From a Long-Time Reader:
I have really enjoyed the Ichabod posts over the last few days. What follows are some random thoughts of mine. Today's culture really is obsessed with material success. I rarely rant about this stuff, but it is so pervasive. As you began pointing out decades ago, it is at the core of the CGM. Recently I viewed a TED talk from Mike Rowe. He does the TV show called Dirty Jobs. I have never watched the show but his take on working is spot on. He said that the most content people that he met were those that did the dirty jobs.
Naturally, our culture says differently. One person did his job well for 15 years and got two weeks severance pay. The moral of the story is that you can be successful, but you can still get kicked to the curb at a moment's notice.
A manager - He is knowledgeable but never missed a chance to pad his success record. He also had an obsession with Visual Planning Management, which the company really latched on to. In fact, I am surprised that the Church Growth Movement has not jumped on that one yet. There is a lesson to be learned from the seven points for effective Christian congregations. There is no substitute for division of labor (an economics idea) even in congregations. The manner in which this is implemented is where I think that the trouble begins. Instead of obsessing over which members have what strengths, all that needs to be done is to just ask them to help out with the housekeeping and administration. The pastor can concentrate on what he needs to do to be a shepherd to his flock. This flies in the face of the notion that "everyone is a minister".
Thank you for making the connection between Gallup and the Fuller Brush Company. That was the piece that I was missing. That stench of that dead rat was overpowering in my nostrils. I just could not seem to locate him. Furthermore, you did a stellar Rothbardian analysis and named all the bad guys.
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| The Pietists - Methodists too - have tried to drop all confessions, all differences, but that has been disastrous. Now the cost for Methodists being so nice-nice is likely to be an ELCA-like division and more Nadias. |
