Good stuff Professor Beck. I'm hopeful this is a turning point for our church. Thanks for helping us understand the systemic issues with our current metrics.
I have always wondered why churches don’t use psychological and sociological instruments for measurement. Like compassion, religiosity, life satisfaction… “there’s a scale for that.” Your work is exciting.
I agree with almost everything in this post. But I'm skeptical that the kind of revolutionary change your suggesting is possible here. If the metrics really do shape reality, then it would be kind of like needing to replace someone's reality. People who have accepted a reality don't even know it can be changed. And which people who are still dependent on denominations would really make that kind of change? People would lose their jobs. The whole economic model would need to change.
Lifelong Methodist here. I've always has a problem with how we measure success and how that warps the church and leaders in bad ways. This might be the most important development I've seen in the UMC. Every denominational leader should be reading this.
Good stuff Professor Beck. I'm hopeful this is a turning point for our church. Thanks for helping us understand the systemic issues with our current metrics.
This is solid gold.
I have always wondered why churches don’t use psychological and sociological instruments for measurement. Like compassion, religiosity, life satisfaction… “there’s a scale for that.” Your work is exciting.
This is not really news to me. I hope you will try to get to some practical application at some point. Like yes, we see this, now what do we do?
Thank God someone has the courage to write like this.
I agree with almost everything in this post. But I'm skeptical that the kind of revolutionary change your suggesting is possible here. If the metrics really do shape reality, then it would be kind of like needing to replace someone's reality. People who have accepted a reality don't even know it can be changed. And which people who are still dependent on denominations would really make that kind of change? People would lose their jobs. The whole economic model would need to change.
Excellent and thought provoking. Ready to learn more about the study.
Lifelong Methodist here. I've always has a problem with how we measure success and how that warps the church and leaders in bad ways. This might be the most important development I've seen in the UMC. Every denominational leader should be reading this.
Was not familiar with Merry's work or indicator theory. Thanks for teaching through your writing. So much surface level stuff on Substack.
Wow. Thanks for articulating what I've been feeling for years. This is such important work.