Rev. James Trapp (JamesTrapp.com) is currently the senior minister of the Spiritual Life Center (www.slcworld.org) in Sacramento, CA. An advisor on the topic of enlightened leadership, Rev. James sees that oftentimes the ones who have the best perspective are the not the people at the top, but people who are actually on the front lines in an organization. Enlightened leadership is the idea that the answer to any challenge or difficulty or problem that an organization is going through is already in the room. Giving a voice to those who are inherently involved in the organization and recognizing that those are the people that probably have the best solutions to the challenges that you're facing is key. If you listen and allow people to share, even if you can't resolve everything they bring up, they walk away feeling better about their experience.
The founders of Spiritual Life Center ("SLC") had an emphasis on interfaith ministries in the greater Sacramento area. SLC increases a sense of understanding, cooperation, and harmony. Rev. James believes in first going in with a beginner's mind, and then you could move to some common ground for greater benefits for everybody.
As the President of Star Human Capital, James runs a consulting firm. He applies spiritual principles to what appears to be a non-spiritual environment. James came up with a way to incorporate some of the principles, like integrated decision making and the ideals of enlightened leadership in business settings to create more effective teams. If people can integrate their energies, they are far more powerful. Calling in folks that were hardcore business people, he put spiritual principle in a way that they would understand.
Because of his success at Unity in the Bay in Miami with diversity and young people, Rev. James was invited to be the CEO and President of Unity Worldwide Ministries. He served in that role for seven years before returning to the field and going to Sacramento.
He was inducted into the Morehouse Hall of Preachers in the early 2000's, and he is one of the keynote speakers at "Celebrating Our Soul". He wants to share lessons from Dr. King about our interconnectedness because we are all part of one human family.
He had a modicum of success in life, going to Princeton, going to law school, practicing law. But he was in a state of dissatisfaction because he was trying to fill a void within based on a belief that he was abandoned by his mother when he was very young. He sought to do well in the external world seeking to make himself feel better. He ended up doing drugs and alcohol and his life collapsed. He went to a rehab center to get his life together. He engaged in a lot of self forgiveness for things he thought he had done to mess up his life. He did quite a bit of self transformation. He had two mystical moments. The first one was, after going through a process of self forgiveness, he woke up one day and all that guilt disappearred. That was a miracle. Subsequently, he was heading back to his apartment and everything around him collapsed into a sea of oneness. There was no separation between him and other people, him and the trees. He was able to see the vibration coming down from the trees, and was able to see Reality for the first time. He began to see that there was only one energy, One Reality.
This informs his spiritual message. That is part of every message that he has in some way. He began to see less of the "us and them". He realizes when he's engaging in an illusion. His book is entitled "Take Back Your Future." See him August 11th at "Celebrating Our Soul": A New Thought Conference by People of African Descent (www.padntg.org).
Listen to Rev. Celeste's poem, "Enlightened Leadership".