Bishop LaTrelle M. Easterling preaches at the ordination service of the 2026 session of the Florida Annual Conference. (Florida Conference Photo)
Florida Annual Conference | June 29, 2026
The Florida Conference of The United Methodist Church concluded its three-day Annual Conference on Saturday with a foundation-shaking message from Bishop LaTrelle Miller Easterling.
Her sermon preceded the service of Licensing, Commissioning, and Ordination of Licensed Local Pastors, Provisional Deacons and Elders, and an Ordained Deacon and seven Elders. She did not mince words, speaking with a zealous fire that was a challenge not only to them, but to United Methodists everywhere.
"Paul understood that everything about being just a disciple is to live counter culturally in service to others, to the glory of God. But our society is so consumed with self: self-promotion, self-centeredness, self-satisfaction. But there is nothing in the life of a Christ follower that comports with a lifestyle of vanity. It is antithetical to the call of God. It is antithetical to our baptism. It is antithetical to being followers of Jesus, the Christ," she said, her voice rising with every syllable.
"Dietrich Bonhoeffer gets it right when he states, when Christ calls a man or a woman, he bids them come and die. Come and die. Yes, I said it before. Now I'll say it again. The invitation is to come and die—die to your selfish nature, die to your egoic self. Die to your fleshly desires. Die to your hubristic hermeneutics. Beloved, anyone who is licensed, commissioned, or ordained in our beloved denomination has answered the call to this kind of set-apart ministry."
She was just getting warmed up as she aimed her next words directly at those who were about to be commissioned. Bishop Easterling lit into those who use Christianity as a weapon to enrich themselves, seize power, and use their positions to oppress those least able to fend off the attacks. The newly confirmed should do the same.
"You are presenting your whole body, your whole self, as a living sacrifice, which is your only reasonable act of worship. You are not here for self-aggrandizement. You are not here for fame or fortune. You are not here to seek a microphone and a mega church for followers on social media," she said.
"You are here because you confess that you heard a still, small voice call you forward into a life of sanctification and sacrifice. It is countercultural to the ego-maniacal, pulpit-in-the-center, smoke machine, and mic-drop histrionics gaining popularity in the church today. No, you are following the footsteps of Jesus the Christ. The One who proclaimed that he came to serve and not to be served."
United Methodists are sometimes labeled as people who are reserved and restrained in worship, but by that point there was nothing reserved or restrained inside Branscomb Auditorium on the Florida Southern College campus.
The packed hall reverberated with shouts and loud applause as Bishop Easterling continued.
"Now, it is true, God created you. God called you. God clearly loves you, and yet, make sure you know today it ain't about you. It is not about me. It is not about Bishop Tom Berlin. It is about forming disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world," she said.
"We have a whole lot of information. We don't have nearly enough transformation. When we have transformation, that is faith rising. That is ministry rising. That is mission rising. That is the life and work of the order to which you have committed yourself today."
She ripped off the scab on the wounds that affect too many churches and profiteers, using it as a bugle call for Christians to follow the example of Jesus Christ.
"There are unholy ghosts afoot. Falsely fusing Christianity with national identity, purporting a power and selection that God did not give to create a world order that God does not bless is an unholy ghost. Profiting from division, fear, and distrust by fomenting scapegoating, huh? You don't have it, 'cause they took it, but we all know they don't have anything either, huh? That's an unholy ghost," she said.
"Treating truth as a commodity rather than a public trust is an unholy ghost. Trying to have this country run by the vote of some and taking away the vote of others is an unholy ghost. Denying the dignity of every human being, limiting the right for everyone to participate, manipulating the just rule of law, and destroying accountability to the common good are all unholy ghosts.
"What we are witnessing is not merely a political crisis. It is a crisis of moral imagination. Entire populations are reduced to categories, caricatures, and partisan talking points. Refugees are demonized as threats. There is a growing indifference to the poor, and the image of God in one another is being obscured by justifying narratives of privilege, patriarchy, and supremacy. Whenever any people are treated as expendable, whenever suffering is dismissed as collateral damage, whenever cruelty becomes normalized, and for some people the pain is the point."
As she concluded, those listening inside the audience rose to their feet in celebration of words that United Methodists everywhere—indeed, everyone who chooses to follow Jesus—must live by.
Watch Bishop Easterling's sermon.
Joe Henderson is news content editor for the Florida Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. This article is republished with permission from the conference website.