In this episode I’m talking about what the book of James calls the royal rule of scripture which is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. I believe that one command helps all the rest of the Bible make sense.

James challenges us in a direct and uncomfortable way. He asks whether we are showing favoritism to people in what I call the costumes of power while quietly moving those in weakness or poverty to the margins. If the royal rule really is love then how we respond to the least of these reveals what we actually believe.

I reflect on how churches including ones I have served have sometimes been drawn toward influence endorsement and appearances instead of toward the wounded presence of Christ among the poor. That is not an abstract idea for me. It is something I have had to confront personally over a lifetime in ministry.

So this episode is an invitation to notice where power has become attractive to us and where love may have been set aside. It is also an encouragement to return to something simple and beautiful which is learning to see Jesus in the people right in front of us and learning to say with intention and honesty I love you.

Let’s explore together what it really means to live by the royal rule of scripture and do something beautiful in the world today.

On this episode, I continue my conversation about love and the spiritual refugees - the 45 million people in this nation who have stepped away from the church but have not stepped away from spirituality. After pastoring for decades, I retired not to escape the work, but to go back and find out what went wrong and to listen. I believe this is a grand time for the church in America to recover what has been lost, and that begins with love and with paying attention.

As I look back over my own life and ministry, I’m willing to own my part. I regret that I spoke too often in the language of church instead of the language of the world around me. Because of love, we cannot assume people should understand us. Because of love, we must do the heavy lifting of communicating in ways people can actually hear and receive.

Many people are still deeply spiritual, but they have walked away from what I call “church incorporated.” They grew wise to manipulation, shame, pressure, and systems that no longer helped them live with freedom and dignity. My calling now is not to tell them to come back, but to listen—to learn from them and to help recover what has been lost with kindness, honesty, and compassion.

The biggest mistake we make is thinking we still have time. Be present. Be kind. Love more. Love now. Speak the language of the people you meet, regulate your heart even when you disagree, and find a way to look people in the eye and say the three most holy words in the human language: I love you.

I’m Bishop Randy Dean, and I’m here because I believe we are alive to love and everything else can drift into something hollow if we’re not careful. I don’t want to waste your time with anything I don’t truly mean. I want to make one connection with you, and that connection is love. If you’re new here, pull up a chair, grab a cup of coffee, and let me share what I’m seeing in our world when it comes to spirituality in America.

I’ve been giving my life to reaching people I call spiritual refugees, the millions who have stepped away from organized religion but not from spirituality itself. These are people I deeply love. My calling is simple. I’m going after the one, just like the shepherd Jesus described, not to fix them or send them back, but to love them and listen. That’s it. No agenda, no pressure, no attempt to pull them back into something that may have hurt them.

What I’ve heard in their stories is real pain. There is trauma tied to institutions, to leadership failures, to exclusion, to systems that lost their way. At the same time, I’ve seen leaders exhausted and overwhelmed trying to keep something afloat that may already be sinking. And through all of it, I keep coming back to this. If love isn’t the center, if love isn’t the only thing we’re offering, then we’ve missed it.

So my role now is not to rebuild institutions. My role is to love and to listen. To bear burdens. To sit with people where they are. I believe if we ever find our way forward, it will be through a return to love as the only creed that matters. Until then, I’ll keep showing up this way, inviting you to breathe, to be present, and to say the words that can still change everything. I love you.