CHICAGO, IL (September 25, 2015) — Many Covenanters routinely share links to social media articles and videos with one another that Covenant News Service believes may be of interest to others. Each Friday we post five of them. Following is a sample of those submissions—their inclusion does not represent an endorsement by the Covenant of any views expressed.
Yogi Berra Quotes: How False Narrative from Friend Dominated
This is the first of two articles today on the Hall-of-Fame catcher and coach. Yogi Berra was incredibly smart on and off the field, but he came to be seen as the “idiot-savant” thanks to his friend, fellow ballplayer, and future broadcaster Joe Garagiola. Berra initially resented the characterization. The writer recounts, “The Yogi caricature became so ingrained that reporters began to resent him when he didn’t live up to expectations.” Still, Berra learned there were ways to ultimately profit from the image. Perhaps his story can help us think about how the same might be done in our lives, even if we are not quite as pigeonholed.
Yogi Berra Much More Than Baseball’s Accidental Comedian
Even more than a great baseball player, Berra was a great humanitarian. From the article: “Berra was often invited during the off season to a seat at the head table of many church-sponsored banquets….Usually, unless kids were involved, he wouldn’t go at all. One time, when he was scheduled to speak at a father/son banquet where every kid in the room was given a bat and ball, he happened to notice a small group of kids sitting by themselves in the rear of the hall. What caught Berra’s eye was the fact that, except for a couple of adults, the kids were by themselves and had not been given either a bat or a ball. When Berra asked his sponsors who the boys were, the man in charge replied that they were from a nearby orphanage. Because no bats or balls had been set aside for them, Berra refused to go back to the head table. Instead, he spent the rest of the evening chatting with the kids and signing autographs for them on anything that wasn’t nailed down.”
The Best Time of Day to Take a Break
If you thought the best time to take a break from work was in the afternoon, you would be wrong. According to researchers at Baylor University, the 10 a.m. break is optimal. Everybody needs a break during the workday, but don’t just get away from your desk. The most beneficial breaks involve doing something you like to do—chatting with a colleague or answering email away from your desk. By the way, according to NASA New Horizons took naps on its journey to conserve energy so that it could reach its goal. Just saying.
A Challenge of the Urban Church: Reaching Rich and Poor in the Same Church
As their neighborhoods change, urban congregations must change, but that can be mighty difficult. Sometimes it’s easier to foster racial diversity than economic diversity. This article describes how some churches in neighborhoods undergoing gentrification are seeking to engage people along the economic spectrum, from low-income to the wealthy. The article states that its findings are based on asking churches in changing neighborhoods what they are doing well and where they need help.
First Pluto Photos New Horizons Data Dump
Wired magazine has been following the incredible journey of the New Horizons satellite to Pluto, and which has been upsetting a lot of previous theories about the planet. The satellite was launched January 19, 2006, and traveled 4.7 billion miles to reach the dwarf planet. It made its closest pass of 7,700 miles on July 14 this year. Earlier this month it started sending back high-definition data, but at a billion miles away, it’s coming at such incredibly slow speeds that it will take NASA a year to download. The space agency is making the photos public as they are pieced together. Now they’ve sent New Horizons to the Kuiper Belt at least a billion miles beyond Neptune and likened to an enormous asteroid belt. It is expected to arrive in 2019. If it isn’t destroyed along the way, New Horizons can continue its journey for another 20 years. Feeling small?
Now that churches see the need to be inclusive, it is interesting to note that not long ago our church leaders were touting the value of just the opposite: doctors are more comfortable with doctors, laborers with similar jobs, etc. and that a congregation will grow best when evangelism takes place within one’s principal circle. I don’t want to be part of such a church – give me all sorts and conditions of people!