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CHURCH LEADERSHIP
Total Articles:
1
General Church Leadership including Bishops, Stake Presidents, Zone Leaders, Area Presidents - anything below General Authority.
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| | Area Presidencies - What They Tell You About Church Growth
Article Archived: Jun 13, 2006, at 07:53 AM
Stored Under Topic: CHURCH LEADERSHIP
Outside Link To Article: RIGHT CLICK - COPY LINK LOCATION
Original Author Of Article: Hellmut, ghost of capt jack |  | |
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.
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