Making the Convention better

In response to Laverne's last post:

I was thinking about ways the convention could be improved, which requires some thought about the whole point of the thing.

A 4 day convention is really only enough to truly work through one or two issues, and so the convention is the rubber stamp on a lot of synod initiatives. I can't think of any other way of keeping everyone informed and accountable other than pastors only doing education about the functioning of the Church, which may not be a bad thing. And even if pastors kept up with the part of the job, we would still need the convention keep everyone accountable.

The convention to me seems to be more about having time together as a larger church body, about being reminded that we are not cultic islands. I think the convention is more coherant for pastors who are there every time, who need to know the constitution and should have a good understanding of the underlying theology. I hope I wasn't the only one offended by the Task Force facilitator's claim that there were no theologians in group. If there were not, what is wrong with those pastors? Have they forgotten their ordination vows to teach? Have they forgotten what they learned at seminary? On the other hand if that was only the facilitator's view, was he the right person for the job?

I found the pastors quite "cliquey" and it seemed like lay delegates were left hanging. Pastors should work through the convention material with their delegates and congregation ahead of time and then both delegate and pastor should come back and present it afterwards in their respective congregations.

One idea that I think we should implement would be a buddy system for convention. Each lay delegate would be matched with a pastor (other than their own) and throughout the convention they would work through the material that buddy. Eat a few meals together, sit with them during sessions and make time to answer questions and dialogue. Clergy have their own study conference to be palsy walsy with each other, synod convention is on the job time. Instead of fearing how each other will vote, the buddy system would force us to trust each other and have faith that Holy Spirit will guide our decision making.

Synod Convention can be, if we make it, a chance to actually be the Church together beyond the our little lone wolf outposts.