No Problem!
Bishop Philip Duncan, II
The Coastline September 2007
Bishop Philip M. Duncan, II
Pensacola,FL As I write this article, I am on vacation - visiting our son and daughter-in-law in Austin, Texas. Hurricane Dean is bearing down on Jamaica and parts of Mexico, and perhaps some of west Texas. The weather experts forecast what they believe could, may or will happen and yet they and we don’t really know where it is going to make landfall.
Several days ago we went out to dinner and I asked the waiter for a glass of water, he said, “No Problem!” The water appeared a few minutes later. I said, “Thank you!” Again, “No problem!” I found that an odd way to deal with a request to seemingly assure the person that it was “no problem” or as others might say, “no bother.” 
In fact, though it may not have been a problem it was an inconvenience. Perhaps this is little more than the reply to the question, “How are you?” “Fine!” Just something to say. “No problem!”
I have been doing some studying at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin during this last week and was reminded that when Jesus invited the disciples to follow him and preach the Good News of Salvation to the ends of the earth,
they understood there would be problems. Lots of problems. Problems to be faced, to be encountered, to be dealt with in a mature way. Not casting off the reality that some would fall by the way, others would be lost and still others would die for the sake of the Gospel. Being difficult or hard does not mean that the church was to give up on the task set before it. The call to discipleship and ministry was always something that challenged each person in their life of faith.
During this summer I have been aware that many of our congregations do extraordinary ministries in the communities they serve and in missions overseas. The work of feeding and clothing the homeless, building churches, building water systems, teaching prisoners to read and write, sitting with the sick and dying, caring for children so parents can work, teaching English to migrants, working in thrift shops so that others might have affordable clothing and other items are only a few of the outreach ministries in which people are engaged. No problem! Really! Yes there are lots of problems, but that does not make them undoable, it makes them precious in the sight of God and those of us who care. It is not in the dismissive “No problem” that things really happen that matter. It is in the willingness to move forward that others may benefit from our faith in what the Gospel calls us to witness.
I am so proud and pleased to be the bishop of the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast, which moves ministry and mission beyond problems to possibilities for doing the work that God sets before us. May Christ bless us in those ministries within our local communities as well as those overseas. Jesus says, “Follow me!”
I am,
Yours in His Holy Name,
Bishop Duncan
bishopduncan@diocgc.org
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