Week Six Message for Speakers
Generosity, the Global Game-changer
Preparation: Chapter 12 of The Bond
SUMMARY:
This week focuses on the lessons of Nipun Mehta, who transformed from a classic Silicon Valley ‘turk’ on a six-figure salary to a global ‘game changer’ running international CharityFocus. His story illustrates the power within each of us as global game changers. Tiny acts of generosity can to set off a contagion of giving and cooperative behavior in our communities.
FULL TEXT:
This week focuses on the lessons of Nipun Mehta, who transformed from a classic Silicon Valley ‘turk’ on a six-figure salary to a global ‘game changer’ running international CharityFocus.
Mehta was a high-strung, high-octane prodigy who had begun computer programming at the age of seven, entered Berkeley at sixteen, and by his junior year, had already been snatched up part-time by Sun Microsystems, which picked up the tab for his college tuition.
In the middle of 1999, on a six-figure salary Mehta began to have an uneasy sense about the get-rich-quick culture around him – particularly its effect upon himself. At times he felt as though he were drowning in a sea of greed.
One evening Mehta invited twenty of an assortment of his young professional friends to a gathering at his home and invited them to shift the current American culture of greed and materialism, by changing that culture within themselves and carrying out an experiment in the joy of giving and generosity in Silicon Valley – a place with the highest per capita ownership of Ferraris and the lowest percentage of charitable donations in the country.
His story illustrates the power within each of us as global game changers. Tiny acts of generosity can to set off a contagion of giving and cooperative behavior in our communities.
This sermon may emphasize ways that members of your congregation and community can become a ‘spiritual citizens’ and transform their own life’s purpose from ‘me and mine alone’ to ‘we.’ Simple everyday acts enable each of us to become a powerhouse of change, permanently shifting the culture of greed and materialism around us, through tiny acts of generosity.
Focus points:
• The extraordinary and infectious power of generosity or giving to completely transform a business or neighborhood culture. A single act of kindness — change left in a Coke machine for the next person, in one instance — can set off an enormous wave of generosity throughout an entire community — up to three degrees of separation along the social network.
• How acts of generosity change the game in our wider community. Possible stories for inclusion: Karma Kitchen and Mehta’s Wednesdays program.
Week Six Lesson for Study Groups
Generosity and Fairness: the Global Game Changer
Reading guide: Chapter 12 of The Bond.
This week explores ways that each of you within your group or congregation can become ‘spiritual citizens’ and transform your own life’s purpose from ‘me and mine alone’ to ‘we.’ The session should examine how each of us can become a powerful change agent through tiny ‘do-something’ actions and investigate the extraordinary and infectious power of generosity to transform a business or neighborhood. Simple everyday acts of generosity enable you to become a powerhouse of change, permanently shifting the culture of greed and materialism around you.
Lesson Goal: To explore the extraordinary and infectious power of generosity to create inherent trust in your community or workplace.
Discussion Topics:
• What are the most important lessons to be learned from the experiences of Nipun Mehta, who who transformed from a classic Silicon Valley ‘turk’ on a six-figure salary to a global ‘game changer’ running international CharityFocus?
Challenge: Which are the most important ways that you could become a change agent in your daily life?
• How can each one of us set off a contagion of giving and cooperative behavior in our neighborhood or office?
Challenge: Think of several ways that you can use generosity as an extraordinary and infectious power to create inherent trust in your neighborhood.
• Describe why one tiny act of kindness — a bit of change left in a Coke machine —caused a wave of generosity throughout a vast corporation and affected an entire community. What happens to a culture of selfishness in the face of a few ‘change agents’ who re-establish generosity and reciprocity?
Challenge: Design several acts you can do that might be able to set off a contagion of change.
• How can partnerships (like the John Lewis Partnership) be used to unite communities?
Challenge: Can you arrange your project you are currently working on as a partnership with no one in charge?
Weekly exercise: Design three specific pay-it-forward actions in your neighborhood, community or workplace that set off a contagion of giving and cooperative behavior. Report back to the group on the results. |
