Kings to Roadkill

Howdy everyone,

Read an interesting article today: "How Detroit's Automakers Went from Kings of the Road to Roadkill." Listen to this paragraph:

"During the 1980's and 1990's, GM's leaders refused--and I believe some still refuse--to accept the reality of the presence of so many new automakers in the U.S. market, more than at any time since the 1920's. This hard truth means the company's US market share going forward isn't going to return to the 40 percent levels of the mid-1980's, or even the mid-20 percent levels we have seen more recently. On thing to watch as GM tries to restructure now will be what assumptions the company makes about its share of the U.S. market going forward. If they call for anything higher than 15 percent, I would be suspicious."

Could a similar paragraph be written about our church? Could that article be re-written something along the lines of "How Wesley's descendents snatched defeat from the jaws of victory."

I continue to plug away at posting churches on my map....I'm well into three districts worth and will hopefully have it done in the near future. As I look at the map in it's current state my mind starts whirling....what does it say? what does it show? how does it inform our future? What will it say when all the dots are posted. (Oh, I've also added community centers, colleges/universities/wesley foundations, and camps) I wish I had A2 scores for all the churches...I've only been able to post those for the Senatobia District & while it wasn't earth-shattering it was interesting nonetheless. With such a presence why aren't we growing? What are we missing? When I read an article in the latest Harvard magazine about early childhood education and look at the graph that shows children with the largest vocabulary in kindergarten maintaining that edge all the way through sixth grade I wonder why we don't have 1000 pre-k programs going on across the state. Then I read about playwright Christopher Durang and how his works are informed by "a bedrock hopelessness over the absence of a caring God" and I wonder if we are demonstrating the fallacy of that belief in 1000 different corners of Mississippi on a daily basis? If not, why not? How do we revitalize our way to relevance?

Oh well, as you can tell I'm feeling better...not 100% yet so I'm going to bed.