Companions,
GCFA (the finance and statistics folks for the denomination) are seeking input about the forms congregations use to report their "progress" at each charge conference.
As we've discussed here before, it's a basic organizational reality that we reward what we measure, and we measure what we want to reward. That's true across all organizations.
It's also a reality that what we measure in the UMC is hardly missional, much less even Methodist!
We measure worship attendance, pastor's salaries, membership, income, apportionment giving to denominational causes, and small group participation. None of those are bad things to measure, but none of those really gets to the core of what it means to be missional or Methodist, either. None of these says word one about whether we are living into the General Rules-- which were the defining standard of the Wesleyan Way.
We can do better and need to at every level. Your input about forms is one way that can begin to happen.
Of course it's not enough. We actually have to live this where WE are. Changing labels and even metrics at the forms level doesn't guarantee that we are doing that. But it may help support an atmosphere across the church that begins to encourage more of our congregations to try.
So go do the survey-- and encourage folks at GCFA to re-examine radically what we're measuring.
http://www.gcfa.org/ofrsurvey/index.html?sm=jO2eXGdo21_2fZmPNKWA7_2fyQ_3d_3d
Peace in Christ,
Taylor Burton-Edwards