For these pastors
a name is (usually) a good fit By Julie B. Sevig A
surgeon named Dr. Allgood. A clumsy girl named Grace. A dentist named Dr. Chu. Clearly,
some names fi t more than others. Aſt er corresponding with Lori
Hope, pastor of St. Mark Lutheran Church, Sioux Falls, S.D., T e Lutheran set out to discover what other fi tting names are on the ELCA clergy roster. Pastor Hope was just a start, and comes with her own story. “My husband and I both changed
our names to show equality—to show we were both changing,” Hope said. “He has studied and worked with Native Americans and I with Chinese language and people. We wanted to choose something with meaning. ... I wanted the name to sound good with ‘pastor.’ ” Readers responded with appropri-
ate names—mostly. Jennifer Klema Cuthbertson, Vancouver, B.C., said she was confi rmed by Rev. Grimm, which was how she sometimes viewed confi rmation class. Kary Daniels wrote: “Our Pas-
tor Linda Easterling (Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Lebanon, Ore.) preaches the good news of Easter every Sunday.” Pam Schaefer, a pastor of Cross
and Crown Lutheran Church and School in Rohnert Park, Calif., wrote that she and her father, now retired, are really “Shepherd Shepherd” since “pastor means shepherd, and Schae- fer is German for shepherd.”
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www.thelutheran.org David R. Cordaro, First Evangelical
Lutheran Church, Mesa, Ariz., said it’s probably better to be Shepherd than Wolf, but remembers the late C. Umhau Wolf, Toledo, Ohio, was a beloved pastor. Pastors named Wolf, of various spellings, outnumber those named Shepherd 23 to two in the ELCA Yearbook. Jeffi e Rusel Wesley, St. Matthew
Evangelical Lutheran Church, Springfi eld, Pa., said he knew a Pastor Parson. “Redundant?” he joked. Matt Crownover tires of
the reaction to his name. As a hospital chaplain he leans toward a “less royal view of pastoral care.” So he nomi- nated John Schelter, pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church, Mesquite, Texas, to the name list. “Don’t let the ‘c’ fool you,” Crownover said. “John pronounces his name
‘shelter’ and the fi t could not be truer. As we have images from Scripture about a mother hen guarding her chicks, so does Pastor Schelter [serve] as a loving reminder of God’s presence amidst [our] turbulent times and world.” Donna Bjorkquist asked, “Does your church have a heart? Bethlehem
Lutheran Church, Ridgway, Pa., does: Pastor Erik Hart. Of course, the heart of the church is the people, but our Pastor Hart keeps the heart of the church beating. … In his kindness and words of compassion, he shows his good heart. We hope we never have to have a heart transplant.” But Kathy Knapp, Henderson, Nev., says Pastor Warren Best is, of course,
best. T ough now retired from serving parishes in Chicago, “many of us former Luther Leaguers would call him the ‘best’ thing that ever happened to us,” she said. Best inspired them to go “into positions of leadership and service” in their own congregations as adults. What’s better than that? Well, perhaps Pastor Godson. Both Jerome Godson, pastor of Elgin (Iowa) Lutheran Church, and his son, Adam, suggested this name. “Is that
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