04 July 2009

Sacrifice and Sustainablity

The systematization of Baha'i activity means that mechanisms are provided by which every element of a line of action can be expanded in proportion to the growth of the whole. Children's classes, home visits to new believers, junior youth groups, etc. multiply in relation to each other. As new believers enter the faith, they are empowered to provide the services sustaining community life. Human resources are deployed in such a way that new human resources are in turn raised up. It's like the growth of a body. One leg doesn't grow way faster than the other. The skeleton grows at the same pace as the muscles that surround them. Etc.

This resolves a long-standing problem in social action so long as efforts are channeled into activities that further this systematization.

Sacrifice and sustainablity no longer pull in opposite directions. Greater levels of sacrifice lead to greater levels of sustainability. The harder a community pushes, the better prepared they will be to hand over responsibilities to new collaborators before existing collaborators descend into spirals of burnout.

The training and mobilization of human resources is an on-going cycle which, with every turn reinforces it's own stability.

Now, about moving out of that first cycle.....

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