Getting Refreshed

Posted on December 19, 2008 by ashleealleycrawford

Each December (for the last 3, counting this one), I attend a conference called “Refresh” sponsored by the Foundation for Evangelism for United Methodists in Campus Ministry. This year, I was on the design team, which meant that I watched things a little more closely than I have in the past (and I didn’t quite get as “refreshed” as I have the other years!). I posted following the first one a couple of years ago, and I wanted to post a couple of observations this year, too.
  • First of all, community is irreplacable. Several of my friends from seminary (and beyond) attend this conference, but I’ve also begun to form community with others that I would never have known without meeting them through the common bond of campus ministry in the United Methodist Church. We all come from very different backgrounds (sometimes theologically, and sometimes the context of our ministries), but we like each other and we are united around a common goal: living out the gospel among younger adults in the context of the United Methodist Church. That is enough to join us together. I certainly get my “emotional cup” refilled to overflowing when I attend Refresh! Thanks be to God!
  • Second of all, at this particular conference, there seemed to be a stirring of the Holy Spirit around the ideas of simplicity, living in community and living spiritual practices. I make this statement with this qualification: we often say these things, but this week, I believed the people who said them. Our line-up was interesting: Chris Seay, the guy in charge of the Ekklesia Project; Sean Gladding (who was a classmate of mine at Asbury), co-pastor of Mercy Street Ministries (and an insightful bible teacher!!!!), a community in Houston; and Dr. Elaine Heath, a theologian from Perkins School of Theology at SMU (there were others, but these three were most notable to me). My personal response to the combination of these messages is this: We live fractured, busy, consuming lives, even if we are “Christians.” However, the message of the gospel, found in the enduring pages of Scripture and lived out by communities of Christians, provides a message of completion and redemption to counter our own misaligned attempts. The single most important feature of living this type of life is true, life-giving, intentional Christian community (see above–a “full” emotional cup, not to mention living the Kingdom here on earth!).
  • Thirdly, at a personal level, I was confirmed in some thoughts that I’ve had, and have shared with students, about the possibility of having a home for some of our amazing college students that is dedicated to hospitality, intentional Christian community, and spiritual practices. Elaine and others are starting homes like this in the Dallas area, and maybe elsewhere! Stay tuned for more of my thoughts on this in the upcoming months, but trust me, I’m excited!

Despite the fact that I somehow ended up more tired at the end of my time together with 160 others that love college aged students, I am incredibly excited about the work of God’s Spirit in the ministries of my colleagues around the country! May God continue to breathe even more life into all of our ministries!

(For another perspective on Refresh, see my colleague and mentor, Steve Rankin’s, blog here.)

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

God’s activity in the world

Posted on November 7, 2008 by ashleealleycrawford

God has been teaching me a lesson in the last month that I can only begin to reference here and will probably outline more in a later posting. However, at this time, I’m compelled to notice God’s activity in the world around me. This image of the book at the left illustrates what I’m talking about. I haven’t read the book, but the cover and the concept capture me. If God is personally involved in my life (and yours), it can be assumed that even the seemingly mundane must have an imprint of God in it. And yet, often I fail to see it. I’m compelled to ask: what is God doing in the world around me that I’m too busy to notice?
O God, may I never be too busy, too self-absorbed, and too pious to be above the places where you might bring me! Open my eyes to where you are at work. Amen.

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The Good Old Days!

Posted on October 13, 2008 by ashleealleycrawford

This weekend was my 10 year class reunion from college. Once I was able to get beyond the fact that I’ve been out of college for an entire decade, I decided that I was going to have fun with it! Here are a couple of my observations:

  • The groups that we hung out with in college were nearly irrelevant after 10 years! Obviously you want to catch up with your friends, but I found it as exciting to catch up with people that I had barely thought about during the 10 years that have passed!

  • The more things change, the more things stay the same. While there may have a been a few surprises out of people, people more often were pretty similar to how they were when we were in college. For example–Burt (now a doctor) announced politely that he was going to use the restroom. Chris (now a lawyer) said, “Hey guys–here is our chance to all run out of the restaurant and leave him!” And then, after about 10 minutes, Chris points out that we still have our opportunity to leave Burt since he had not left the restroom yet. What the heck was he doing in there?

  • College yearbooks can provide hours of free entertainment. With a couple of guys providing color commentary, stories from the “good old days” were told, critiques were made on the fashions of days gone by, and guesses were made on where people might have ended up. Or at least that is the edited version of what happened on Saturday night with the yearbooks. 🙂

  • Southwestern College does a great job of educating it’s students! I have to say that I was VERY impressed with some of the accomplishments of some of my classmates, and I’m not just talking about the jobs that they’ve held, but rather the people that they’ve become! Most of the people that I spoke with are serving in their churches, in their community, and wanting to make a difference in the world!

I just think that it was amazing that nearly 30 people from the class of 1998 came back to visit Winfield and Southwestern! Most brought their spouse or family and all brought some good memories! It brought back some old memories and gave us a chance to make some new ones.

Posted in homecoming, personal, Southwestern College | 1 Comment

On Call 24.7

Posted on September 28, 2008 by ashleealleycrawford


I have a friend who formerly held a job with a large company that required her to carry a company phone and be on call virtually at all times. She technically had some days that she was “off duty,” but due to her position as head over safety for the whole factory, “off duty” time meant nothing in the case of an accident that slowed down production. I remember meeting her for a quick lunch one day, only to have it disturbed by an emergency at work. This friend of mine, a powerful woman, hung up her phone, eyes threatening to spill over with tears, and said, “I just want to eat lunch with my friend in peace. Can’t I just have an hour without being on duty?”

I feel for my friend. Her life was dictated by that little annoying gadget on her hip that could reach her anywhere (which meant everywhere). I remember thinking about how glad I was that I didn’t have a job where I had to be on call all the time. I think I was sympathetic toward her and told her that she certainly deserved some time off every now and then, just as everyone deserves time off every now and then. And yet, I’m not so sure if I agree with myself anymore.

First…a qualification: everyone needs to take time to rest. In scripture we hear of that time as observing the Sabbath. I won’t take the time right now to talk about why I think Sabbath is so important (and I do! I really, really do!), but what I do want to talk about is about the importance of living out our faith 24.7.

I’m currently teaching a Sunday School class at my church on the book of Philippians. I really don’t know why I chose Philippians, except that several of my favorite verses are in it. I’m using a commentary by Tom Wright for some background info, but we’re moving through pretty slowly and asking lots of questions of the text, and of ourselves. We’ve only made it through chapter 1, but one of the things that I’ve been struck by so far has to do with our citizenship as a Christian. Newsflash: as a Christian, I must relinquish any of my own rights and privileges, and take on the perspective of being a Kingdom citizen. This shouldn’t be revolutionary, should it? And yet, far too often, I want to be a good Christian when the setting is convenient, but not if it requires something of me.

In various ways throughout chapter 1 of Philippians, Paul mentions that the Christians to whom he is writing will suffer. In fact, in verse 29 of chapter 1, he actually says that it is a privilege that they can suffer for Christ. What kind of masochistic man is that Paul? It sounds like the beginnings of the Opus Dei a la Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. And yet, I become ever convinced that the suffering that Paul is talking about is not just something that the select few in the time of the earliest persecution of the church will experience. Rather, if we are reading the gospel correctly, we must acknowledge that obedience to it requires an element of suffering, no matter who you are. The gospel of Jesus Christ tells me that as a Christian, I’m required to take up my cross daily and follow Christ. That same passage goes on to say that if I want to gain my life, I must lose it. What a crazy gospel this is, is it not? To paraphrase C.S. Lewis’ famous quote,
this gospel must either be crazy or be true. Why would people follow a God that required so much? The only plausible explaination that I can come up with is that people follow it because the God that authors that salvation story has transformed their lives and requires nothing less than offering our lives back to him.

And now…I return to my initial thoughts about being “on call 24.7.” While my friend ended up quitting her job that sucked the life out of her because she was always on duty, in God’s economy, we have the opportunity to live “on call 24.7” and actually find true life in Christ. And all that God expects in exchange is that we willingly lay down our lives for him. All the time. At work and at play. In our relationships. In our amusements. In our wallets, purses and bank accounts. In our despair. In our joy. It sounds like God is asking too much, and yet what a great God we serve! I give him my rags, and he gives me his righteousness. But why, oh why are those rags so difficult to give up?

Posted in Discipleship, On Call, Philippians, Sunday School | 1 Comment

Sock Monkeys and Blogging

Posted on September 22, 2008 by ashleealleycrawford


Okay…I found this and it made me chuckle (and think of my sister and my friend, Amber). I know that I could have just linked this to the article itself, but I also like to read the blog and wanted to post it here.

The link is to a blog about a sock monkey ministry. There’s something in the world for everyone. I’m just saying…

Posted in blogging, sock monkeys | 1 Comment

The Pain of Change

Posted on September 12, 2008 by ashleealleycrawford

I spent the better part of the afternoon and early evening rearranging my office. Coming from a person that doesn’t love change–but loves order–it was a bit of a painful, yet refreshing experience. A couple of weeks ago, just several days before all the students returned to campus, I had the opportunity to get a different desk. Considering the fact that my former desk was functional, but was HUGE for my smallish office, I was thrilled at the prospect of getting one that was more flexible in size (and has a great built-in light!). The new desk would be great, but the timing was about as bad as it could be! The week before students come and the first week that they’re here are about the busiest days of the year on campus. Think Macy’s on the day after Thanksgiving! We have a very integrated campus when it comes to faculty and staff involvement and so I end up playing several roles when it comes to those first two weeks and I was not in any mood to play Trading Spaces with my office. And yet, because of the disdain I had for my old desk and the sweet built-in light, I packed up my desk and prepared to rearrange.

On the appointed day, (with much anticipation, I might add) I opened my door to see my new desk in it’s proper position. Unfortunately because this new one was shorter on one side and longer on the other, it left about an 8 inch swath between the desk and a bookshelf through which I might squeeze. My co-worker said, “That’s a bruise waiting to happen.” And right she was! I’ve gotten at least 2 since my new arrangement happened! So, finally today I invested 3.5 hours of my life to bring a little order to the chaos that was my office. I cleaned out filing cabinets, moved a very-full (and very dusty!) bookshelf (which made me temporarily wish that I wasn’t such a bibliophile, but just temporarily! I do love my books!), and separated the two parts of the desk to make my office more inviting. If someone would have seen me an hour before I was done, they would have thought that a tornado came my way, but by now, everything looks like it’s been exactly where it is for months. The new arrangement is fantastic! My office looks twice as big, is comfortable and looks like a place that welcomes people to come and “sit a spell,” instead of getting an answer to their question and moving on to the next task on their list. Looking at the new arrangement makes me wonder why I waited 3 years to push things around a bit since I was never really happy with how it formerly was.

Change is inevitable, they say. But that doesn’t make it easy. I suppose that’s a good thing. Establishing patterns are part of Christian discipleship. Sometimes the patterns (or disciplines, to use a not very fun sounding word) carry us through the times in our lives when our motivation can’t. But patterns can sometimes kill, or at least bruise, us spiritually. We get used to playing a certain role in a community, or doing the things that we know will keep us safe and (moderately) happy, or doing what we’ve always done because even if we aren’t totally happy, at least we know what to expect. And then, every now and then, something happens to jar us into a new reality. We get sick, get a new job, take a risk, watch someone else get sick, get a new job or take a risk and we realize that the patterns that we’ve been living in have constricted us to a place where we’re no longer trusting God with the future, but rather controlling it (or at least attempting to) with our well-worn patterns.

Clearly rearranging my office is nothing compared to the kind of changes that really shock our systems and instill in us a sense of the awareness of God’s provision at EVERY level in life. And yet, God speaks, even through rearranging an office. The message that he’s whispering to me is that what may feel inconvenient, difficult, or even painful in the moment can serve to free us from our status quo and open us to the winds of change that blow through from time to time. And at least right now, some of the clutter (and dust!) is gone.

Posted in Campus Ministry, Discipleship, disciplines | Leave a comment

My new favorite blog

Posted on September 9, 2008 by ashleealleycrawford

A couple of years ago, I started reading a blog that was probably one of the first that I ever read with any regularity. It was called WesleyBlog and was written by Shane Raynor. The blog went silent for some time but has now been resurrected in a new form. Here it is…enjoy!

Posted in blogging, UMC | Leave a comment

My new favorite song

Posted on September 4, 2008 by ashleealleycrawford

Here’s a link to my new favorite song that I heard on a Relevant Podcast a couple of months ago. The video absolutely cracks me up! It’s on the Relevant TV broadcast and you have to click on the Pork and Beans video by Weezer. You should see nods to a couple of YouTube favorites.

Posted in fun, music, Relevant | 1 Comment

A Minister’s Prayer

Posted on August 19, 2008 by ashleealleycrawford

The Concluding Prayer of the Church that I read during the Midday Office today is one that I’m claiming. Here it is:

O Lord my God, to you and your service I devote myself, body, soul, and spirit. Fill my memory with the record of your mighty works; enlighten my understanding with the light of your Holy Spirit; and make all the desires of my heart and will center in what you would have me do. Make me an instrument of your salvation for the people entrusted to my care, and let me by my life and speaking set forth your true and living Word. Be always with me in carrying out the duties of my vocation; in praises heighten my love and gratitude; in speaking of You give me readiness of thought and expression; and grant that, by the clearness and brightness of your holy Word, all the world may be drawn to your blessed kingdom. All this I ask for the sake of your Son my Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Vespers Prayer

Posted on August 13, 2008 by ashleealleycrawford

As if on cue, the concluding prayer for the Vespers reading for today reads like this:

Drop thy still dews of quietness
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of thy peace.
John G. Whittier

Amen, and Amen

Posted in Divine Hours, prayer | Leave a comment