Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

As I mentioned in my post last week, summer is novel reading time. I recently read the first two books of Suzanne Collin’s The Hunger Games, a popular and unnervingly dark young adult novel. In this series a violent society pits starving teenagers against one another in the ultimate zero-sum game, a reality show where friends must turn on one another if they are to emerge as the sole survivor. The victor of these annual games wins food and wealth for her/his family.

Scarcity, survival, competition for limited resources - the core themes of The Hunger Games were very much on my mind last week, and not only because I stayed up late reading these books! Twice last week I found myself reflecting on how scarcity can lock us into a white-knuckle struggle to survive, oftentimes at the expense of more imaginative solutions and potential partnerships.

The first of these moments came when I learned that the stove had broken.
As a board member of the New York Intern Program, an Episcopal Service Corps program where five young adults complete a year a service in Harlem, NYC, we had already received bad news. Citing government cutbacks, AmeriCorps had sent us a disappointing letter saying that funding for NYIP had been cut. Suddenly we found ourselves on shaky financial ground. A broken stove in the intern apartment only served to rub salt into the wound.

The second moment came when I was asked to offer a 15 minute statistical overview on the state of the Episcopal Church. This presentation will take place later this month and will be based on reports from the Episcopal Church Center’s Office of Research. “You’re the bad news guy!” a colleague said. And he’s right. My presentation will cover declining membership, declining worship attendance, declining plate and pledge. I could go on but won’t.

In the face of scarcity and decline, many go into anxiety-filled survivor mode. We're prone to feel competitive and resentful toward more well-resourced programs, congregations, denominations, etc. Yet we do so at our own peril.

Like any good young adult novel, the Hunger Games shows how the hero’s frightening circumstances force her to grow up. The hero of the novel, Katniss Everdeen, comes to terms with how a lifetime of scarcity has pitted her against potential allies and she must learn to trust teammates in even the most frightening circumstances. She realizes how important it is to see abundant resources where others can only see lack. And finally, she has to learn how playing into the competitive dynamics of the hunger games misses the larger point.

Catniss goes from being a frightened, reactive survivor to a leader who is capable of shifting how the game is played.

As for the stove, to be perfectly honest I don’t know what’s going to happen, and I don’t believe anyone really knows how to resolve mainline Protestantism’s decline in the U.S. Nevertheless, this novel (as well as our rich tradition of reflection on scarcity, survival and God’s abundance) has made me realize that we won’t get very far unless we’re able to radically rethink how we use our limited resources, establish partnerships rather than engage in bizarre rivalries, and stay focused on the bigger picture - namely, God’s mission - even while struggling to survive.