LAKE JUNALUSKA — Bishop Ivan Abrahams, General Secretary of the World Methodist Council, challenged those attending the 23rd Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. prayer breakfast to secure the future by finding their passion and following it.

“The difference between mediocracy and greatness is passion,” he said. “If passion dies, we have no future.”

He spoke of great leaders such as King, Mahatma Ghandi and Archbishop Desmond Tutu who have proven the effectiveness of the soft power of nonviolence and who, through ideals, have been able to capture the hearts and minds of people in all corners of the world.

“People are searching for a higher purpose — more than money and material things can bring,” he told the group of about 200 assembled at Lake Junaluska’s Lambuth Inn.

The search is one that ...