Restructuring in Real Time

By Sarah Thompson

Many organizations in the fields
of business, non-profits, and even universities are reshaping in these beginning
years of the 21st century. 
Most institutional structures of the previous centuries have taken us as
far as we can go, and the new economic, social, and political climates demand
new types of responsive structures.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)
is no exception to the restructuring process, calling the approach New Wine/New
Wineskins.  It has held two large
Appreciative Inquiry summits, one in Manila, Philippines and one in Winnipeg, Canada.  What is powerful about this process is
that it has broad participation from previously discounted voices.  MCC staff, MCC board members, partner
organizations, and church representatives are coming together to wrestle with
the questions that the world presents. 
Most participants came as a representative of both administrative and grassroots ideas and voices.

Much has already been written
about the process, especially in web-based communication material.  We are trying to be as transparent as
possible as our collective destiny unfolds...so tune-in, and participate.  Each person can submit their answers to
questions such as: When was MCC at its best? What was happening? Who was
there?  If you're interested in
holding a mini-summit going on in your area, contact us via the website.  Wide participation is key to the success
of the New Wine/New Wineskins process. 

Another key from my perspective,
as someone who comes to the process through my involvement with youth and young
adults, is to stay grounded in one's present reality even as one dreams for the
future.  A powerful example of this
concept happened during the most recent summit.

In the middle of lunch, Arli
called an emergency meeting of all attending MCC board chairs and regional
Executive Directors to talk about the upcoming controversial meeting with the
President of Iran.  In a report back
from that mini-meeting, Arli shared with the entire gathered body why MCC
decided to carry on with the plans to meet.  The reasons included:

1. Loving
   "our enemies" as ourselves and meeting with those, in the name of Christ, with
   those whom U.S. society labels enemies.
2. MCC
   did not initiate the meeting, rather was responding to an invitation from
   people of the Global South, for whom the stakes are often higher in these
   types of conversations.
3. The
   meeting was one of the few places of political dialogue and citizen diplomacy,
   a precious commodity in an ever-militarizing world.
4. MCC
   has a reputation as a caring and trustworthy organization in
   Iran since 1990.

Despite the differences of
opinion in the room about the current state of world affairs, the rhythm of the
summit was pierced with the realization that this meeting did not exist in a
vacuum, that we must stay grounded in the present reality even as we dreamed for
the future: Restructuring in real time. 
We said a prayer of blessing for those who were to represent different
Mennonite denominations there and had a few moments to contemplate the weight
and fragility of the human structures that exist on the thin crust of this
Earth.

What the new economic, social,
and political realities demand is informed participation.  They demand an ability to hold an
enormous amount of information in tension, and still be able to act.  I believe that MCC's willingness to make
a tough collective decision based on its Christian peacemaking and antiracist
mandate shows the strength of the organization.  It is on that strength and many others
that we invite everyone to participate in the creation of a structure, mission,
vision and goals that can respond to real people and real situations for the
next 20 years.