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 | Tuesday, Jun 13, 2006, at 07:53 AM Area Presidencies - What They Tell You About Church Growth Posted By Hellmut, ghost of capt jack CHURCH LEADERSHIP -Guid- | ↑ |
| Thanks to our friends at Nauvoo, we now have the names of all the area presidencies (click here). Who they are tells you more about the state of the church world-wide, but particularly Latin America, than any stilted conference talk or boring Ensign puff-piece. A quick glance at the names of those called to serve reinforces what we've written about here before, namely that growth in Latin America is a shadow of what Salt Lake claims it is. Mexico, the land of 1 million plus Mormons has the following presidencies: MEXICO NORTH Jorge A. Rojas First counselor C. Scott Grow President Jose L. Alonso Second counselor MEXICO SOUTH Marco A. Cardenas First counselor Craig C. Christensen President Jose L. Torres Second Counselor Out of 1 million members, they couldn't find two they could trust to be the presidents. Gringos rule the roost in both areas--C Scott Grow in the North. BTW, what the hell is up with that name? Moving south, we have Central America: CENTRAL AMERICA Don R. Clarke First counselor Spencer V. Jones President Jose E. Boza Second counselor Again, gringos running the show with a token at 2nd counselor. On to South America where we have one native as president--a Uruguayan in Brazil, with yanquis in charge everywhere else except SA North. SA North consists of Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador; I guess it wasn't safe enough for the first stringers, so they let the natives run that one. Brazil, however, has nearly 900K claimed members; surely they could find at least one to be their president. Guess not, hell they pulled a joker with Mervyn Arnold. SOUTH AMERICA NORTH Benjamin De Hoyos First counselor Claudio R. M. Costa President Cesar A. Davila Second counselor SOUTH AMERICA WEST Willy F. Zuzunaga* First counselor James M. Dunn President Alexander A. Nunez Second counselor BRAZIL NORTH Stanley G. Ellis First counselor Walter F. Gonzalez President Pedro J. Penha Second counselor BRAZIL SOUTH Ulisses Soares First counselor Mervyn B. Arnold President Carlos A. Godoy Second counselor CHILE Carlos H. Amado First counselor Carl B. Pratt President Oscar W. Chavez Second counselor SOUTH AMERICA SOUTH Shayne M. Bowen First counselor Lynn G. Robbins President Fernando D. Ortega Second counselor Bottom line: the church has been in Latin America since the 1920s (the 1870s if we count Mexico), and they still can't provide local leadership to receive instruction from Salt Lake. What about Asia, specifically the Phillipines? Or Polynesia, surely they have enough to provide their own leaders, maybe even a Lamanite? Guess not, they've got one native in each presidency. PHILIPPINES Keith R. Edwards First counselor D. Rex Gerratt President Michael J. Teh--the lone Filipino Second counselor NEW ZEALAND/PACIFIC ISLANDS David S. Baxter--from England First counselor Spencer J. Condie--from Idaho President Hans T. Sorensen-- at least he's from New Zealand Second counselor When they instituted area presidencies we were hoping that they would understand local conditions better. It turned out to be a total bust. Wirthlin might as well have stayed home. He believes that he understands Germany. He also thinks that he can speak German. His younger brother was a great mission president though. During the early decade, they finally instituted CES centers at various universities. I had told the guy who did the first one in 1985 that this would help retain college kids. It took them fifteen years to see the common sense. They probably sold it as a speshul revelation. Seriously, I don't think that an area president has much power. They don't have budget authority. They are not allowed to raise their own money. Nor can they deviate from worldwide budget policies. Hence their creative capacity trends against zero. When they are in Germany they attend Anglo wards. They don't care about information that stake presidents provide. Area presidents only care about communication from Salt Lake. Priority number one is to get statistical reports in on time. In a word, they are glorified pencil pushers that pretend to be in Germany. In reality, they might as well have remained in Utah. It would not make a difference. |