Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

“Negotiating limited resources creates community,” says Don Bisson, a Marist brother and widely respected leader on the interrelationship of spirituality and psychology.

When I heard this claim last week from Sr. Carol Bernice, reporting on a workshop Brother Bisson led for Episcopal religious orders, it really struck a chord. I’ve pondered it all week. Then I read Richelle Thompson’s blog post here yesterday, about building community at camp, and realized some of the same elements are at play.

Negotiating limited resources creates community.

Richelle paints a great picture of how campers share limited resources, helping each other out when supplies run low or kids creating fun and games out of the natural materials at hand.

I also see it clearly each week on the farm where I live with nuns, resident companions, and interns. Our weekly “house meetings” often involve lengthy dialogue about resources – food, land, tools, cars, budgets, etc. One of the biggest “resources” that gets discussed is time, especially with just a handful of people to carry out all the work and ministry. When one person gets sick or pulled in new directions, everything else needs to be adjusted. It’s not easy. But I agree it creates community: each member knows how they fit in, and ultimately, depends on each other for everything.

But most of us don’t live at a campsite, where connections form and fade quickly and spontaneously. Nor are we professed monks or nuns, taking vows of obedience to a shared rule of life. Our experience of community often comes from other sources: marriage, family, church, or local civic participation.

This week as I thought about “community” on the bigger stage, I sensed a feeling of despair. It seems to me that our wider social fabric is being torn apart by fights over limited resources. Human history is loaded with stories of oppression or deprivation when one group hoards resources at the expense of others. We know congregations can run themselves into the ground by how they deal with limited resources. A cynical voice in me asked how it could be true that negotiating limited resources creates community…doesn’t it instead fracture community? In war torn, disaster ravaged, economically declining, environmentally depleted towns and nations, how are we ever going to survive and thrive with one another?

Then it hit me. The key idea must be “negotiating” – not fighting, scapegoating, or hoarding. How we respond to the reality of limited resources is our choice. Are we willing to negotiate, to compromise, to sacrifice, for the sake of community? How badly do we want community? Are we willing to work towards it, even when it’s messy, painful, and unable to provide everything we desire? Some small groups – like campers and nuns and families – usually find ways to negotiate and share their resources for the sake of everyone involved. They reap the rewards, too: knowing the true security that comes from a web of strong relationships. Ultimately, we depend on others for our very survival. As Christians and spiritual people, we also strive to ground our lives in thanksgiving for our Creator God and all that has been given to us. God’s resources are not limited. But yes, we have to learn to negotiate with all our brothers and sisters if we are to share fully in communion with God and each other.