We also know that getting around by car is not at all the same as traveling the dusty roads of the church in today’s society.  Some of the maps we unravel, it seems, point to the edge of the world and enormous regions of uncharted ocean with the words written, Beware!  Thar be dragons!  Do we sail in that direction or don’t we?  Or, to abruptly shift metaphors, do we stay with the fleshpots of Egypt or venture into the uncharted wilderness of the desert?

Google hasn’t yet done a map for the church in the 21^stcentury; Steve Jobs has yet to develop a leadership app for our iphones that can point us in the right direction, and no GPS device can be attached to our office desk or pulpit that will reliably inform us when we’ve taken a wrong turn.  So we turn to each other, listen to each other and trust that underneath it all the Spirit is moving within us. That perhaps is the best we can find for an internal GPS device.  We are both the explorers and topographers.  Though others have gone before us offering essential wisdom for the journey, we are the ones making the maps today, and so collegial conversations are essential for each of us to gain a sense of  the longitudes and latitudes we are navigating.