05/29/2026
What happened to holy work?
I woke up this morning thinking about ministry — what it was meant to be and what it has become. Voices like Bishop Yvette Flunder and Rev. Don Abram taught me something that still lives deeply within my spirit: what we are doing is holy work.
Some may struggle with us using that language because we exist under the beautiful rainbow umbrella of queerness, but beloved, they still have not gotten the memo. We are still called. We are still preaching. We are still pastoring. We are still theologians, scholars, teachers, prophets, healers, and servants of the people.
And yes, there can be endless debates about titles, credentials, and who qualifies as what — but this post is not about titles. This is about holy work.
Holy work is Matthew 25 ministry.
Holy work is feeding the hungry.Holy work is visiting the sick.Holy work is standing with the rejected and the forgotten.Holy work is creating space for healing, liberation, and dignity.
Jesus did holy work.
In Acts 2 and Acts 3, we witnessed holy work — communities coming together, sharing resources, caring for one another, and spreading hope. The goal was never celebrity. The goal was never platforms. The goal was never ego.
Somewhere along the way, ministry became more about spotlights than service.More about Human kingdoms than community.More about titles than transformation.
Now every post says, “souls were save,” “backsliders returned,” and all these church phrases that often push people away instead of drawing them closer. Why can’t people simply come to be transformed? To heal? To learn? To grow spiritually? To discover the Divine for themselves?
People come carrying trauma, rejection, questions, and sacred curiosity.
And yes, I will say it boldly:sometimes people must even step outside the boundaries others created around the 66 books to discover their own spiritual understanding of the Creator — the Divine with many names that humanity often reduced into one masculine box called “God.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.Claudette Colvin.Bayard Rustin.Shirley Chisholm.John Lewis.And countless unnamed freedom fighters…
They did holy work.
Holy work is anything that impacts another spiritual being having a human experience.
I have been doing this work for over 35 years, with 17 years in full-time pastoring, and I remain unapologetic. I identify deeply with the eu**ch in Acts — the one seeking truth, seeking understanding, seeking belonging. Many of us are that eu**ch: preaching, serving, loving, healing, and doing holy work while being dismissed, overlooked, rejected, or unseen.
But holy work was never about recognition.
John the Baptist did holy work by preparing the way not his way but the divine way.
Mary did holy work by carrying the true architect of doing holy work  into the world.
Apostle Peter learned holy work when the Spirit declared:“Do not call unclean what I have called good.”
And here in Charleston, South Carolina — in the Deep South — I continue doing holy work despite resistance, obstacles, rejection, and systems designed to silence voices like ours.
I am here for the rejected.The traumatized.The overlooked.The ones told they were “too much” or “not enough.”
Because I know what it feels like.
And that is why I say this boldly:I am the 67th book.I am living gospel.Not because I seek to become God, but because I seek to walk in the blueprint of love, liberation, humility, justice, and compassion modeled through Jesus the Christ.
Today we are watching another rise of division, suppression, coded language, voter attacks, and political strategies meant to erase voices and identities. We are witnessing systems attempting to resurrect the spirit of Jim Crow under polished language and political theater.
But still —we rise doing holy work.
So let us return to our first love:the people.
Not unhealthy ego.Not favoritism.Not celebrity culture.Not gatekeeping.Not grandiosity.
Holy work requires humility.Holy work requires compassion.Holy work requires courage. And more than anything holy work requires unconditional. Love that equals love for everyone. 
And whether recognized or invisible, many of us are still out here doing the work.
Unapologetically.
Founding Pastor, Rev. Robert Arrington 
