Stephen Copeland

Ancient Celts saw "thin places" where heaven and earth came strangely close to touching. Stephen Copeland experienced something similar when his mentor took him to the Double Door Inn, an historic hole-in-the-wall blues venue in Charlotte, North Carolina. This unassuming place invited Copeland further into a spiritual journey that calls out to each of us: to open our senses and "tune our ears" to thin places all around; to become aware of sacred spaces in everyday places. When Copeland learned the half-century-old Double Door Inn would be tragically closing, he made the old white house of sound his home during its final year. What do thin places teach us about ourselves? What do they teach us about reality itself? And what do we do when they're gone? Copeland's soul-searching journey--with the Double Door as his guide--will help readers become more present and attentive to the thinness of reality as we walk "with our feet on the ground and our soul in the stars."

Ancient Celts saw "thin places" where heaven and earth came strangely close to touching. Stephen Copeland experienced something similar when his mentor took him to the Double Door Inn, an historic hole-in-the-wall blues venue in Charlotte, North Carolina. This unassuming place invited Copeland further into a spiritual journey that calls out to each of us: to open our senses and "tune our ears" to thin places all around; to become aware of sacred spaces in everyday places. When Copeland learned the half-century-old Double Door Inn would be tragically closing, he made the old white house of sound his home during its final year. What do thin places teach us about ourselves? What do they teach us about reality itself? And what do we do when they're gone? Copeland's soul-searching journey--with the Double Door as his guide--will help readers become more present and attentive to the thinness of reality as we walk "with our feet on the ground and our soul in the stars."

Timeless leadership lessons honed by nearly two decades behind the scenes at ESPN Jason Romano learned incredible lessons during his seventeen years as a producer at ESPN--and these fundamentals for success on the field or court work just as well in other spheres of leadership, especially when you add God's direction to the playbook. This collection of compelling, inspiring, and often funny stories challenges readers to ask themselves the hard questions. It draws them into introspection and then directs them into action so they can cultivate habits of service and excellence in themselves and in those around them. From Tony Dungy to Darryl Strawberry, Will Ferrell to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, readers will discover how to replicate the principles practiced by some of the most influential leaders in sports and entertainment. And in the end, they'll be able to construct thriving cultures where the people they lead can bloom where they're planted and serve one another. For readers who want to lead meaningful lives--rooted in servant leadership, character, and integrity--and be entertained and inspired by personal, behind-the-scenes stories about athletes, coaches, and stars who spent the day with the author at ESPN, The Uniform of Leadership is a perfect guidebook.

In Where the Colors Blend, Stephen Copeland’s self-discovery and God-discovery is told over a period of six years in the context of an annual retreat to the Blue Ridge Mountains in Roanoke, Virginia, where an obscure, forty-year-old church softball tournament takes place each summer to raise funds for mission work in Paraguay. In stepping into these stories, and sharing them with the reader, Stephen simultaneously journeys deeper within himself, discovering the divine in the process and taking readers deep into the throes of doubt, deconstruction, and depression. But it’s there, in the darkness, that an authentic hope finds him. Throughout the narrative, readers experience with Stephen a number of paradigm shifts in the areas of: Spirituality: from exhausting oneself trying to get close to God to simply abiding: awakening to who we already are at the core of our beings as children of God. Psychology: from suppressing emotions, pains, and insecurities to curiously and non-judgmentally exploring them. Relationships: from trying to change others or silently judging them to accepting others as they are and learning from those who are most different than ourselves: abandoning ignorance and arrogance. Art, writing, and work: from being taunted by internal demands and a relentless pursuit of perfection to simply enjoying the gift of the process. Stephen's present-tense narrative, mysteriously unfolding all the way, is free-thinking and free-flowing, swinging from humor to complex theology, from someone else’s story to sudden introspectiveness and application, creating a unique experience for readers as it challenges them to adopt their own lifestyle of introspection and contemplation.