tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889031.post6467715157492560524..comments2023-11-05T00:58:55.352-07:00Comments on A Peculiar Prophet: Jurisdictional Conference Area Report - Birmingham AreaWilliam H. Willimonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00002821401928222858noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889031.post-81269220832521949752008-07-27T14:31:00.000-07:002008-07-27T14:31:00.000-07:00Mr. Welch:Thanks for the advice. I must say that y...Mr. Welch:<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the advice. I must say that you don’t need to worry too much about your New York Conference becoming too business minded. That Conference is clearly in its last years as a Conference due to massive decline and losses.<BR/><BR/>I can’t imagine any business losing 20% of its business in 20 years and not making one single change in the way it does business. <BR/><BR/>We Methodists are inveterate numbers crunchers, numbers takers, yet we never, ever make a single decision on the basis of the numbers! All of the numbers that are being taken on our new Conf. Dashboard are numbers that we have always collected since the beginning of our movement. The main difference is that the numbers – which are clear indicators of fidelity and effectiveness – are always at least a year out of date. Now, in this new system, they will be current, up to the week.<BR/><BR/>Now the problem comes in having the courage to administer the church on the basis of fruit and results. I can’t imagine that the UMC is being too business conscious. Truth is, we are excusing huge decline and death by saying, “We’re the church, so we can’t hold ourselves accountable to any measurement of effectiveness.”<BR/><BR/>I can think of so much scripture and so many of Jesus’ stories that urge us to hold ourselves accountable to results and fruit.<BR/><BR/>Will WillimonWilliam H. Willimonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00002821401928222858noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889031.post-56544700210826094382008-07-27T11:58:00.000-07:002008-07-27T11:58:00.000-07:00Mr Welch, I work for GE and I hate the company!! e...Mr Welch, I work for GE and I hate the company!! everything about it, it's fake concern for its people, it's bragging about how great it is, etc. It's all talk-- just like the 'church'Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35889031.post-26920753905498783682008-07-26T20:15:00.000-07:002008-07-26T20:15:00.000-07:00I've read enough of your books to conclude that yo...I've read enough of your books to conclude that you are an interesting thinker, Bishop W., but beware the business school talk in the report.<BR/><BR/>I've worked for 25 years in a large corpration and in the financial industry. We told our management at GE that if they paid so much attention to our numbers, we would work only toward whatever they measured. If they measured the number of phone calls we made, then we would make a whale of a lot of calls. <BR/><BR/>Certainly, any organization has to be led so as to be coherent, but MBA-thinking has destroyed much in American business. <BR/><BR/>I happened to read some "guest columns" by your ministers, and I would be prouder to have collected those insightful preachers than to make most of the accountability numbers that will be reported each week/month/whatever.<BR/><BR/>Peace,<BR/><BR/>John W. Welch<BR/>(currently attend St Paul and St Andrew UMC, NYC; 6th or 7th generation Methodist out of Virginia and Maryland. Oh, and I'm NOT John F. Welch, Jr, former CEO of GE!)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com