Faith Connections
Worship and Reflections
Faith Connections
Worship and Reflections
Faith Connections
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Worship with Wellspring Congregation
Lent: a time of Reflection and Renewal
Dear Friends,
As we enter the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday (2/17), we begin a 40-day period of reflection and renewal. I have always loved Lent although I know many feel otherwise. I remember a former church member saying “I wish we could just skip over Lent and have 6 weeks of Easter. Lent lasts too long!” I understood his perspective and imagine many of you might share it.
Let’s approach it with open hearts this year! There is no time throughout the church year when a season offers us so much in the scripture readings and stories, the heightened awareness of God’s presence in our lives, and of our need for a spiritual anchoring that will enrich our lives.
Most every Lent, I preach a Lenten Sermon Series to help my congregations focus on a particular theme in hope that we will deepen our relationship with God and their neighbor. With so much swirling around in the world lately, a focus for the series theme eluded me. UNTIL, on January 31, I read a prayer by Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber. The prayer settled in my heart and over the next few days, by using some thoughts from the prayer, a sermon series began to emerge. I hope it will be a blessing to you!
Here’s Nadia’s prayer, written in her signature unconventional (and sometimes surprising) style:
Give Us Good Courage-a prayer by Nadia Bolz-Weber 1/31/21.
Dear God,
I’ve asked for so many things during this ridiculous pandemic: patience, forbearance, peace, safety, forgiveness, and a new season of the Great British Bake-Off.
But I’ve never asked for courage. So, if courage is something you can give us more of, I think now would be a good time.
(Or maybe it doesn't work like that; maybe we don't get an extra measure of what we need only when we think to ask for it and ask nicely; like a second helping of gruel from the abusive guy who runs the orphanage.)
I’m asking for courage because I’ve tried ignoring my fear and that only works for like, 4 minutes. And I’ve tried resisting it but that seems to make my fear stronger like I’m its personal trainer.
So, give me courage, Lord, to show up in life despite the fear.
Courage to love, despite having been hurt.
Courage to heal, even though I sometimes love my wounds.
Courage to feel lonely and know it will not destroy me.
Courage to clean the kitchen.
Courage to trust that all I have needed, your hand hath already provided. Amen.
With Nadia’s prayer as the foundation, and with so many of us in need of courage and strength to live faithful and centered lives, I invite you to join us for worship during Lent when our sermon series will be called GOOD COURAGE. Each week. we will focus on the assigned scripture for the day and its connection to one of the thoughts in the prayer. The outline is below:
GOOD COURAGE: A Lenten Sermon Series
Lent began on Ash Wednesday, February 17th. That morning, on our Wellspring Congregation Facebook page, I led a brief time of prayer. And that evening, we lit luminarias in Wellspring’s front parking lot in memory of all who have lost their lives due to COVID-19.
I look forward to courageously taking this Lenten journey with you. May we all have a blessed Lent.
Ashley Crowder Stanley
Pastor, Wellspring Congregation
SPREADING THE LIGHT AT WELLSPRING
Ashley Crowder Stanley, Pastor
“I bring you great news of great joy” were the words the angel said to the shepherds when they announced the birth of Jesus. These are the words that I want to “borrow” this morning as I write to share several good news stories that will have a significant impact for the good in our community!
First of all, Wellspring has a new food pantry that has been installed at the front of our building at 3578 Sweeten Creek Road in Arden. Envisioned and built by Kelly Galatioto and her family, The Blessing Box is prominently placed so that people can take and donate food and everyday items and will be an ongoing ministry of our church. The door to the Blessing Box has these words etched in it:
Take what you need
Bring what you can
Above all
Be Blessed
Kelly felt called to make this ministry happen. Here is what she wrote to me in describing her vision:
"I have been thinking of a pop up food pantry since retirement started in March…I can't imagine our children going hungry. As we know they do everyday. I pray that our blessing box can help our church neighborhood. Also having a box where it doesn't need to have anyone to be there will be helpful. I think it is a mission where we can all help when we can ! I can go with my grandkiddos and have them help. With social distancing we can keep everyone safe and still help, offering compassion for those who need it. I pray our church family will enjoy shopping for our box knowing that we brought smiles! Thank you to the Wellspring family for the warm embrace of the vision!"
So, when you are at the grocery store, pick up a few items, drop by the church and place them in the Blessing Box so that others might be helped. AND, please spread the word. I will be posting a brief announcement about it on our Facebook page today so please share that. Thank you, Kelly and family, for making this vision a reality!
The second piece of Good News of Great Joy is that our Be The Light Offering has been joyfully successful! If you haven’t already, please take a moment to donate to this outreach offering to benefit The Sharing House in Brevard and Homeward Bound in Asheville, both non-profits who help the folks in our community with housing, clothing, food and hope. The entire offering will be divided equally between these two ministries.
Thank your your generosity and joining us in our deep commitment to serve our neighbors, especially during these hard times.
Rev. Ashley Crowder Stanley
BE THE LIGHT DURING ADVENT
Wellspring Supporting Sharing House and Homeward Bound
Ashley Crowder Stanley, Pastor
October 14, 2020
Dear Friends,
Wellspring Congregation invites you to Be the Light in our community during this Advent season. Join us in our deep commitment to serve our neighbors, especially during these hard times.
We have chosen two ministries to support:
Sharing House in Brevard, NC. Sharing House is a source of compassion and crisis assistance for low-income (up to 200% above poverty line) neighbors in Transylvania County. Food and fresh produce, gently-used clothes, rent and utility assistance, household goods, camping equipment, hot showers, a safe place to share stories of struggle are offered. The Sharing House seeks to make real the incarnational love of God to all who come through their doors, whether as someone seeking assistance or as a volunteer. Instead of viewing their ministry as "to the poor,” they are intentionally changing their language and practice to being in ministry "for all.”
Homeward Bound of Asheville, NC. Homeward Bound proudly uses the best practice Housing First model to end homelessness in the Asheville community. It prioritizes providing permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness. This approach is guided by the belief that people need basic necessities like food and a place to live before attending to anything less critical such as getting a job, budgeting properly or attending to substance abuse issues. Homeward Bound has helped almost 2, 200 people move out of homelessness and of that number, 89% have moved into their own homes and not returned to homelessness.
During December, you can contribute to the Wellspring Be the Light Offering. We will share the offering 50/50 with these two faithful ministries that spread light and hope to so many in our community.
Here’s how to give:
1. Go to wellspringcongregation.org and click on “GIVING.”
2. Scroll down and select “GIVE ONLINE.”
3. Then, click on the arrow beside the word “General” and choose “BE THE LIGHT” and make your donation.
4. If you would rather write a check, please make it out to “Wellspring Congregation
Be the Light” and mail it to: Wellspring Congregation, PO Box 1354, Arden, NC 28704.
We hope you will stay in touch with Wellspring during this season and be a part of the many ways we will worship, study and serve together.
Being the Light together,
Ashley Crowder Stanley
Pastor, Wellspring Congregation
and the Wellspring Leadership Team
A Letter to the Wellspring Congregation Family
Ashley Crowder Stanley, Pastor
October 14, 2020
Dear friends,
Grace and peace to each of you during these challenging days. You are in my prayers each day even though I have not met many of you “in person.” Yet, I already feel the bond between us and look so forward to the time we can safely and non-anxiously be together. I am writing to share some thoughts about Wellspring and update you on our plans for the next few months.
Over a year ago, Wellspring Congregation was started to be an inclusive United Methodist congregation in the Asheville area. Many of you attended information sessions and shared your hopes for a safe, welcoming place to worship and serve. We heard you and enthusiastically began to form a leadership team, plans programs, secure and renovate a building and do fundraising. There was such enthusiastic momentum!
Our opening date was scheduled to be April 5th, 2020-Palm Sunday-and we were beyond excited to have our first, in-person, worship service on that day! Our leadership team, along with countless others, invested significant time and resources to be ready to offer warm hospitality .
And then, COVID-19 happened…and it is still happening. Of course, the most tragic and pressing concern we share are for the 217,000 people who have lost their lives to this virus as well as for the grieving family members left behind. It is difficult to conceptualize the seismic impact this virus has caused on our world and its citizenry. In order to do our part to stop the spread, we chose to indefinitely postpone the opening of our building and instead, move our worship and small group offerings online.
Since April, we have offered a worship service each week which features music, prayer and a sermon. Several times a month, I film a children’s message so that the children in our Wellspring family can feel connected and spiritually fed. As with every church I’ve served, I find that the adults like the children’s messages as much as the kids do!
Additionally, we offer a weekly “Sermon Talk Back” zoom gathering during which participants can explore ideas and questions raised in that week’s sermon. And, we have done a few, small scale mission projects. We have also become a full member of the Reconciling Ministries Network, “an organization seeking the inclusion of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities in both the policy and practices of United Methodist Church.”
What is on the horizon for Wellspring over the next few months? Here are a few highlights:
First of all, we will continue to worship online each week. Because our “sanctuary” space is not large, we do not feel safe having more than a handful of people inside at the same time. We believe this is the most faithful, responsible approach for now. Our services can be found on our website and our Facebook page and are archived from week to week.
On Sunday, October 25th at 9am, there will be a zoom information session for people who are interested in joining Wellspring. The zoom invitation will be sent out closer to the date. Please join in on an informative conversation about what membership in Wellspring means and how to make it happen! Let me know if you’d like more information about this opportunity.
Sunday, November 1st is All Saints Sunday. During our worship service, we will light candles for those people near and dear to us who have passed away during the last year as we say their names. If you have lost a family member or a friend during the last year and would like to have a candle lit in their memory on November 1st, please send me an email with their name (ashley@wellspringcongregation.org). Please send me this information no later than OCTOBER 25th. You are also encouraged to have a candle with you at home which you can light as you watch the worship service.
Advent Study: during December, we will offer an Advent study over zoom. This will help us prepare our hearts for Christmas and hopefully give us a good opportunity to meet one another. Stay tuned for more information!
\Outdoor Christmas Candlelight Service: we hope to have a beautiful outdoor candlelight and carol service during the week before Christmas unless new COVID restrictions take effect before then. We will be confirming the place and date soon!
Wellspring is alive and growing! We appreciate your prayers, virtual presence, financial contributions and ideas! Let me know how I can pray for you! And, if you have ideas that could enrich and deepen our ministry, please let me know.
May God bless you and hold you close, always.
Ashley Crowder Stanley
Pastor, Wellspring Congregation
Donuts, Coffee, Key Lime Pie, Bread and Wine
Ashley Crowder Stanley, Pastor
August 14, 2020
Over the last few months, I’ve heard many tender stories about how people have imaginatively created community during these days of isolation, but none has touched me as deeply as this one.
A friend told me the story of her mother, Margaret, and her close friend, Martha, who live down the hall from each other in an independent living facility, each in her own apartment. Margaret and Martha (M & M) are both in their 90’s and continue to embrace life with open hearts and minds. Their friendship is one of which most of us dream: respectful, compatible, intellectually stimulating, inclusive of each other’s families and lots of fun!
Before they were quarantined, M & M attended the same church, driven there on Sunday mornings by Margaret’s daughter. Each week, after the early service, the trio would stop for donuts; and then, when they were back in the apartment, they would share them over coffee. These moments were weekly times of ritual, sharing stories, and gathering around the table of friendship.
When their church’s worship service went virtual, they devised a new routine: they would watch the service, socially distanced, but still together (as a preacher, I would love to be “a fly on the wall” to overhear their discussions afterwards! I know I’d learn a lot).
Then, it came time for Communion Sunday. What were they to do? They contacted their pastor who graciously told them that during these extraordinary times, it was fine for them to purchase their own communion elements and simultaneously have the sacrament in their home as he blessed the bread and wine at the church. So, Margaret called her daughter and asked if she could pick up a little bottle of wine and a small loaf of bread and deliver them in time for Sunday. They wanted to share communion with their church family, even if it would be around a little table in a comfortable apartment on a quiet hall in a retirement community. They wanted -- and I think, even needed -- to be pulled closer to the heart of God by receiving the “body of Christ, broken for you, and the blood of Christ, shed for you.”
In communion, there is no distance, only welcome and grace. Around God’s table, there is room for us all, whether the table is grand and centrally placed in the chancel of a sanctuary, at the end of a long journey down a dusty road (Luke 24), along a shoreline (John 21) or around a table shared by two good friends.
One Saturday, Margaret called her daughter with the news that the next day happened to be Martha’s 96th birthday! In addition to the communion elements, she asked if her daughter would pick up a little key lime pie from the local grocery store. You see, after they had communion and worshipped, Margaret planned to extend the celebration, continue the party, celebrate another year of her friend’s life, all of it made even more blessed by the ever-present Spirit of God in whom we “live and move and have our being.”
Jesus said: “where two or three are gathered in my name, there I will be also.” Life and worship may be different right now, it may take gathering together in ways unimagined, but the Lord is where you are and everywhere, gleeful to be invited to your tables, to your friendships, into the “daily-ness” of your lives. There He is. There He will be.
A Letter from 1963
Ashley Crowder Stanley, Pastor
July 11, 2020
My college roommate of four years always said that when I started cleaning up our dorm room that meant I was thinking hard about something. I thought of her theory yesterday as I began a cleaning project with the weighty reality of the pandemic’s toll on our world on my mind; I had just seen the statistics that reported another daily high of new cases; I was thinking hard. As I starting cleaning, I found a box of pictures and letters that I had moved from my mother’s home to our home after she died in March. I had stashed it in a safe corner in my closet and forgotten about it…until yesterday.
Unless you have a few hours and a lot of Kleenex close by, don’t open such a box because you will find yourself, as I did, lost on Nostalgia Road. You may even discover things , as I did, about yourself and your family that you never knew.
In 1963, my sister was born. I was old enough to anticipate her arrival with eagerness and curiosity. When she was born, she was very sick with Hyaline membrane disease (HMD), a condition that causes babies to need extra oxygen and help breathing. (Weeks later, President John Kennedy’s newborn son would die of this disease). My sister had to stay in the hospital in Charlotte for two weeks, receiving oxygen and skilled medical care which meant my brother and I couldn’t meet her. Our mom stayed in Charlotte to be near her, and my brother and I went to High Point to stay with our grandparents (which was awesome…magnolia trees to climb, real Coca Colas and Mimi’s cooking!).
This whole scenario was complicated because the week my sister was born was MOVING week for United Methodist clergy and so while baby sister and mom were in hospital, and Rick and I were at the grandparent’s house, my dad drove a moving van to his new church and parsonage in Boone, NC, preached his first sermon in that church, set up the parsonage and drove back to Charlotte to be with his wife and newborn daughter. It’s a good thing he was so young and fit at the time!
While in the hospital, my mom wrote us letters, filling us in on the baby’s progress and telling us how much she missed us. In these letters, she looks forward to us all being together again in the “cool, mountain air,” implores us to behave ourselves if we are taken to church at Wesley Memorial and tells us she loves us “a bushel and a peck.” In one of the letters, she reflects on the nursing care they have received:
“Hey sweethearts, Daddy and I are in the hospital room talking and just want you all to know we are thinking about you and hope that you are having a good time in High Point. Our baby is better tonight and the Doctor thinks she will be okay. Remember her in your prayers.
These nurses are wonderful and work so hard. We think it would be wonderful for you to be a nurse, Ashley. They are so sweet to me and to our baby.”
You would not be wrong if you guessed that I used a huge wad of Kleenex while reading these letters.
Her appreciation for the nursing care puts me in mind of today and the banners I see in the entrances to hospitals, clinics and retirement communities that say: Heroes Work Here. That is so true now as it has been throughout time. Our medical personnel, first responders, social workers and support staff are on the front lines every day during this pandemic, taking risks on our behalf, swabbing, comforting and working punishingly long hours to help folks survive. Putting their own health and the health of their families at home in jeopardy. Putting their own emotions and spirits on hold so they can be chaplain, friend, medical worker, therapist and deliverer of hard news, all rolled into one person. Their strength of spirit and devotion to their calling needs to be applauded, appreciated, compensated and never taken for granted. And, they also should be able to count on us to pray for them and their families every, single day.
In the wee hours of the morning on March 24th, a nurse called me. She was holding my mom’s hand and sitting at her bedside as she transitioned to her eternal life. A nurse.
Thanks be to God for the heroes who certainly are but who would never seek to be called such.
You Can’t Miss What You Never Had
Ashley Crowder Stanley, Pastor
June 17, 2020
A few months after we were married, my husband and I packed up a rented UHAUL truck and our little Subaru sedan and began the long drive to our new home of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Moving from Durham, NC where we had been students for 8 years, it was now time to begin a new chapter in our lives. I didn’t want to go.
As I followed behind the truck, I listened to one cassette tape over and over: James Taylor’s Greatest Hits, primarily the song “In My Mind I’m Going to Carolina.” I wore that song out while I boo-hoed all the way up to the foreign territory of the Land of 10,000 Lakes. I didn’t care about all those lakes because I had Carolina (that is, NORTH Carolina and not the university) on my mind and in my heart and James was obviously the only one who understood. Later, my husband quipped that I had clawed the NC soil so hard as we left it that the dirt under my nails might never wash out.
There’s an expression that goes like this: “you can’t miss what you never had.” So, as we drove far away from home, I wasn’t missing money, a great job or even the house I’d grown up in my whole life because I had never really had those things. With every mile, though, I was missing proximity to my siblings and parents, my beloved friends and the familiarity of the places I knew.
This week, I am in a missing place again. Along with thousands of other United Methodists from Western North Carolina, I should be at Lake Junaluska for our yearly conference meeting but due to Covid-19, the meeting has been cancelled. Honestly, in most years, I usually grumble to myself about having to go, but once I get there and see the first few lifelong friends, I begin to realize that there is simply nothing like the connection I feel to the people and place of this annual gathering.
Growing up in a preacher’s family, my children would always be curious about how carefully I packed my clothes and materials for Annual Conference. They knew this event was important to me but they never really understood why or even what happened there(it really is hard to explain). One year, I was the preacher for one of the Annual Conference worship services and my three children came to support me. Wide-eyed at the sheer number of people milling about in the auditorium, the exuberance of the fellowship and the warmth of the auditorium’s temperature, my then college aged daughter concluded that Annual Conference was like a “fraternity-sorority mixer without the kegs.” Yes, maybe. With hopefully more depth.
You can’t miss something you never had. So, this week, I am missing Annual Conference and my friends and the worship and the singing and the humidity and the ordination service and taking Holy Communion and sitting beside my best minister buddies and walking around the lake and talking under the trees and going to the Reconciling Ministries service and celebrating retirements and hearing stories of how God has been at work and seeing yet another generation of preachers’ kids roaming around with their soggy bathing suits on, hungry for lunch. I miss it all because I have had it and loved it.
In these days of great change, loss and sorrow, many of us are missing so much, we are yearning for some semblance of normalcy and reunion. We miss being at table with friends, sitting closely on a church pew, embracing when we see a friend, having a routine that makes sense, being able to focus. We miss the fullness of life and yearn for a time gone by when we were not afraid of a powerful pandemic virus.
Or maybe it’s just me that feels this way? I don’t know, but somehow, I think you might also be missing something or someone right now. And maybe, like me, you need to find nourishment in the memories until a time we can make new ones.
The cassette is long gone(melted), but the song’s poignant memory carries on. I am thankful for that song because it helps me remember the blessings of who and what I was leaving behind back in 1981. Six years later, we would travel the same highway going the other way, heading home, with Carolina on our minds. As we drove, I smiled through my tears to see the dark, rich Minnesota soil crusty beneath my nails. I didn’t want to go.
Our memories can sustain, teach and help us appreciate what we have had as we anticipate what is to come. Life is different and hard right now. But, life is not completely on hold. Our spirits are not quarantined; they can soar and find comfort in all the goodness that we have had.
So, how would you finish the line: in my mind, I’m going to…? Wherever it is, I hope it is a good place, filled with sweet memories and life-giving hope.
I would like to encourage you to share your reflections or prayer requests with me at my confidential email: ashley@wellspringcongregation.org.
I will be honored to reflect with you and pray for you.
worship experiences
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