My Mission (and Ours)
by the Reverend Luke Bramlett, First Church of Jesus Christ, Troublemaker
Graphic by Rowan Procter
My journey to mental health echoes the journey of my friends in Prosperity, Pennsylvania. We both hit rock bottom, and in that moment discovered the secret for turning things around. I’m sharing this secret because you can use it in your daily life.
Once upon a time, I was one of America’s most successful mega-church ministers, preaching the “Prosperity Gospel” to millions of people in person and on television. It was a toxic message delivered by a cynical charlatan. I told my flock that if they weren’t successful and happy, it was THEIR fault for not thinking positively enough! They had to give me ten percent of their income to show God they were ready to open themselves to the almighty’s infinite abundance. I used that money to buy an 8-series BMW, a ridiculous mansion with a 3-hole golf course, and a condo for my mistress. I was dying inside, knowing I’d spend the rest of my life barking out empty motivational bromides as I wallowed in despair.
It came crashing down around me when I had a heart attack while huffing cocaine during an illicit rendezvous with said mistress. I lost everything: my job, my wife, my kids, my BMW M8 convertible, my home. During the heart attack, I had a near-death experience where I was attacked by demons. I saved myself by calling out to a God I didn't believe in, but He answered my prayer anyway and took me in His arms and for the first time, I knew what it was to be loved and accepted, even in my brokenness. Now that I had nothing, I could start asking the right questions.
This turned out to be harder than I thought it would be. At a Cocaine Anonymous meeting, I met a ‘personal coach’ named Holly McKeever. Holly was a hoot: moon face, rosy cheeks, a wild mane of blonde curls, blazing blue eyes, and a big, rowdy laugh. Over coffee after the meeting, I told her, “I feel like a failure, and I want to do better.”
“Unhelpful,” she said. “Too vague. Say something that you can actually use to help yourself.”
What was she getting at? “Umm, I want to be successful. How do I do that?”
“Better. Still not helpful, but you’re getting closer. Now, be as specific as possible. Define your problem in a way that holds the solution you want.”
Whew! That was a tough one. She reached out and touched my hand. I tingled — it had been months since I’d had someone touch me with affection. Such a small thing, but I treasured it more than that damn BMW. Finally, I said, “I’m stuck because…umm…I haven’t figured out what success is for me.”
Her face lit up with a big smile that revealed a slight gap in her front teeth. “Yes! I think we have a winner!” For the next two hours — did I mention she was giving away hundreds of dollars of coaching because I was living in a shelter and driving an Uber? — she worked with me as I wrote a personal mission statement: a North Star that would show me exactly what to do and how to live.
Here's what I wrote that evening, by hand on a legal pad. It’s framed on the wall of my office at the First Church of Jesus Christ, Troublemaker. I look at it every day, right after I give a prayer of thanks for Holly, my heart attack, and this beautiful second chance at life.
My Mission
I am what God is doing in this fallen world, and I’m here to get good at it. My mission is to become a perfect channel for God's infinite grace to flow into the world through me. I will meet each person where they are, without judgment, carrying nothing but an open heart and the simple, profound truth that they are loved unconditionally.
I will seek out and serve the forgotten, the broken, and the lost, coming to them as someone who has found God in the cracks of my own shattered life. Every conversation will be sacred. Every meal will be communion. Every embrace will be a prayer made flesh. I will bring light where there’s darkness, love where there’s hatred, and fellowship where there’s isolation.
This is my calling, my work, my joy. Every day I celebrate the day I gave up everything I didn’t need so that I could find the one thing I can’t live without: the chance to share the infinite, joyous love that God shared with me.
When my friend Mike Davenport was elected Mayor of Prosperity and we decided to reinvent our town, I called in Holly McKeever to advise us. She kept refining our process until we stopped spouting generic complaints — “There’s no way we can fix this place up! It’s hopeless!” — and asked ourselves a question that could make a difference: “What do we want for our town that will make it a place we’re proud and happy to live in? The answers were 1) A job for everyone who wants one, 2) A meal for everyone who needs one and 3) wellness care for everyone on a ‘pay what you can’ basis. These jobs included renovating homes and buildings so that everyone could have a place to live.
Once we knew what we wanted, we went to work. Yes, I know it’s ironic – three years later, this failed Prosperity Minister is living in a town called Prosperity. I used to think prosperity meant gold and glory. Now I know it's grace and giving. I'm the richest man alive—not because of what I own, but because of who I love and who loves me back
AUTHOR NOTE: The Reverend Luke Bramlett is a character in the book “Prosperity, Pennsylvania.” You can buy a copy here and here.
You can find the Audible version here.
The book is about how an everyday collection of optimists transformed a downtrodden Rust Belt town. The town isn’t saved by a miraculous intervention of government or big business. The people save themselves by imagining a society that works together to work for them and then gets to work to make this vision a reality.
Here’s what reader Max Sand shared on Amazon about the book: “Against all odds, a ragtag collection of regular folks come together to turn their lives around. Powerful forces are arrayed against them, but what they do to push past them is surprising and clever and totally grounded in reality. If you like It's A Wonderful Life or Meet John Doe, you'll love Prosperity PA. Once the citizens of Prosperity PA realize no one is coming to save them, they save themselves. And in these dark and divided times, it's so great to read a story about people coming together and finding a way forward.”
The book is a ‘how-to’ manual for how we can all get beyond the stale ‘hate-your-neighbor’ red-blue, right-left narratives. What do we want? The love of family and friends, enough to eat, a home, health care, and a loving community where we belong. We can create these things for ourselves.
I didn’t make anything up. Everything in the book happened somewhere in the world. I just put it together in a new way.