2015. On the second Thursday of the month the church will have a noon hour concert. They will start with a series of four concerts (Sept, Oct, Nov, and Dec). They have booked musicians for three of the four months. Guests will be able to purchase lunch. The lunch will be reasonably priced (full/half sandwich, pickles, sweets & coffee $5-$6). They already did the same type of research with this project by visiting a church that offers a noon hour concert with a lunch. They will invite people to volunteer in exchange for lunch.  They are working on putting together a small working group to implement this new missional ministry.

Three Willow United Church started with a few gracious leaders and $200 and grew a ministry that went beyond financial sustainability.  The ministry actually increased its currency of money that supported the youth’s mission trip and will yoke another ministry.  More importantly, the ministry grew in currencies of relationship, truth, wellness and leadership, which will ensure the continuing multiplication of more missional and sustainable ministries in the future.

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: 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 7th Sunday of Easter (Year B) Acts 1:15-17,21-26    What did you learn from this story about sustainable leadership?    Psalm 1    How can your leadership be like a leaf that does not wither? 1 John 5:9-13   What testimony let you know that you have eternal life? John 17:6-19   How can we be in the world but not belong to the world?

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

Yoga in Spanish

In 2009, St Peter’s Episcopal Church, Santa Maria, was approached by the Marian Hospital to provide space for their Marian Community Education programs.  In particular, they needed a place for a Yoga class in Spanish.  The Rev. Deborah Dunn, the rector of St. Peter’s apologized for the space they requested—the parish hall—because it was not in the best of shape.  The floor of the parish hall was squeaky and covered with horrible blue carpet. But the director of the program insisted that it was all right – all they needed was the space.

So Deborah brought this request to the vestry (the Episcopal term for a church council or board) and the first reaction was, “Why can’t we have the classes in English?”

The gentle response from Deborah, “Because this is what was proposed to us.”

“Do we have to give them a key?” was the next question.  Apparently, leaders of the church had not yet arrived fully in missional thinking.

After some discussion, the vestry decided to accept this request because this program fitted their mission to the neighborhood.  They did decide to give them a key.  They then began the process of making the building nicer and eventually developed a policy for building usage when and if more people in the neighborhood asked to use their space.

In 2010, St. Peter’s participated in a 3-day Missional Ministries in the Grace Margin training.  The Holy Currencies concept provided a language for them to understand what they had started doing. One of the training activities invited them to explore how they could build relationship with the people using their facility, beyond just giving them the key.  I remembered telling them, “You don’t need to speak Spanish to do Yoga.”   As part of the training, they also wrote the following gracious invitation to invite church members to come for a meeting to discuss how they can do that:

Apparently, the invitation worked and they did take the courage to show up at Yoga class and got to know the Yoga teacher, Esther, and the Spanish-speaking community members.  This was the seed for missional ministries at St. Peter’s.  Through these relationships, they discovered more truth about the community’s needs.  They now have a food bank every Thursday.  They provide bag lunches.  They have classes on chronic disease management. 

One day, Esther, the Spanish Yoga teacher, handed Deborah an envelope with money in it.  Puzzled, Deborah asked what this was for.  Esther said that the Yoga class had decided to take up a weekly collection to start a fund for fixing the floor of the parish hall.  A few weeks went by, while Esther was giving Deborah the weekly collection, an “angel” of St. Peter’s saw the transaction and inquired about it.  (According to St. Peter’s, an “angel” is someone who gives money to the church but don’t want what to be identified.) Deborah recalled the “angel” asking, “How much do you need to put in a new floor?” 

Deborah went to a local flooring company, the owner of which was a friend of a contractor that the church had used – 3 degrees of influence at work.   He had heard about the great ministry at St. Peter’s especially the Thursday food programs.  He said that a floor this size would normally cost $30,000, but the church could have it for $15,000.  Why?  There was a cancelled order and if she didn’t mind the color and wood choice, she could have it. 

So, Deborah went back to the “angel” and told her the good news.  The “angel” pulled out her checkbook and wrote her a check.  She looked at it and it was for $30,000.  Deborah explained, “I think you misheard me.  We only need $15,000.”

The “angel” said, “Don’t you need a new kitchen and new light fixtures too!”

When I visited St. Peter’s in 2012, Deborah and the church leaders showed me proudly their new floor and more importantly all the ministry activities that happened in this space through out the week.

Most churches have the asset of spaces but many only use it to exchange for rent money. St. Peter’s went beyond this commodity exchange and crossed the boundary to build relationships with the people from the neighborhood.  The relationship currency then exchanged into truth, wellness, leadership, and further multiplying the currency of money, which in turn increased the currency of the place.

If your church rents out spaces for groups in the community, are these just landlord-renter arrangements?  If so, in what ways can you transform these arrangements into trusting, mutually supportive relationships?  Building these relationships are the first step to becoming missional.  The exchanges that follow may surprise you.  The return of currencies will sustain further ministries that you might not have imagined.  

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: 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 6th Sunday of Easter (Year B) Acts 10:44-48    What did you learn from this passage about expanding your network?    Psalm 98    What is your reason to shout with joy to God? 1 John 5:1-6   What does it mean to be born of God? John 15:9-17   How does it mean to abide in Jesus’ love?

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

I Know a Good Thing When I See One

The Life Enrichment Center (LEC) began as the Back Door grocery ministry of the Dayton Vineyard Church.  In 2002, it became an independent 501(c)3 non-profit  and relocated to Erwin Street in East Dayton.  Within a few years, the ministry had outgrown the Erwin Street space.  Jeff Sorrell, the founder and executive director, noticed there was a 57,000 square foot building on 4.5 acre with a service garage that had been standing empty for at least 2 years.  Jeff found out that the owner, John Staten, wanted to sell.  Jeff brought with him the building floor plan, in which he put information on how the ministries of LEC would work in the facility.  These ministries included meals and supplemental grocery, building community, educational offerings, health and wellness, resources and referrals, a bike shop and a child safety village. By the time Jeff finished telling the LEC story, John Staten was convinced that this ministry was worth supporting.  Jeff recalled John saying, “I know a good idea when I see one.”

John then offered the following deal to Jeff:  The LEC can lease the building with the option to buy at $12,000 per month plus $92,000 per year of utility cost.  Jeff took it to the LEC board and the board returned with the following counter offer:  The LEC would pay $500 per month (this is not a typo, it really is $500), with the option to buy.  The lease would go up to $1,000, the second year, $2,000, the third, $4,000, the fourth and $8,000, the fifth.  Of course, LEC would pay all utilities.  Even though the building was assessed at $850,000, the LEC offered to buy the building at the price of $550,000.

Now, you would think, no owner in his right mind would accept this offer!  But to everybody’s surprise, John Staten not only accepted the offer, he also pledged to give LEC $60,000 per year, accumulating to $300,000 in five years.

When I tell people this story, the first reaction is always one of disbelief.  This story is unbelievable if we only focus on money in this exchange.  This story is not about money.  It is about the relationship that was built between Jeff and John.  Through this relationship, Jeff told the truth about the needs of the people in Dayton and stirred up the passion in John to foster wellness in his community.  As a result, he invested his money and property to house the Life Enrichment Center trusting in the gracious leadership of Jeff and his staff to implement all the wellness programs.

In 2008, after extensive renovations, the Life Enrichment Center opened in its current home at 425 N. Findlay Street.  In 2015, when I talked with Jeff, the Life Enrichment Center was hoping to do a major fundraiser to pay off the building that year.

If you have a ministry idea and are looking for a place to house it, don’t let money stop you from fully exploring the possibilities.  Look around your neighborhood.  Do you see any buildings that are not being used? A place that is not being used is not worth anything.  It ceases to be a currency.  What ministries would you put in these places? Do you know the owners?  How would you build a relationship with the owners to explore potential exciting ministry exchanges?

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: 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 5th Sunday of Easter (Year B) Acts 8:26-40    What did you learn from this story about being missional?     Psalm 22-24-30    How does this psalm inform you of your of God? 1 John 4:7-21   What did you learn from this text about being part of God’s network? John 15:1-8   How do we connect with each other and with God?

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