I want to share two stories with you today, one from history and one from the Bible. But what stands out in each of them are the individuals who were willing to be courageous, men and women of vision. And out of that courage and vision, they were willing to step out and be different,…

A friend of mine went to a local men’s store to buy some dress shirts. And the salesperson came up to him. Now, you need to know this about my friend. If there’s anybody who would embody the fizz of a champagne glass, he’s it. He is effervescent, he is bubbly, he is fun to…

Christians think differently. Have you noticed? A part of what it means to live in the world is that you and I may make decisions that could seem strange to those who don’t follow Christ. You see, the perspective that the scriptures offer about the world and what it means to be human is very…

In my last post, we looked at two aspects of the deacon’s call: servanthood and surrender. Both are a vital, biblical picture of the people God calls to this sacred office. But wait, there’s more. A Call of Surprise Servanthood and surrender both describe the call of the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah. And so does…

There’s an organization I like quite a lot called Youth With A Mission, or YWAM. They have a special phrase: “coming in the opposite spirit.” Here’s what they mean by that: In the face of a culture that, now more than ever, is absolutely fascinated with material accumulation, the exaltation of personal power, and the…

PHOTO CREDIT: © Solitafoto | Dreamstime.com A bishop carries something we call a crozier, which is really a symbol for the staff a shepherd carries. I carry one as the bishop of the church, the chief shepherd over the Diocese of Central Florida, and also as someone who is subject to Jesus’ ministry to me. If…

Each spring, our churches have a Collect that honors Edward Thomas Demby and Henry Beard Delany, the first and second African-American bishops consecrated in The Episcopal Church. As the prayer says, they, “though limited by segregation, served faithfully to [God’s] honor and glory” (Lessons Appointed for Use on the Feast of Edward Thomas Demby and…

Genuine Christian commitment takes courage, more now than ever before. But how do we obtain it? What will make us brave? We live in a world that is more and more suspicious of genuine religious commitment. Many of the people we know would prefer not that we would have no religious faith, but that our…

Not long ago, I was in a meeting at one of our churches, a small group of four or five people that included two women. And as the meeting concluded, we started talking about upcoming events on the church calendar. And one of the women said, with a twinkle in her eye, “Well, I just…