Word: gornitzka
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Dates: during 1965-1965
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...concept of a "church without walls" leads many a clergyman to set up a ministry in a supermarket, a slum or a ski lodge. The Rev. Reuben Gornitzka, 47, who applauds this impulse, believes that "the church has always tended to ignore the very rich and the very poor - especially the very rich." So his church without walls, run with the backing of his superiors in the American Lutheran Church, is a unique personal ministry to millionaires, film stars, professional men and corporation executives...
...pastor of churches in Milwaukee and Minneapolis for 19 years, Gornitzka in 1963 was forced to move to Palm Desert, Calif., because of a skin ailment. There he discovered that he had a knack for comprehending the problems confided to him by well-to-do people he met at cocktail parties or on the golf course. Gornitzka soon found himself busy helping the friends of friends, eventually organized a full-time ministry around a nonprofit corporation called Direction...
...Gornitzka's office is the executive suite or club of the men who consult him, his parish vehicle the coast-tocoast jet (he travels 140,000 miles a year). One day he may be preaching from a pulpit in Seattle; the next morning he may be in Manhattan, counseling TV, insurance and hotel executives. Last week he was in St. Paul counseling officials of Northwest Airlines, for whom he is a paid consultant...
...Gornitzka finds plenty of room at the top for spiritual confusion, depression and fear. His message, which owes more to Peale than to Paul, soothingly emphasizes the presence of God's love. "You wrote him off years ago," he often says, "but he didn't write you off." Besides giving spiritual pep talks, Gornitzka frequently helps businessmen solve moral dilemmas. In a stock battle for control of his company, one West Coast executive faced insurgents who were tapping phones and spreading false rumors about the corporation's financial health. Gornitzka advised the executive to fight back ethically...
...growing sideline with Gornitzka is advising other ministers on how to deal with rich constituents. He is convinced that many pastors stand in awe of the well-to-do. But if a camel can go through the eye of a needle easier than a rich man can enter the kingdom of God, it would appear that plain preachers can often give the rich a little extra spiritual help...
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