Allow me to fly a kite.

First I want to make it clear. I am not necessarily promoting the following idea, just raising it for our joint discussion.

On Monday Andrew Nixon said the parish system was good for mission. Fair enough.

But his column raises a further question. What is the optimal number of parishes for modern Sydney? And do we have too many parishes?

The 'parish system', as most of us in established parts of Sydney now experience it, was devised in a time that predates modern travel. People couldn't drive. There was a genuine local community and most people walked to church. It made sense for denominations to have a strategy of small parishes, as part of these local ‘village’ communities.

However, our suburbs are now very different communities to what they use to be.

Many local suburban shopping strips are struggling. Today retail is dominated by fewer, regional shopping centres placing many local shops under pressure to survive. People no longer know their neighbours. People no longer genuinely operate within their local suburb.

It is not just common for a family to have one car. Many families have two. People do not hesitate but to travel at the drop of a hat. And when they consider something worthwhile, distances do not seem to matter.

At the same time, the standard expectations for public facilities have skyrocketed. We seldom appreciate the perceived time warp that people go through just to step onto our premises. They think our facilities are outdated; a perception that probably leads them to think our message and place in the community is outdated.

Further, people expect a higher quality and even professionalism of programs. Churches can struggle just to keep up with the increased legislative requirements for child protection and the like, let alone successfully implement high quality programs that teach people about Jesus.

Are their expectations right? Perhaps not. But that is the environment in which we must now operate, isn't it?

No doubt the larger more regional churches have many challenges by virtue of them being larger. But who in a smaller church has not been through - however fleetingly - a moment of covetousness at the economies of scale that larger churches can work with? Big churches can provide higher quality and more specialised ministries, greater diversity of staff teams, greater diversity of and more lay people, better facilities, and the list goes on.

And so my question: if we had to create a new system to reach Sydney with the gospel from scratch in the year 2010, and with the equivalent of the total resources that we have scattered, would it be the local parish system that we now have?

I am not asking if we can make it work in the current system. I am asking what would be optimal.

To reiterate: I am not saying this is my view. But I am saying let's talk about it.

What do you think?