What if?

St. Matthew's/Ascension + Price, Utah

Photograph by Jeffrey Louden

What if… 

… we rethought the entire notion of synod, bishop, geography? 

… we were willing to take enormous risks in this process? 

… we formed four or five synods out of the Rocky Mountain Synod, each served by a worker-bishop/overseer, clergy also connected to a congregational ministry? Or, failing that, what if assistants to the bishop, by intention and design, lived in different sections of the synod as truly deployed staff? 

… we took Called to Common Mission and other ecumenical agreements even more seriously than we do now?

… that led us to new creative mission work possible with our Episcopal, United Methodist, Presbyterian and other brothers and sisters with whom we are in full communion, with whom we live and work in this vast territory? 

… our new bishop made new proposals to his or her counterparts in those other traditions about creating new mission dialogues, investigating cooperative ministry sites, shared staffing, shared facilities (fill in the blanks because I know there are more ideas). 

… we took a much more serious look at how to better use technology for all our missions and ministries?

… we discovered we could save dollars, become better stewards, and create and maintain closer ties to one another? [In this age of technological innovation, distance need no longer be a prohibitive or limiting factor for many of the kind of meetings we will need to hold.]

What if…?

Pastor Jim Drury

Ascension St. Matthew Church, Price, UT

a congregation with Episcopal and Lutheran roots