Structure? Which structure?

I entered a conversation today about the upcoming Episcopal General Convention.

If you don't know what that is supposed to mean, this post isn't for you. It would be better for you to wander away into happier blogs or posts... like my favorite post of this blog: http://oldenoughtooyoungtocare.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-dont-sheep-shrink-when-it-rains.html
Or get off the computer all together. Its a nice day outside... go out and breathe fresh air.

If you are already scared about what might be coming next, you might have a bit of sense.
If you got all excited, you have serious issues.
Perhaps you should call your nearest Episcopal Bishop and talk about your options.

The conversation went something like this:
     "The General Convention is going to be talking about Structure. The structure of the national church."

     "The national church? Why not the local church? That's where the real issues are."

     "I know. We really need to be having discussions about how to change and make the local churches more sustainable within communities, yet the want to start those kind of conversations is lacking. We have just been experimenting with different models for a generation without any systematic change." etc, etc.

[Musical Interlude of a couple of hours]

Then (in my head):

Say you come upon an eighteen wheeler on the side of the road. It is stopped and the driver says that there is something obviously wrong with it because it hasn't been working properly. You think you are a stand up person, someone who would really like to help the world out, so you take a survey look at the truck and realize the tires are gridlocked. So you decide that you will try to fix the engine. You start tinkering with the engine and finally you think, there! I have it! It must be fixed now. But when the driver starts the truck up, it doesn't go anywhere. The tires are still all grid locked and aren't moving. Sadly, all your fixing of the engine doesn't help at all. The truck still won't go anywhere.

I realize this analogy is not that great. And the national church does need some help, but it would be good if some helpful work was done on reorganizing the local, regional church was done as well.

If you have made it this far, perhaps you want to leave some feedback. What do you think?

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