Reviving Resurrection: Servant Leadership, Hope, and Renewal

Aug 15, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: Learning from Shared Tables: Interfaith Wisdom as Sacred Ground

The call to engage across faiths is not about diluting truth but discovering divine fingerprints in unexpected places. When Jesus entrusted his mother to John at the cross, he modeled radical kinship that transcends tradition. A Muslim imam once reflected how this moment mirrors Islam’s reverence for family, revealing shared values deeper than doctrine. True unity isn’t uniformity—it’s recognizing the sacred threads woven through every faith’s tapestry. This requires humility to listen and courage to affirm God’s presence in the “other.” Such exchanges don’t weaken faith; they expand its horizons. [28:58]

“And Peter opened his mouth and said: ‘Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.’”
(Acts 10:34-35, ESV)

Reflection: When has a conversation with someone of another faith revealed a surprising truth about your own beliefs? How might actively listening to others’ spiritual journeys deepen your trust in God’s universal grace?

Day 2: Rabboni in the Rubble: Leading as Servants, Not Saviors

Resurrection begins not with triumph but with a teacher. When Mary Magdalene recognized the risen Christ as “Rabboni,” she affirmed that authority flows from instruction, not domination. True leaders carry brooms before scepters, like the Methodist pastor who prioritized cleaning up after events over being celebrated. Leadership that lasts kneels to wash feet, stays late to lock doors, and views titles as tools for empowerment rather than badges of honor. The cross reminds us: greatness is measured by how many we lift, not how high we climb. [40:23]

“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet.”
(John 13:3-5, ESV)

Reflection: Where in your life are you tempted to prioritize recognition over service? What mundane act of care this week could embody Christ’s upside-down kingdom?

Day 3: Sabbath in the Storm: Rest as Holy Resistance

In a world addicted to hustle, choosing rest becomes revolutionary. The God who formed galaxies also sanctified stillness, making Sabbath the crown of creation. When Jesus slept through the tempest, he demonstrated that trust thrives in pause. For the weary caregiver, the overworked activist, the anxious planner: stopping is not surrender. It’s defiance against systems that equate worth with productivity. Like the pastor walking night trails in the city’s hidden woods, find your “Lorraine Cherry preserve”—a space where soul-breath drowns out the noise. [01:06:09]

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
(Matthew 11:28-29, ESV)

Reflection: What false narrative about your worthiness ties you to exhaustion? How might scheduling intentional stillness this week declare your trust in God’s sustaining grip?

Day 4: Worship as Warfare: Singing Down Walls, Building Bridges

True worship isn’t a performance—it’s a battering ram. When the choir’s harmony shakes prison walls and the soup line becomes a communion table, heaven invades earth. The Black church’s spirituals didn’t just comfort the oppressed; they were maps to freedom. Like the pastor who took gospel into gay bars, worship that changes cities refuses to stay sanctuary-bound. Every shared Facebook live, every meal for the hungry, every protest hymn sung at zoning meetings: these are acts of war against despair. [01:23:25]

“Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
(Amos 5:23-24, ESV)

Reflection: Where does your daily work or creativity feel disconnected from worship? How might reimagining routine tasks as spiritual warfare shift your perspective?

Day 5: Mustard Seed Mutiny: Small Faith Moves Mountains

Faith isn’t a finish line—it’s the stubborn weed cracking concrete. The pastor who survived loss after loss testifies: hope outlives graves. Like the parolee rebuilding trust through weekly food pantries or the elderly saint praying decades for prodigals, tiny acts of trust compound. Jesus didn’t demand faith the size of redwoods but promised mustard seeds could topple empires. Resurrection Church’s story—from AIDS crisis funerals to mortgage battles—proves God fuels impossible comebacks through crumbs of courage. [02:12:24]

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. […] And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
(Hebrews 11:1,6, ESV)

Reflection: What “impossible” situation in your life or community needs a mustard seed rebellion? How can one small, faithful action this week declare trust in God’s multiplying power?

Sermon Summary

The commitment to interfaith friendship starts by refusing to pretend that Christians in different denominations are people of many faiths. Christian unity is one faith with many expressions, and that same confidence can open doors to Jewish rabbis, Muslim imams, and others who help expose depths in the very faith Christians think they already know. A Good Friday table shared across traditions becomes a sign that common cause is not just justice work, but shared memory, shared oppression, family, prayer, and the kind of learning that expands the lens.

Leadership comes under Jesus’ inverted model, where the greatest one becomes the servant of the rest. Leadership is not treated like a crown, but like a burden. The risen Christ is first recognized as Rabboni, teacher, which makes teaching “a vocation dipped in divinity.” Servant leadership looks like a broom in the hand, the last plate of food, the willingness to defend truth, apologize when wrong, and stick a neck out for the flock.

Scarcity becomes dangerous when it creates a spirit of poverty. The courage to be asks a church not to shrink itself for other people’s comfort, because God ordained this church and God will maintain this church. Diversity may look good, but equity asks whether everybody actually gets a share. Disease and demons have names, and healing begins when afflictions are called by name with faith, honesty, and grace.

Intentional self care is not soft or selfish. Rest is holy because Sabbath is one of the first seven things God created, and even Jesus needed help carrying his cross. Self care means feeding the mind, knowing limits, saying no to mess, saying yes to help, and moving from membership to discipleship so the weight does not crush the same few people.

Worship is larger than songs, prayers, and preaching. Worship happens wherever God is present, and it needs joy, laughter, relevance, excellence, and power. “An excellent God deserves an excellent praise,” and worship should be so strong that it kills what the devil is trying to do against the people.

The identity of Resurrection is not an exclusively gay gospel, but the whole gospel, good news to every creature. The MCC story, like the black church story, rises from people denied prayer and access in the house of God. The house must stay open so all people can pray, and growth will come when sheep beget sheep, wounds are tended, lost sheep are chased, and hope learns again how to make a way out of no way.

Key Takeaways

1. Faith builds bridges without thinning truth. Christian faith does not have to become vague in order to learn from others. A rabbi, an imam, or another Christian tradition may expose something already present in the gospel, but previously unseen because one lens was too small. Real interfaith work does not replace conviction with politeness, it lets conviction become hospitable enough to listen. [30:22]
2. Servant leadership carries broom and burden. Jesus’ way of leading turns status upside down. The one who leads best is not the one who announces authority, but the one who serves when nobody is watching and teaches by who they are and whose they are. A broom, a last plate, and a defended flock may reveal more about holy leadership than any title ever could. [42:30]
3. Rest is holy, not laziness. Sabbath is not a reward for finishing everything, because God put rest into creation itself. Tired servants can confuse exhaustion with faithfulness, but even Jesus needed help carrying the cross. Holy limits protect the soul from becoming the very burden it was trying to carry. [66:09]
4. Worship should kill the enemy’s work. Excellent worship is not performance for its own sake. Skilled music, relevant words, joy, reverence, and authentic expression can rebuild people who have been attacked outside the walls. Worship becomes deadly in the best sense when it slays despair, mediocrity, shame, and every lie working against God’s people. [82:52]
5. Hope makes a way from no way. Hope is frail, but it is hard to kill. Faith may wane, but hope can keep working across generations until dreams of liberation become visible. The people of the way are called to become the people who find a way, not by ideas alone, but by disciplined, faithful action.

## [118:16]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[26:35] - One Faith and Interfaith Bridges
[35:16] - Servant, Teacher, Leader
[45:20] - Leading Case by Case
[47:08] - Scarcity and the Spirit of Poverty
[51:00] - Diversity, Equity, and Naming Disease
[56:41] - Intellectual Self Care
[66:09] - Rest Is Holy
[72:36] - Worship Needs Joy and Relevance
[82:28] - Excellent Praise for an Excellent God
[89:02] - The Whole Gospel, Not a Gay Gospel
[95:33] - Returning to Revolutionary Roots
[101:04] - Sheep Beget Sheep
[117:16] - Hope Is Hard to Kill
[125:17] - Testimony, Faith, and Finding God

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Mark 10:42-45
“And Jesus called them to him and said to them, ‘You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’” [38:28]

John 20:16
“Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned and said to him in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means Teacher).” [40:15]

Genesis 2:2-3
“And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” [01:06:09]

Luke 23:26
“And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus.” [01:07:58]

Observation questions

In Mark 10:42-45, what contrast does Jesus make between worldly rulers and greatness in the kingdom of God? [38:28]
In John 20:16, what name does Mary use for the risen Jesus, and what does that name mean? [40:15]
What were some concrete pictures of servant leadership given here—especially around a broom, hospitality, and being the last one to eat? [42:30]
What were some specific examples of intentional self-care named here, beyond simply taking a day off? [01:06:36]

Interpretation questions

Jesus says the greatest must become a servant. How does that challenge the usual way people think about authority, status, and leadership in the church? [38:41]
Mary recognizes the risen Christ as “Rabboni,” meaning “Teacher.” What might that suggest about teaching as a holy calling and not just a practical task? [40:42]
If God blessed rest and made it holy in Genesis 2:2-3, why do so many believers still treat exhaustion like a badge of honor? [01:06:09]
Jesus received help carrying the cross in Luke 23:26. What does that say about receiving help, sharing burdens, and refusing the lie that faithfulness means doing everything alone? [01:07:58]

Application questions

Where is there pressure right now to shrink, play small, or act out of scarcity? What would it look like to resist a spirit of poverty and trust that what God ordains God can maintain? [55:20]
Diversity can look beautiful on the surface, but equity asks whether everybody actually gets a share. In this group, in this church, or in daily life, where does that question need to be asked more honestly? [51:56]
Some afflictions keep growing because nobody calls them by name. Is there a wound, pattern, fear, or conflict that needs to be named truthfully and graciously before healing can begin? [53:18]
Rest is holy. What are the early signs that a person is carrying too much? What does healthy rest, a clear no, or asking for help need to look like this week? [01:07:05]
Jesus needed help carrying the cross. Is it harder right now to offer help or to receive it? What makes that hard? [01:08:05]
Worship is more than songs and sermons; it is a way of responding to God’s presence with joy, reverence, and strength. What part of worship most helps the soul fight off despair, shame, or spiritual fatigue? [01:23:25]
Sheep beget sheep. Who is one person that could be invited, encouraged, checked on, or welcomed back home in the coming days? [01:41:20]

Sermon Clips

57s

#WorshipExcellence

“But what I will also say is that I bring with me, you know, the informed knowledge and and embodied knowledge of the black church that I grew up in. And our ethic is I'm not saying different than this church, but different than a lot of churches. Like, we grew up with an ethic. Like, we don't let mediocrity touch microphones. You know? And I'm just saying that's that's way the way we were. And it we was not, you know, totally egalitarian. There was a notion of an excellent god deserves an excellent praise. If you read the bible, it said that the musicians weren't mediocre. It said they were skilled. It said that the singers that were got you know, that were in the temple were so good that they could put them out in the battlefield, and they didn't even need swords and could slay armies. I want our worship to be that deadly.”

52s

#WorshipThatProtects

“And the reason why is because I want our worship to kill everything that the devil is trying to do against us. That if we have a worship that is powerful, it will defend every soul in this building from the attacks that they receive outside of these walls. It will build them back up so that they can serve, not just communion on Sunday morning, but communion Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. And I'm not talking about a wafer and some juice because communion is when we are together. When we come together, the whole part of this project of church is so that we can be reconciled with the one and true God.”

81s

#RestIsHoly

“Intentional self care is also, you know, working for myself. And then as pastor of this church, it would be working to establish even for the staff greater and more effective boundaries. I think that, in truth, there are a lot of tired people here. And what I want to say as a teacher to those who are tired, those who are upholding the institution, as hard as it is for a person like me to admit it, Rest is holy. Sabbath is one of the first seven things God created. Rest. Rest is so holy, God takes it. That wasn't me. But I just want you to understand that that self care, intentional self care means you get your rest.”

85s

#HopeMakesAWay

“I think that there is a divine hope in this place, in this people. And when faith wanes, hope performs. Hope does the work of a million powers. There is, to me, hardly anything greater than hope. Hope is a fuel that crosses generations. And what I mean by that is that how many dreams of liberation or freedom were born of people who never got to experience it. But because they dared to envision it and imagine it, it came true. That is hope. It's the ability to see a way when there is no way. Or as my folks say, it's it's the ability to make a way out of no way. And”

48s

#SheepBegetSheep

“If this house is going to stand, it will not stand because I do a bunch of work. I and I and the the search committee can tell you I said it to them. When it comes to about growth, I said the first thing out of my mouth to them when they asked me about growth, I was like, well, first thing I come from a tradition that teaches us that shepherds do not beget sheep. Sheep beget sheep. And so the responsibility of growing this congregation is yours. It's my responsibility to protect it.”

43s

#ResurrectionIsNow

“I believe that God is waiting on us to invite people to come home Mhmm. To come home to resurrection. God is waiting for us to declare publicly that resurrection is not past, resurrection is now. God is waiting for us to have the measure of faith to say that the impossibility of mortgages, that the impossibility of closed kitchens, that the impossibility of departed schools is only opportunity for the faithful. Yep.”

53s

#PeopleOfTheWay

“guess what? You know, the bible didn't start off calling us Christians. It started calling us people of the way. We need to go back to our origins. We need to become the people that find a way. Find a way to share the hope. Find a way to share the grace. Find a way to share the love. Find a way to be the people that God called us to be. And that that does not happen easily. It takes discipline and time. Discipline and time. It also takes failure. And we learn from our failures. We learn from our setbacks.”

79s

#WillingToGetHandsDirty

“God doesn't accept or or or or promote the prepared. God promotes the willing. And what we need in this church for gay people to come to us, for straight people to come to us, for the lost to come to us, for the found to come to us, what we need are more people to be willing to get their hands dirty, willing to hug a stranger, willing to hug hug somebody that you know too well. Sorry. I think that this is this is the the terrain that we've got to begin to to work on in this church, loving one another more deeply, more meaningfully.”

76s

#RabboniTeacher

“And so I try to be a teacher because, as I said to I I can't remember. Was it in bible study or was it to the deacons? That when Jesus came back from the grave, when he was resurrected, the first, you know, the first of our major resurrections in the sense of the ones that are important to our Christian faith, in central. When he came back, he was not called master, savior. He wasn't called, conqueror, king. He wasn't called no. He was called Rabboni. Rabboni, which translates from Aramaic to English as teacher. So in his exalted self, in his resurrected self, in the part of him that went to hell and had all of the the vestiges burned off of him and came back spiritually renewed, the first thing they could identify in mass was teacher. That means that being a teacher is a vocation dipped in divinity.”

61s

#ChurchEverywhere

“And so to me, when I look and think about this and what history informs us and teaches us about this, it's that those who are committed to growing a church have to have themselves busy on the frontier, not on the interior. For those of you who are comfortable thinking church is sitting in here, church is sitting in you. And everywhere you go, church goes. Alright. Everywhere you go and everywhere you look, you look at something that God cares about. Every person you can touch is a person that God is desperately wanting to bring into the family, to bring back.”

72s

#WeaponizeLove

“I think that we don't give enough of a broad definition to some of these terms in our lives. We talk about love in oh, I'm sorry. Oh. Oh, no. We talk about love, and and we we put some limits on it. And the fact is is that I wish that we had laws of love, laws of grace just the same way we have laws of retribution. Imagine if we had the same legal force with our love that we have with our punishment or our judgment. This should be a place where we explore that, where we learn to weaponize in our words and in our works love and grace and mercy and peace. They are not weak things. They are only weak because we don't apply them with enough strength.”

58s

#ReturnToRoots

“And so what I think is that what we need to do is to return to the revolutionary spirit that formed this church. We've got to go back to the basics. Preaching, teaching, singing were foundations for this church. Preaching an inclusive gospel that Houston had never heard was a foundation of this church. Defying very publicly where we took this message. I heard y'all took it into gay bars. I heard y'all took it into some places that people don't necessarily wanna hear the gospel, but you took it anyway. Why did we stop?”

64s

#BeYourHighestSelf

“Frequently, the world asks us not to be our highest self. Frequently, the world asks us to diminish ourselves for the pleasure of others. As a pastor, I will not do that, And I don't want to support that kind of a culture either. And and I will challenge this congregation as I've challenged every congregation that I've been in to be bigger, to overcome. And the and here's the deal. When we look at ourselves as disciples, that's students. Students need teachers, and teachers don't always teach us the lessons that we want to learn. And so as disciples understand that I may not teach everything the way you want it or the way you would, but I promise you I will listen to you. I will hear you, but I also will defend you.”

75s

#HealTheWounds

“the thing is is that our mess sometimes causes wounds. How did we shrink? We wounded people, and we didn't go and fix the wounds. We let wounds fester and get gangrene. We needed amputations spiritually. That's what we have to deal with inside this house and make pledges, vows in Jesus' name that this next era isn't gonna be that way. That if we're gonna reconcile, we've gotta reconcile. And reconciliation starts at home, not with the rest of the world. And so I'm gonna challenge the congregation to think through what reconciliation looks like with your brothers and sisters because what we need inside this church is the greatest cooperation it's ever had.”

65s

#CallItByName

“But leadership tells us that we have to go beyond what looks great and make it actually great. And I think that this community can be improved with that kind of focus where we we are able to name the disease because sometimes diseases are demons, and they all have names. And if anyone was from the Catholic tradition, what does one have to do when they are purging themselves of demons? You have to call it by its name. And a part of what happens with our afflictions is that we don't call them by their names, and they fester, and they spread, and they do harm. And so what I would hope is that we begin a process of being faithful and honest and gracious with one another.”

42s

#PeopleOverProfit

“And so I think that a lot of what I would hope to bring in my leadership style, like, with boards, is to be a person who does defend the truth, a person who does defend integrity, a person who is willing to stick their neck out for the flock. I'm not always in pursuit of the bottom line as a leader because sometimes for the church, the bottom line is not the most important thing. Sometimes the human supersedes the money.”

46s

#CorrectionAndProtection

“And the and in the bible, they give the example of what the shepherd does. The shepherd walks around with a staff and a rod. Think of that music staff. One of them has a little curve on it, and one of them is just a straight stick. They said when I was growing up, they said that that was one of them is for correction, and the other was for protection. You reach out with one and pull them back. The other one was for hitting the enemy or chastising the one that needs to get in line and get their behavior. But correction and protection, that's what shepherds do.”

87s

#ChurchForAll

“Why I say that in this question is because I think that it's important for us to know that when this church and the MCC itself was formed, it was in a very similar way to the formation of the black church, that we were a community bound by identity. We had been persecuted. We had been denied equal rights in the house of god, equal access to the levers of power in the house of God, and we said enough was enough. But I don't even think that the founders of the MCC were trying to form an explicitly and exclusively gay church. They wanted a church where the prayers of all people could be heard and prayed, which is the same foundation of the black church. And that's our same mission today, that we want to keep this house open Amen. So that all people have a place to pray, so that all people know that they are not dispossessed, so that they know that there is a god who sees and hears and knows and understands.”

93s

#ChurchTransformsLives

“But despite her waning power and her hurt, she stood strong for me. She kept me in church even sometimes when she stopped going. And I think that when my father died, when my mother went to prison, my grandfather who was a deacon at our church died. The people at my church, that was Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Edna, Texas. The people at my church didn't look at me as some kind of project. They looked at me as family. The same love and food they would give their children, they would give me. Church has to mean more because there was a time in many of our lives where church saved us. And and and I tell people all the time, I don't think church is so much about saving souls as it is saving and transforming lives. What we do for other people is what puts a smile on God's face, not what we say.”

71s

#WorshipIsPresence

“what I will say is that worship is is made imminently better when people are here. And people won't be here unless they know you have joy being here, that you have a good time when you're here, that you appreciate these two choirs that we have here or the chimes that we have here or the the the the the access that we provide to so many organizations and people to the important decisions about our politics that happens here. Because worship isn't just when we wave our hands and sing our songs. Worship is also when we work because the mere definition of worship is when god is present. And when god is present, there is a posture that we should have. Partially joy, partially reference, but definitely in acknowledgment of that presence, that awesome power and presence.”

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