Over the weekend I read Lovett Weems little book Focus: The Real Challenges that Face the United Methodist Church. I have long been a fan of Dr. Weems' work. His insight and leadership first as President of St. Paul’s School of Theology and now as Director of the Lewis Center for Leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary are a blessing to the whole church. I have ve an app for the Lewis Leadership Center website, Leading Ideas, on my iPad (www.churchleadership.com). All this is preface to the assertion that Focus: The Real Challenges that Face the United Methodist Church is an outstanding read.
Delegates to General & Jurisdictional Conferences should make it a mustread (!) prior to attending. But the book goes beyond simply dealing with larger church issues. Different chapters deal with different areas: The New Context, Resetting the Financial Baseline, General Church, Annual Conference, Congregations, Reaching More People, Younger People, More Diverse People, and What is Ahead for the UMC. So impressed am I that I have asked John McKellar, Chair of the Conference Council of Finance and Administration, to have the entire CFA read the 2nd chapter on finances. Every delegate to the Central Texas Conference (Lay and Clergy!) would greatly benefit from reading chapter 4 on Annual Conferences. Likewise congregations would be well blessed by reading and discussion time of chapters 5 & 6 on congregations and reaching more, diverse & younger people.
I could go on. I will write further blogs on subjects raised in Focus. For now, read this book!