Soon after Elder Patrick Kearon’s call to the Quorum of the Twelve, I came across an old Church News announcement from when Elder Kearon was called as a stake president.
I was surprised to see that he was listed with two middle names: Robert David.
So why haven’t we been calling him Elder Patrick RD Kearon?
The Deseret News picked up on this as well and asked Elder Kearon why no initials.
His response…
“It’s just Brits don’t do that.”
Well, I am not sure how familiar Elder Kearon is with American culture, but we don’t do the middle initial thing either.
At least not since John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
What I love about this minor detail that doesn’t mean much is that it actually means a lot.
This is how culture is changed.
Someone new comes along and says, “Nope, we are not doing that.”
Seems like an easy thing, but imagine the pressure of being a brand new Area Seventy or General Authority Seventy and pushing back on the middle initial tradition.
That is leadership.
I assume leaders reading this aren’t using middle initials.
But you’re probably doing other things and you don’t know why.
You may dream of larger cultural strides but take some baby steps along the way.
Beards?
Blue shirts?
Intermediate hymns?
Ward Christmas parties?
What else?
Let’s follow Elder Kearon’s lead and shift the smaller cultural norms.
Sincerely,
Kurt Francom
Executive Director
Leading Saints
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