A Personal View of the Ascension

Posted by: Simple Living Works! on: May 19, 2014

• In: Others' resources | Personal | SLW! resource
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Feast of the Ascension, May 29

When Jesus ascending into heaven, he was taking a risk leaving the disciples on their own. He was making room for new leadership, both human and the Holy Spirit.

Personal Example

Every organization of consequence I’ve led has failed.

I started an effective student recruitment program at Calif. Concordia College, Oakland. When I moved on, I recruited another leader, who ended up doing little. I offered to come back two years after leaving to keep it going. They declined my offer. A few years later the college closed permanently.

In 1995, I was called to lead Alternatives for Simple Living, a national non-profit, affiliated with numerous mainline denominations. When I retired 12+ years later at the end of 2007, my goal was to make the transition to new leadership as seamless as possible. I did promptly everything the new leaders asked of me. Unfortunately, they were not able to sustain it and it was dissolved in early 2011.

I was not willing to let the vital message and treasury of educational and inspirational resources of an almost 40-year-old organization disappear. So I revived it in a different form as Simple Living Works! through social media. And the ELCA is maintaining Alternatives’ archives.

After I retired I got active in the local Sioux City Peace Coalition. We had monthly meetings and demonstrations for a wide range of social justice issues. You can read about it here.

When we moved to California, I recruited a well-qualified leader, who ended up doing little. The organization was closed down. I diverted my energies to Lutheran Peace Fellowship (national) and People of Faith for Justice (local).

Since our move, some of the advances of the Green Team that I headed in my local congregation have reverted to pre-green status. I left my records with the new, young congregational leadership, so I have hope that they will take steps to use recycled paper, for example. And install solar panels!

I left each of my ministries to make room for other leadership. In some cases I came back in a different form. Each of us may need to do the same.

(No, I am not comparing myself to Jesus or the Holy Spirit. I do adhere to the ELCA motto: “God’s Work. Our Hands.”)

Related: My Blog on Motivation

Ascension ART from Worship Alternatives: 2468, 2469, 2470, 4047

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What’s NOW with SLW!

• Tony and Shane Uncut: Tony Campolo & Shane Claiborne’s complete dialog on simpler living and global justice, in eight parts.

  To LISTEN, click the player at the top or the bottom of the Show Notes, or visit the Episode Index. You can listen to each episode as it is released the 1st and 15th of the month, May-Aug. Or listen to several or all episodes at Preview/Back-up. The detailed Show Notes are similar for each episode, though the topics are different.

• Simple Living 101: Tools for Activists – Jerry’s Excellent Adventure: eNewsletters and Email Lists. Read MORE | Next from Simple Living 101: Tools for Activists – Jerry’s Excellent Adventure: Blogging | Podcasting | Internet Radio | Marketing Plan Checklist

• Diane Nesselhuf of Sharing the Dream: Fair Trade, a Tool for People and Planet vs. Free Trade, a Weapon of Domination – TheCommonGoodPodcast.com, episode 47.

• Since we’re in Eastertide, you may have something to contribute to our on-going collection Who’s Risen from the Dead, Anyway? for Lent/HolyWeek/Easter and to our most widely-read annual resource, Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway? for Advent/Christmas/Epiphany. Submission Guidelines | Articles are carefully indexed —  ADVENT/CHRISTMAS | LENT/EASTER.
• Simpler Living Alternative Daily Calendar – May
• Check out a few of these thought-provoking, timely resources that might meet your personal, family or congregational/group needs. They’re all FREE.
  • Treasury of Celebrations*: Create Celebrations That Reflect Your Values and Don’t Cost the Earth Earth – May-Aug.
  • Worship Alternatives: Pentecost/Ordinary Time
  • Spirit of Simplicity: Lent/Easter ART | QUOTES
  • 10 Tips for Simpler, More Meaningful Celebrations | SPANISH: 10 puntas
  • Alternatives’ Seasonal/Thematic Index

What’s Coming

• Alternate Memorial Day–May 26

• Peace, Justice and Sustainability – New Course from Northwest Earth Institute

• Resources for Pentecost and Ordinary Time

What’s Happened

• Alternatives’ Media Legacy

  Alternatives has a timeless message. It’s revolutionary ideas are indeed newsworthy! Alternatives produced three videos in the first 25 years. All are still available on YouTube and the audio of each has been produced in a series of podcasts last fall.

  More recently, I was the guest on numerous radio programs and some of those are available on the SLW! site.

  I hope you’ll listen to one or a few and be inspired to contribute to our ongoing efforts, especially Whose Birthday? and Who’s Risen from the Dead, Anyway? Submission Guidelines.

  Now that Alternatives’ mission is being extended primarily through social media on the internet, I hope you’ll benefit personally from these programs and will share them with others, maybe even use with your congregation or group. I’m available to consult with groups via the internet. All for free.

  Some of the AV stories done by others

  • CONTACT Radio Program, Jesuit Productions, 4/30/00 (14:00). Short and regular length versions of the same program. CONTACT Radio Program, Jesuit Productions (29:00) Interviews with a couple who had used Wedding Alternatives and also with Brenton Dodge, a financial advisor (see Travel Journal, Post #110). Read the Producer’s Letter at 4/25/00.
  • The Osgood File: Charles Osgood on the CBS Radio Network, 12/20/01, guest Bill McKibben (2:00) Want to hear Bill McKibben before he founded 350.org?
  • 30th Anniversary: KCAU TV (ABC), Sioux City, 9/10/03 (1:39)
  • Grace Matters, 5/22/05: Sorting Through Our Baggage (about 30 min.)
  • YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip–Iowa, Nov., 2007 (10 min., follows a commercial!) I was honored to represent Iowa.
  • The Common Good Podcast, Episode 27, 2012 (interview begins about minute 14.) And Episode 28. After my first interview on The Common Good Podcast, I became co-host and then producer later. This experience taught me how to become producer of the Simple Living Works! Podcast.
• Murder and Resurrection: “What if we destroy the planet before Jesus gets back?” RELATED: What Might a Christian Life Look Like? | Vision of the Future | Chris Hedges: The Myth of Human Progress and the Collapse of Complex Civilizations (video).

What Others Are Doing

• Interviews, Book Groups, etc. – Spreading the Conversation about The OneEarth Project and the book, Blinded by Progress: Breaking Out of the Illusion That Holds Us, by Lee Van Ham. | TheCommonGoodPodcast.com, episode 42 | Lee’s new Slide Show
• Bob Sitze’s blog Simple Enough: The Epic Struggle

Podcast Reminder

You can access all SLW! podcast audio and the show notes either at SimpleLiving.startlogic.com/SLW-PODCAST or at SimpleLivingWorks.org (then click window #3). Listen through your computer, iPod, iPad, iPhone (or equivalent).

SUBSCRIBE through iTunes, Stitcher.com or your favorite podcast service. To SUBSCRIBE to email notices, click Comments at the bottom of Show Notes, then check ‘Notify me of new posts by email.’ Please rate us in iTunes and leave a review. Send us your email address to receive the free monthly SLW! eNews. Remember to like us on Facebook. Urge your friends to do the same.

Episode Index: #1-3: Getting Acquainted | #4-5: Beyond a Consumer Lifestyle | #6-11: Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway? | #12: Living More with Less UPDATED | #13: Let’s Get Ready for a Simpler Lent & Easter | #14: Simple Living 101 + Social Media BONUS | #15: author Cecile Andrews, Champion of Simplicity Circles and Community Conversation | #16: Rites of Passage, including Wedding Alternatives | #17: Vicki Robin, co-author of the best-seller Your Money or Your Life | #18: Not Ordinary Time: Eco-Justice Ministries | #19: Simply Delicious: Quantity Cooking for Churches / Hunger / Alternative Summer Festivals | #20-27: Tony and Shane Uncut

Do your friends a favor. Share our blog and podcast. Like SLW! on Facebook. | Follow us on Twitter. | Follow us on Pinterest.

Share your thoughts on our podcast and blogs. Email Feedback AT SimpleLivingWorks DOT org [or SimpleLivingWorks AT yahoo DOT com or SimpleLivingWorks2 AT gmail DOT com], leave a message on our Facebook page or on the SLW! blog.

Peace, Gerald “Jerry” Iversen, Chief SLW! Activist

GRAPHIC – Worship Alternatives: ART #2470

We do not solicit or accept donations, nor do we sell anything. All our resources and services are free of charge. We’re an all-volunteer organization. Instead, we urge Alternative Giving. Give away at least 25% of what you spent last year on all celebrations – Christmas, birthdays, etc. — to local, national and international causes.

Copyright: Creative Commons non-commercial attribution share-alike license.

*Treasury of Celebrations: published by Northstone, a division of Wood Lake Publications, BC, Canada, best known for its Seasons of the Spirit curriculum.

Through social media, we extend the mission and resources of the non-profit organization Alternatives, 1973-2011. Simple Living Works! web site home page | Theme/Seasons Index To learn more about SLW! – our MISSION, for example — please listen to our getting-acquainted episodes, especially #1 and 2.

We produce a half-hour podcast twice a month, hopefully educational and inspiring for you, your family and your congregation or group. We blog several times a week.

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