Today’s Buzz: The Spiritual Gift of Name Memorization, Groeschel on Going Postal, &
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Thu, May 10, 2007
- Viewed 43
- (5) comments so far
Man’s Ministry is Learning Thousands of Names
Every Sunday at a Church of God sanctuary in Washington state, Rich Leitke greets each person by name. He has memorized thousands of names and believes his calling is to personalize the church-going experience to bring in new members. Other churches think he’s on to something. HT: NPR
Man, I really envy this guy. I’m terrible with names. Good job, Randy!
Angry, Miserable, Postal Pastors
If you haven’t been reading Craig Groeschel’s posts on pastors “going postal"… you must do so today. It’s a four part series that you can read here. Great job, Craig!
Hey Craig, I think the perfect follow-up series next week would be “When Postal Workers Go “Pastoral”. What do you think?
Goldie Hawn on Spirituality
“The interesting part of my spiritual life is studying as much as you can. Islam and Buddhism and Hinduism and Shamanism and Judaism, Christianity--you try to learn what the precepts are, what the religion is, and ultimately, it’s based in the same thought, it’s based in the same outcome, you know.” Source
I wonder how Goldie resolves the different teachings of these different religions. How can you take what you like from each one when each one is diametrically opposed to the others in their teachings?
Tim Stevens’ Seven Elements of a Vacation
Tim Stevens is on vacation. And his main priority and focus on vacation is his wife. (Good for you, Tim). Before he left, Tim also gave some other rules for his vacation this year:
1. No watch. Sounds good… but how will you know what time to eat? (one of my favorite things to do on vacation) Maybe he’ll look at his wife’s watch.
2. No email. OK… now you’re stretching it. I haven’t gone a week without email since 1976, it seems. How about your wife checks your email and you look over her shoulder?
3. No logging into the VPN to do work. I could do that one pretty easily. 
4. No cell phone. (His kids must be grown). Gots to have at least a cell phone, right?
5. No alarm clock. (No problem)
6. Not taking any work with him. (I always say that I’ll do that. I rarely ever happens).
7. No blogging. Huh? Yeah, I could do that.
Hmmm… a vacation sounds pretty good right now!
Have a great day!
Well, good morning Tom, Renee, Angelica, Cletus, Bernard, Ricky, Lucille, Abby, Kyle and Veronica... glad you're here this morning. That's the calling of one person who's memorized thousands of names so he can greet everyone at his church personally every Sunday. We'll talk about that, along with angry pastors, Goldie Hawn's spirituality and what Tim Stevens is doing on vacation this week. All that in today's BUZZ...
Comments
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Peter Hamm on Thu, May 10, 2007
I think I might apply that list for my next vacation. heck, how about just my next day off!
Also, I don’t want the spiritual gift of name memorization NEARLY as much as I wish I had the spiritual gift of penmanship. Too often I can’t even read my OWN writing…
RevJeff on Thu, May 10, 2007
Peter -
As one who has recently had every boundary challenged, I started turning my cell phone of on Mondays… people freaked for two weeks… now I turn it back on TuesdayMorning and I haven’t missed any calls.
It sure cuts the “I know it’s your only ‘day off’ BUT…” chaos and conflict out of the schedule.
Randy Ehle on Thu, May 10, 2007
As to memorizing names, I definitely don’t have “the gift”. But I have been significantly impacted by someone like that: Ted Limpic was responsible for all summer staff at Forest Home camp in California when I worked there in ‘82 and ‘83. The first night of summer, everyone (150 summer staff and 75 permanent) were gathered in an auditorium for orientation. Ted went around the room and introduced every person…by name, where they were working that summer, and what college they were at. I’d never met or talked with Ted before in my life, and his only knowledge of me came from my staff application and the picture I’d included on it. To say I was impressed would be a gross understatement. (Obviously, since that has stuck with me for 25 years!) A few years later, Ted and his family were serving in Brazil and I ended up joining his home church. When I saw him on furlough…he still remembered me!
On the flip side, I’ve gotten people’s names wrong even after having met them several times, and that has also been impactful - negatively. I think it’s part skill, part design…and part just being concerned with people. So, Peter, while good handwriting is helpful, I know I can always revert to typing. But if I had to choose between better handwriting and better name memory, I’c go with the names. (I don’t know that the quality of my handwriting has ever impacted someone nearly as much as my remembering - or forgetting - their name.)
(BTW, was it a mistake or intentional irony that you noted the guy’s name as Rich Leitke…then later wrote “Good job, Randy?!)
Todd Rhoades on Thu, May 10, 2007
Thanks for noticing my lame attempt at humor there, Randy.
It IS Randy, right?
http://www.mondaymorninginsight.com/images/smileys/smile.gif
Todd
Leonard on Fri, May 11, 2007
I remember names freakishly well but I also has a pastor who after one meeting remembered names. It was cool and the pastor that followed him couldn’t remember his own kids names much less he had met you 2300 times. This was a source of comedy for us.
My father in Law used to say, very few thing in life need anger to get them done. 56 years as a pastor taught him that. I think passion gets confused with anger in our culture.
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