As I worked on final prep for tomorrow’s sermon earlier this evening, I found myself excited. I was invited to do a pulpit swap with the Anglican Church up the road from my church. It’s going to be a different experience for me – I’ve never preached to a bunch of Anglicans before!

The pulpit swap is in honor of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. It’s actually very cool that Christ Church Anglican in Brampton does this – it’s a way that they live-out their belief in Christian unity. Every year for a long time now, they’ve invited clergy from a different denomination to swap pulpits with them. Their rector, Rev. Dr. Byron Gilmore, and I will actually be embodying Christian unity by preaching to each other’s congregations tomorrow.

The neat thing is that I’m finding I’m not really nervous about it. I’m just excited. Looking forward to this new experience. And that in itself is a triumph for me. I am often intimidated by new things. Maybe I’m growing, a bit!

What I love best about this experience I’m about to have, is that idea of embodying Christian unity. Not just paying it lip-service, but actually finding ways to work together with other denominations to accomplish God’s work in our world. I think the world would be a better place if we found more and more ways to do that.

I think my favorite thing about faith is finding ways to live it out – to actually DO the things that we talk about on Sundays, that the Scriptures teach, that we pray about.

So if you are in church tomorrow – no matter what denomination your church may be – take a moment to think about how to apply the message you’re hearing. It will change you and it will change our world.