On this bonus episode, our Central Women’s Team has a bittersweet conversation reflecting on Leyna Cromarty’s (Central Women’s Ministry resident) residency that’s ending this July.
Welcome back to The Women’s Cast. That’s short for podcast, forecast, our cast of characters, and all the casts in between.
On this bonus episode, our Central Women’s Team has a bittersweet conversation reflecting on Leyna Cromarty’s (Central Women’s Ministry resident) residency that’s ending this July. Join Leyna, host Alison Mezger (Central Women’s Ministry director), and Julie Kotulek (Central Women’s Ministry program coordinator) for a deeper look into what residency has looked like for her over the past two years!
Are you looking to pursue deeper community at your congregation? Get connected here.
You can also join us for some Women’s summer fun gatherings by signing up for one of both now!
Interested in the Austin Stone Development Program? We’re excited to let you know that this program will start again this fall for our Northwest, St. John, and West Campuses! Check out the details here.
Already taken ASDP and looking for more development? Reach out to the Women’s Ministry lead at your congregation here.
Residency applications open in August. If this piqued your interest, check out some of the opportunities for the 2024 year here.
Last but not least, don’t forget, Psalms Bible Study registration opens in less than a month! Registration coming soon!
Leyna Crommarty:
Hello. Every time Jules has called me recently, I've gone, "Hello, poppy."
Julie Kotulek:
That's from Pirates of the Caribbean right, "Hello, poppy"?
Leyna Crommarty:
When I got home from work yesterday, he let Zeke out and I go, "Hello, poppy"
Julie Kotulek:
Popeye and poppy. That's perfect.
Leyna Crommarty:
I was like, I don't understand why I started doing this. I think it was a joke, but then I think it's hilarious.
Julie Kotulek:
Yeah.
Alison Mezger:
Because probably gives you say it then you immediately start laughing. No one else is laughing.
Leyna Crommarty:
Hello Poppy.
Julie Kotulek:
This actually feels like the most perfect intro to this podcast.
Alison Mezger:
Hey guys, welcome back to the Women's Cast. I'm your host, Alison Mezger, and I'm going to be honest with you guys. This episode is bittersweet. Today I'm joined by our central women's team, which may sound like a lot of us, but really there's just three and we are here to reflect on Leyna Crommarty's time with us as a resident, over the past two years. Leyna has been part of our team since August 2021, and she will officially complete her residency at the end of July. This conversation feels really sweet because all three of us agree that her residency has been such a valuable time for each of us, but it's bitter because it means we're closing out this season and we are going to desperately miss having her on the team in this capacity. We're not actually saying goodbye because she knows she's still going to be an active lay leader, but we couldn't let this season pass without spending a little bit of time reflecting on just the season of ministry with her.
Before we jump into our conversation, I want to just briefly explain what residency at the Austin Stone is and why we do it. In short, the residency program is two years, designed to help participants discern vocation and ministry and grow in those skills. So during the program, they get hands-on training in ministry, they get exposure to things that will help them develop in their character, growth in doctrine. As a resident, you get invited into the deep end of ministry alongside staff and deacons and our leaders in our church with the hope that it will help residents grow and discern if God may be calling them into full-time ministry. The residency program exists out of a deep conviction that our church holds to build up new leaders for the glory of God and the advancement of his kingdom.
So whether residents go on to vocational ministry or find themselves in the workplace, we believe so wholeheartedly that this is setting up a next generation of leaders to pursue God's glory wherever he has them. We love our residents and it really is one of our greatest joys as staff to get to see God move in their lives and honestly in our lives through them while they serve with us.
Okay, now onto the best part of the conversation. Leyna and Julie, introduce yourselves, share your role that you play on the team. Leyna, of course, we're going to start with you.
Leyna Crommarty:
Hi, my name is Leyna Crommarty and I serve as the Central Women's Ministry resident.
Julie Kotulek:
And I'm Julie Kotulek, and I serve as the Central Women's Ministry program coordinator.
Alison Mezger:
Okay, so Leyna, this episode's kind of all about you.
Leyna Crommarty:
Woo, woo-hoo.
Julie Kotulek:
You're in the hot seat.
Alison Mezger:
You're in the hot seat today. How do you feel about that first of all, I just want to know legitimately? You're usually listening as we work on podcasts. You're sitting in a different spot kind of with your editing brain on, and this isn't the first episode you've been on, but it is the only one that's been focused specifically around your experience as a resident, how you feel right now?
Leyna Crommarty:
Yeah, I feel pretty good. It's funny because by the time you're hearing this, everyone listening, I will have already edited this. So I'm like, you're hearing my post edited voice.
Alison Mezger:
Yeah, there's a certain level of confidence knowing that you yourself can take out anything you wish you hadn't said.
Leyna Crommarty:
Yes.
Alison Mezger:
You're like, I have some control here.
Leyna Crommarty:
A little bit. Yeah, that's nice. I think I probably feel differently if it was someone else doing that editing, but I think it felt pretty good, sound good.
Alison Mezger:
All right. She's going to sound good. Okay, take us back, residency started two years ago, but that process for you started two and a half, almost three years before then because of how long the application and interview and then the fundraising piece goes because I didn't say this when I talked about residency, but residents support raised their salaries for two years. So this has been something that's been a part of your life for really almost three years, so take us back. We were right in the middle of COVID and you decide to at least discern whether residency was going to be a good next step for you. What was that process like?
Leyna Crommarty:
Yeah, so back in 2020 before COVID hit, I had started feeling this pull away from the jobs I had at the time, so I was working two part-time jobs and one was an afterschool program. So when COVID hit, I lost that job and the Lord just gave me a ton of time to discern what was next and kind of unexpectedly, my mom asked if I'd ever considered working for my church, and at the time I was taking the Ecclesiastes study and was really loving just the women's ministry teaching and things. And so I was like, "Well, maybe. I should at least consider that."
And so I started praying back in 2020, which this was six months before applications for residency for the following year, so a year and a half later opened, and so I just spent the entire summer praying and then I got to talk to Kate Terry, the downtown equipping and women's director as well as Alison, just to see where the Lord had me and where my gifts would be best and discerned that mutually discerned with Alison after, and Julie, always Alison and Julie, if I say Alison, probably Julie too. Got to discern that the residency under Central Women's was the position for me. And then that was in January or February of 2021, so you're talking almost a year of praying, discerning, waiting and then launched into support raising in March. And so that's how I got to the residency.
Alison Mezger:
When you look back on that season, what you were hoping, what you were expecting, what you kind of thought, even the discernment process, what you thought the Lord might do through that, when you look back, what was surprising? What's been different? Where has there been an expectation met or one that had to be reworked? Because yeah, you knew what was on paper, we've had some conversations. It had been several years since I'd had a resident. Julie and I are still kind of newly working together. At that time, we had never had a resident directly on our team, so was a lot of...
Julie Kotulek:
We were coming out of COVID, we were at home for over a year.
Alison Mezger:
Yeah, so there's a lot of everyone holding this pretty open handily with even what it would look like and what it would be. So we'll talk about highs and lows and all that, but when you think about what you thought it would be then, how does that sit with you now knowing what it actually has been like?
Leyna Crommarty:
Yeah. Honestly, I was also super open-handed about it because I knew all those things that this was brand new and I kind of joked with Alison that she made it up for me, but that was not the case.
Alison Mezger:
It's fine if you want to keep thinking that.
Leyna Crommarty:
I think one thing that I thought would be more involved was actually meeting with women, but my job has been a lot more behind the scenes, which actually ended up being really good because it left me super open to my personal ministry, so I wasn't coming home tired from talking to a bunch of people. I was actually ready to go out and serve in other women's ministry areas and college and marriage and all those things. So that was a unexpected but really cool. I was doing ministry full time, but I was also still wanting to do ministry at home.
Alison Mezger:
And that's a cool, I think learning for all of us, it's been fun to watch you do that, finding your footing outside of the job requirements of ministry and be like, well, all of us are first and foremost just partners in our church. We're all just partners and there are aspects of our personal ministry aspects of being disciples and aspects of being disciple makers that really we're called to be faithful to outside of...
Julie Kotulek:
A job description and a calling to ministry.
Leyna Crommarty:
Yeah.
Alison Mezger:
Yeah. That's been something that's been really sweet to see you lean into and not, I think it's easy for any of us, but especially if you're kind of new in ministry to go, "Oh, well, I do that nine to five, and so I guess I don't do that outside of work, or I can only do it in these spaces", but yeah, you've led so faithfully within your group and in marriage mentorship and in different class environments that you've helped lead in and with college and stuff that it's clear that you have brought kind of a holistic view of your ministry as just a follower of Jesus, and part of that has been your professional job these past two years, but that's not been all of it.
Julie Kotulek:
It's also cool to think about, and I think we'll get to this later in the conversation of just thinking about you finishing and because you've navigated residency and even time before residency with that kind of posture. When residency is over, you still have thriving ministry within our church and within women's ministry in our church because it's that personal life piece. You're called to this just as a disciple of Jesus. And so while some of that will look different and be paired back, your ministry will still be thriving in August after you roll off in July. And I think that's really sweet that it doesn't just come to a screeching halt because you finished this program.
Alison Mezger:
Especially from the people standpoint of things.
Julie Kotulek:
Yeah.
Alison Mezger:
Like the ministry that you have with people is, will continue to keep going.
Leyna Crommarty:
Yeah. I love it.
Alison Mezger:
It's really fun.
Leyna Crommarty:
I'm sad to leave though because there's a lot of people that I love seeing every day, so, I'm still going to be around though.
Alison Mezger:
You're still going to be around.
Julie Kotulek:
I'm not worried that you're still going to be around.
Alison Mezger:
When you think about the past couple of years, what are the highs and lows, because we've had some?
Leyna Crommarty:
Yes, for sure. Yeah. I think honestly, one of my biggest highs has actually probably been doing some of the programs that do run into some personal ministry, but the Austin Stone Development program, and then after that, discerning doing the teacher development program, I just loved learning so much about God. When I came into ASDP, I was like, "I don't know this theology thing, I really don't want it to be knowledge that puffs up. I want it to be the love that builds." And I think that that was really true, and as someone that leans probably more head, I was worried that going in it would make me actually not love Jesus more, but that was totally not true at all, and I came out being more prepared and ready to have more intentional and loving conversations with anyone genuinely. And then the teacher development program really just helped me to apply what I'm already learning in my Bible to share with other people, which is just has always been a huge passion of mine. And so those are definitely a couple highs I think.
I mean, even this past women's retreat, especially the first women's retreat Julie and Alison know was a low for me because I was not spiritually, physically, mentally prepared at all, even though I felt like I could have been, but it was just unlike anything I'd ever done before. And so I just came in kind of white knuckling it and that, I don't know if y'all ever white knuckled anything, but it's bad. It's bad. It's not a positive thing.
Julie Kotulek:
Maybe a time or two.
Leyna Crommarty:
It hurts.
Julie Kotulek:
Yeah.
Leyna Crommarty:
I don't know if you knew that, but go try whiten knuckling something for 10 minutes, it hurts. Now try for a whole week while you're putting on a retreat for 500 women. That is bad. Okay, don't be like me. But yeah, I think knowing that that was so difficult, it brought about so much communication and things that I didn't even realize that I was doing because I was at my wit's end. And so having that first experience and then going to women's retreat round two, a year later, was so much better both on the side of, I mean, I was still real tired, I'll be honest, because it's exhausting what obviously if you've ever been to women's retreat, that is incredible. And that incredibleness just happen, it happens through a lot of hard work from a lot of really special people both on staff and that serve.
And so reflecting back on women's retreat, especially time with our team was really, really special. And that's definitely, I think a high of my residency has just been getting to know people both on the full women's team, so congregational directors and associates as well as the central team, of course, the Austin Stone staff as well. There are so many women that are on staff that serve in women's ministry, and then there are so many men that are very loving and supportive of women, which we need. And that is so great.
Alison Mezger:
Yeah. I can't help but point out that just because it's so good for, this happens in all of our lives, and I think it's harder to see when it's in your own, but it's so fun to hear you reflect and that one of the highs really came from the height of it came from how low it started, and that was wrestling with expectations, wrestling with your own flesh, wrestling with team dynamics, and just interpersonal things because we sin on each other, and so there's miscommunication and things we have to work through, but you wouldn't have experienced that high and we wouldn't have experienced that with you and been able to see objectively be like, "This is a different for ELeyna this year than it was the year before."
And God has done a work in you in some ways that we're very noticeable, and when you put those two weekends up against each other, but we wouldn't have even been able to see that you could have just had a great second run, but it was without the comparison to the first one, which was a struggle that we're actually able to see the goodness of God and the faithfulness of that and your faithfulness to lean in into the hard conversations that followed, and just wrestling with what even contributed to that. But I need that reminder so often of like those hard things, so much good can come out of them and this is just a really sweet example of that being the case.
Julie Kotulek:
Yeah. I think it so speaks to just grace because I think back to your first retreat and conversations that we had after four words and all of the things, it would've been really easy for you to quit.
Alison Mezger:
Yeah.
Julie Kotulek:
And it takes calling trust in people and the Lord, and it takes so many things to have an experience like that and to be like, "I'm going to lean in. I'm going to open myself up in vulnerability, and I'm going to do the work for this to be different next year", and you did that, and I am just like I think that's rare. And so I just think that's really sweet.
Alison Mezger:
Yeah, for sure.
Julie Kotulek:
You don't do that away from the security of the Lord.
Leyna Crommarty:
Oh, no facts.
Alison Mezger:
Yeah, Yeah.
Leyna Crommarty:
Yeah. That was the biggest thing that I just remembered having a different attitude about was the fact that Christ serves me and so it's a privilege to serve others. And I feel like my first year I was not in that mindset at all and so really just recognizing, "Oh, Jesus served me so much that he went to the cross and died for me, and then resurrected, okay, I can love my coworkers and friends for four days, and I can do that without being bitter because I know that I have security in Jesus and that nothing I serve is away from him. He is the one allowing me to serve from him." And so I think that has just, not just changed that weekend, but honestly changed my perspective on loving and serving those around me.
Alison Mezger:
Yeah. That's awesome.
Julie Kotulek:
And I think just so that you're easy on yourself, and I think we've had those conversations, women's retreat, I feel like it's hard for everyone. It is just, it's hard. It's unique. I think it's something that the enemy wants to come after. And so you mentioned communication, and I think that's been in ministry across the board specifically, bigger ministry things. The more that we can communicate and keep the lie of the enemy out of our head, the better we'll be.
Alison Mezger:
Yeah.
Leyna Crommarty:
So true.
Alison Mezger:
So thinking about some of the ways that the enemy would love to tear down and redirect your attention and tell you things that aren't true, anything come to mind just as you think about like narratives you've had to fight over the past couple of years being in the specific role that you're in?
Leyna Crommarty:
No. I'm just kidding.
Julie Kotulek:
I almost believed you.
Alison Mezger:
For half a second.
Julie Kotulek:
That was so confusing.
Leyna Crommarty:
No, we had enough conversations. You should not believe me.
Julie Kotulek:
But it was just your tone and the look on your face that is...
Alison Mezger:
Yeah. Not a one.
Leyna Crommarty:
Too funny. Okay. Yeah. I think one of the toughest lies to consistently combat is that I'm not liked. That I just feel like not just here, but everywhere I go, there are things about my personality and even I was re-listening to a friend's voice message that I sent, like I sent them and I was like, "Oh my gosh, I sound like that. I sound mad", and I'm just having a normal conversation. And so I think even just the tone of my voice sometimes can be a sandpaper person, just rubbing against you the wrong way. And I think that because sometimes that has been true of me, it's easy to think that's always true of me and that that's how other people see me. And so my own misconception of self and keeping that to myself has actually led me away from what's true and what is true is the people of God want to know you because they know what it's like to be known by the Lord. And that produces this desire for connection because Jesus died for the church.
And so I think my first year of residency, I just was like, "Yeah, I'm work-Leyna and then I go home and I get to be normal-Leyna again", and that is really unhealthy. It is not good to pretend that you're someone else, especially not in a Christian setting. And so I think being able to tell people, like "I think everyone hates me" and then being able to be like, "no", and also you should really trust if someone feels like you've sinned against them, that they'll come to you because they love Jesus and they have the spirit. And if you feel like you've offended someone, go to them. Go.
So yeah, I think that both in ministry and personal life, that's something that I always need remind myself, especially someone will be like, "Let's hang out" and I'll literally respond, "Am I in trouble?" Julie knows this too.
Julie Kotulek:
All the time.
Leyna Crommarty:
Every time Julie ever has to meet with me, it's usually about work, but it's always about work. I don't think I've ever gotten in trouble with Julie, but still I just have this almost, I guess, fear that I've hurt someone unintentionally. And that is kind of my worst nightmare, that I've hurt someone and they didn't tell me and now they hate me, which is not true usually.
Alison Mezger:
But there is a struggle in that that I've seen you walk through of what does it look like to bring your whole self to someplace, the full confidence that you are known and loved by God and that he has written a story in your life and given you personality and wiring, and he's made Leyna for a very specific reason and how do you bring your whole self, honestly, into a context. And how do you also learn how to be a part of something bigger than yourself. Which means we are always learning how to communicate in a way that serves someone else or work in a way that serves, we're called to be others minded.
And so you bring your whole self, but it's not about your whole self. I mean, that's a challenge for all of us, but I think that's probably a good category for understanding some of the things that I've seen you walk through and lean into over the past two years of let's be true to Leyna, and then let's also learn how to work in different ways with different people, because it's not about, and I'm not in any way suggesting you operate this way, but we all do to some degree, it's like it's about my preferences and the way that I would want to be loved and communicated with and we're all trying to unlearn that. And that that's a big part of residency, given just where you are in your life stage and career is like, "Okay, I'm confident enough in who God is maybe to be all in. And yet I'm open to refinement and correction and coaching and being others minded in a way that is going to cost me something."
Leyna Crommarty:
That's true. Reading a room is one of the most important things I've learned through residency. Before that, I was like, "There's no words, well, how am I reading this room?" Yeah. If you are like me and you want to know how to read a room, listening is a great place to start.
Julie Kotulek:
That's good. That's good.
Leyna Crommarty:
And assuming the best in people...
Alison Mezger:
That's a good one.
Leyna Crommarty:
Maybe giving people the benefit of the doubt is a better way to say that because it's easy to think that a look or something or a phrase thrown your way is a personal attack, and it's usually not. Maybe it is, but usually it's not. And so that's just been really helpful for me to learn that, dang, that's probably not about me, what Alison was saying.
Alison Mezger:
Yeah.
Julie Kotulek:
Well, and I think it's so hard in ministry specifically because it's hard, like we're so many things at one time, or you can feel like you're so many things at one time. It's like, you're my coworker, you're my boss, but you're also my sister in Christ. And so it's like, oh, well, is that comment come? It's just hard to hold all the different things at one point. And I might be communicating to you as a coworker, but you can't inevitably hear the comment that I made or the tone that it's in a way that feels more impactful than that because it's just hard to section all of the things off.
Alison Mezger:
Yeah, we're all just learning how to do this stuff together.
Leyna Crommarty:
That's true.
Alison Mezger:
Okay. Leyna, any other just favorite moments from the past couple years? What will you and be reminding your husband Jules about that thing that you experienced or learned or got to do in residency in a few years when you're thinking back?
Leyna Crommarty:
The first thing that comes to mind is the conference we went to in Indianapolis.
Julie Kotulek:
Wow. I was not expecting that.
Alison Mezger:
Me neither.
Julie Kotulek:
Wow. Okay.
Leyna Crommarty:
Well, I'm big Jackie Hill Perry fan, and I got to see her not once, but twice.
Alison Mezger:
All right.
Leyna Crommarty:
Live in, no, three times, oh, three times, live in the flesh.
Alison Mezger:
How can you forget?
Leyna Crommarty:
I know, rude, sorry, Jackie, if you're listening. And also Jasmine Holmes and Rebecca McLaughlin, John Piper, I feel like not many 26 year olds get to hear John Piper talk in the flesh. And so that was just a really cool experience and was just really nice to not be putting the conference on. That was really sweet.
Julie Kotulek:
For sure.
Leyna Crommarty:
And we got to have a lot of team time. And I love staying in hotels and got to room with Darby, who is another resident, and it's just a lot of sweet mems, I feel like the weather was good. I don't know. I look on it fondly, so there's no travel issues.
Julie Kotulek:
Yeah, that was fun. Now that I'm hearing you talk about, I'm like, that was a good trip.
Alison Mezger:
Yeah, that was great. Yeah. What about favorite, if you can brag on yourself for a little bit before we do, what were some favorite just projects you've gotten to work on? Because you said you thought this was going to be a lot more maybe coffee with women and direct discipleship, but you were actually, our whole team is a lot more behind the scenes. And so you're behind the scenes, behind the scenes, in some ways even serving Julie and I serving the rest of the team. So what were some things that you got to do that you're proud of?
Leyna Crommarty:
Yeah. Okay. Three things come to mind. The first one is of course, the Women's Mentorship Network. So I got to help just start this kind of database for getting women across our congregations connected to a network that gives them the opportunity to be a mentor and to have a mentor. So it's just been really awesome because that's been a consistent thing that I've done every single week for throughout my entire residency. So yeah, that's definitely one big thing that I've really loved being a part of because I am so passionate about discipleship and personal ministry things.
And then I think another one is podcasting. I think specifically, honestly, being on the other side of the editing is really satisfying for me. It's been awesome too, to just be built up in this way. You all literally paid for me to get trained and be able to do this. And so that's just an honor to be developed in that way. And then related to that, the third thing is the videoing. And so I've also been trained in how to do video editing and gotten to do a couple of those. And I've just had so much fun working on that stuff and am hopeful to do it on the side as well. And so I think those have just been some ways that I've been developed and really loved. And bonus one, because I just think this is literally so funny because Julia's told me this twice, but I've gotten to develop my writing a lot. And Julia literally says, this is so funny, that sometimes she wonders if I use AI, which I feel like is such a compliment, maybe to not all to me it is. And so...
Julie Kotulek:
It is 100% a compliment because it is vastly different than it was.
Leyna Crommarty:
Which is cool, because I think I went from, "Oh, I have to write a woman in ministry to, I have to write two women from my perspective of ministry in the women at the Austin Stone tone." And when I recognize, "Oh, I can actually write things that women want to read", that really changed how I was kind of what I mentioned earlier being work-Leyna, I was pretending to be something that I wasn't and that was negatively impacting my work. And so to feel the freedom and just to have a lot of reps in practicing how to do that, and a lot of correction has been so helpful.
Alison Mezger:
Well, again, it's a little bit of the bringing your whole self to something, but knowing that you're part of something bigger to invite the ladies listening and a little bit, you guys can hear how Leyna communicates, it's easy, it's fun. That Lana's personality, it is very approachable. And she started writing in residency and it always sounded a little bit like a benediction.
Julie Kotulek:
She's natural and it's just you and like easy and yeah.
Alison Mezger:
Hello fellow...
Leyna Crommarty:
Literally.
Alison Mezger:
Followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Leyna Crommarty:
I was like, this is what they...
Alison Mezger:
I hope this email find you well in all of the places that he has called you to just find Sunday after...
Leyna Crommarty:
I wrote it in a really traditional church. So this is what women want hear. They want to hear this poem that I wrote in prose though.
Alison Mezger:
Yeah.
Julie Kotulek:
It's so good. That's great. It's so good.
Alison Mezger:
Look, it's also fun to think about the couple of things you listed with the mentorship network and even the podcast and video editing, those weren't things that were kind of true existing ministry things that we handed off to you. It's like, "Okay, great Leyna is here. She can put some manners into." Those were things that by and large didn't exist or existed in a very limited way before you came. And so it's truly been ministry that we have been able to step into because you were interested in being developed in some ways, but then wanted to put your gifts and time and skills towards those things. And I think they are what they are because of that investment from you, uniquely as you, not just because it was an originally on Julie and I's task list and we just passed it off to you.
So it's fun that, and I don't know that that would've been the experience with a different resident. That was because God gave us you for two years and then those things exist the way they do now.
Julie Kotulek:
Yeah.
Alison Mezger:
Because it was you and you kind of brought some of the interest in those areas and we were like, "Okay, let's feed into that", which is just a really fun way that his provision is, it's very specific for us and it has been. Yeah.
Julie Kotulek:
I specifically remember the first time, I think it was workshop with Jeff Vanderstelt for Gospel, the first time that you did bumper videos. And I remember walking away from a meeting with you where you showed them to Alison and I for the first time and I remember telling Alison, "She's in her sweet spot".
Alison Mezger:
Yeah. She came alive.
Julie Kotulek:
I just saw Leyna light up in a way that I haven't seen her light up yet. And that's really cool that she's getting that in her residency.
Alison Mezger:
We didn't know to look for that and I don't know that you did either.
Leyna Crommarty:
I have no idea.
Alison Mezger:
I mean you were creative, but...
Leyna Crommarty:
Pure honesty, I thought that podcast editing and video editing would be super boring. And then I did it and I was like, "Oh my gosh, storytelling is so fun from this perspective." And I'm big on knowing things, I love to know people. I love to know stuff. I love to know things about stuff and people. So when you're behind the scenes in podcasts, sorry ladies, but sometimes you don't get everything, but I do. I get everything. And that is so cool because...
Julie Kotulek:
I have never connected that dot about you, but I know that about you and I'm like, this makes so much sense.
Leyna Crommarty:
With the bumper videos, I get to feel so encouraged, not just by the end product, but also by what I experience from being with the women that are in these recordings. And that is just so cool. And even podcasting, it's just so fun. It just feels so intimate and that's how God knows us is intimately. And so, it really is, I like how you said, it's a sweet spot, which was so unexpected. I did not come into the residency thinking that I would come out with these skills.
Julie Kotulek:
Well, and I think it flexes the kind of creative bent that you have as well. I think what was so sweet about that interaction specifically was you got to present something that you essentially helped create in its final product and I could just tell you we're so proud of it. And so I just think that there's multiple things going on there.
Alison Mezger:
And really cool too to see how I'm going to let you tell everybody what you're doing next because there's probably a misconception that you're going to pursue residency, you're kind of discerning what vocational ministry might or might not look like and that there is an expectation or a hope or that the appropriate next step or best next step is for resident then to find themselves in a staff position here or elsewhere. And that's not always the case and yet we can really rejoice in God opening up the eyes, your eyes and eyes of other residents to actually what they are called to, whether it's in the marketplace or in any other environment. And so you're not jumping right into a church staff role, and yet all these things that we've been talking about, it's so clear to those of us who've been walking alongside you that you are doing exactly the next thing in obedience to the way God has made you and the opportunities he's opened up for you. It's really, really fun. So tell everybody what you're doing next outside of just continuing to serve as a wonderful lay leader?
Leyna Crommarty:
Yes, that is something I'm really excited for. So I'm super passionate about lay leadership, which I don't know if anyone listening doesn't know what that is. I didn't know what it was. I didn't know. I did not know a lot of things coming into residency about Christian stuff. And so I'd be grateful. Literally, yo, I thought Ebenezer was from a Christmas carol and it is, but not in the way that we talk about it. The question was what am I doing next?
Alison Mezger:
Yeah.
Leyna Crommarty:
I will be attending the Denver Advertising School online, so I'll be staying in Austin, staying at the Austin Stone. And basically what this program is a 15-month-long portfolio school. And so I will be going online to hopefully become an art director, which is one of the branches of advertising. So goal is to go into the marketplace afterwards. But honestly, just knowing what I've known about the last few years of my life, I pretty much only think about what am I certain that the Lord has for me next, and I'm going to take steps in obedience towards that, and then I'm going to let him decide what's next for me and I'm going to be obedient to that again.
So yeah, I'm really excited to start that. And I've also just been doing some podcasts and video things on the side as well. So I videoed my first wedding, and so I'm mid-editing that right now. So we're going to see if that is going to be a continued little side project, fun. But yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to having a school schedule, especially because I remember when I was working after school and had another part-time job that was really flexible, it made serving the church a lot easier and more fun because I just had more availability. So I'm really looking forward to that as well.
Alison Mezger:
Yeah, that's awesome. I started this episode by saying there, there's something really bittersweet about this conversation because it is really fun to reflect back on just how the Lord brought you to us and all the things that he's done in and through you, laying in these past couple years. But we really are sad to see launch in into what's next, even though we're so confident that you are acting obediently in what you're pursuing. It's so encouraging to me personally to look back on this time and to hear you reflect on it, but I want to make sure we take a chance to specifically encourage you. I know that will happen in other environments with the rest of our team as we really officially celebrate and send you off, but I think it's good and right to invite the women listening and the women that have been beneficiaries of your work behind the scenes for the past two years, even if they haven't known it.
So I want to give you a couple of just really specific encouragement, and then I think Julie wants to do the same. First thing that, it's funny when there was a conversation kind of within the residency program of some ways of sending you guys off, and one of the things that's been done historically has been to kind of give each resident a word and they didn't end up doing it in that scenario, but it was enough time where Julie and I spent at least a few conversations kind of talking about what word we would give you. I'm glad that in that environment they didn't choose to do that because we still hadn't agreed on what we would've said, but we were wrestling somewhere between this kind of fervency, zealous like passion. None of the words quite felt right. And each of those words honestly feels like it has some baggage that is not what we intended.
Leyna Crommarty:
It's all fantastic.
Alison Mezger:
Yeah, but there is something very unique about how passionately, zealously, fervently you have attached onto the Gospel and the truths of Jesus and the power of the word. And we haven't brought the ladies listening into kind of your full story of coming to know Jesus, but it was later in college, you didn't grow up and faith at seven. So you're a young adult when this is happening, and so we're getting you in the ministry and you're like, I'm still, in your words, like a baby Christian.
Leyna Crommarty:
Yeah, I'm baby. I'm just a baby.
Alison Mezger:
But there has been this, it's so clear though that you have a deep conviction. The spirit has given you a deep, deep confidence that God is who he says he is, and you believe him and you're taking it to the bank. And there may be, as you've talked about, ASDP and Ebenezer and Russell Moore isn't married to...
Leyna Crommarty:
Beth Moore.
Alison Mezger:
To Beth Moore, you heard it. There have been areas of learning, but it has not been filling in gaps of where did you not believe confidently enough. You confidently believe that Jesus is who he says he is, and it's just really beautiful to see that gift that God's given you.
The second thing I want to just make sure about yourself is I don't think I know maybe anyone who can so fluidly take that confidence and relationally make that feel natural to bring into a situation where you are with nonbelievers. I am so excited about Leyna in the marketplace if that's where the Lord continues this journey, because you are so not shy about what you believe to be true, and yet you are so winsome about it and so able, I mean, in a two years worth of ministry, both on staff and personally, and yet you still have such a big network of non-believing friends. And that doesn't happen accidentally for any of us. That takes great intentionality to continue to pursue people who don't know Jesus.
And I think God has uniquely gifted you to see them and to continue to build networks and build spaces where they feel safe to be invited into. But then you don't just let them show up. You are going to talk about real things and bring the Gospel to bear in those relationships. And I think you do it with a ton of grace and curiosity for those people, and that is a really, it's a hard thing to do to marry truth and love as well as I see you exemplify it and it's really encouraging and challenging to me personally.
Leyna Crommarty:
That's so sweet.
Alison Mezger:
The last thing I want to encourage you with is I think one of the things that you've demonstrated in this past couple of years has been a desire for wisdom. In fact, you have a tattoo on your arm. We actually knew about Leyna's arm before we knew about Leyna because women's retreat 2020 was the theme was wisdom from above and we were teaching from Proverbs and we learned after the fact that a woman at the Austin Stone that none of us knew, had gotten part of the icon of the design tattooed on her arm because she thought it was so beautiful and was meant something significant to her, found out in the interview process. That was actually you.
Leyna Crommarty:
That's me.
Julie Kotulek:
I don't know if we've ever told you this, but we found it out about it on Instagram.
Leyna Crommarty:
Oh, that's right.
Alison Mezger:
Yeah, I tagged you all.
Julie Kotulek:
Yeah, and I vividly remember there being this moment, not having a clue who you were and it coming across Instagram after women's retreat that year and being like someone got the branding tattooed on her arm.
Alison Mezger:
Yeah, it's beautiful.
Julie Kotulek:
Yeah.
Alison Mezger:
It is beautiful. But you have been someone who has brought many scenarios from your personal life, from leading a group. You are someone who constantly brings the questions you have and your desire to have other people speak into them so that you can grow in wisdom. Even as a leader, you're not shy to want to invite other perspectives into that. And so I see you have this, again, very fervent pursuit of wisdom, and yet it's mixed with this very joyful childlike faith and personality. So I get a kick out of thinking about 70 year old Leyna because I think she's going to be so unbelievably wise and still probably giggle and just find joy and have the demeanor of someone who is unburdened in some ways by some of the things we bring that we assume that adulthood has to mean. There is a childlike disposition in how you carry yourself, and yet it's not devoid at all from wisdom and a pursuit of wisdom. And I think that is something really cool about how God's made you.
Julie Kotulek:
Yeah.
Leyna Crommarty:
That's super sweet turn.
Julie Kotulek:
It's my turn. Although I will say that Alison stole two of mine because we processed these together and...
Alison Mezger:
Sorry, I got to go first.
Julie Kotulek:
That's great.
Alison Mezger:
You should have coordinated this part, we didn't. I just started talking.
Julie Kotulek:
No, it's great. You can be the spokesperson of the things. I prefer that. But I think one specific encouragement that I would like to give that I think is the fruit of so much of what Alison has already shared, and one of the ways that I admire you the most, is because you are so convinced of the Gospel and Jesus' love for you and what he's done for you and what he's achieved for you. You live so free in a way that, "and so I'm banking on his grace and therefore I can fail, therefore I can mess up and I can apologize. Therefore, I can be myself and don't have to worry." I know that it's more muddy for you just hearing some of the stuff that you've articulated on this podcast, but from my vantage point, I'm like, she's already so free in his grace and so sure that his love is going to catch her and has her and is never letting her go.
And that's just one way that I admire and am truly, I'm like, God, give me what Leyna has. I desire to have that freedom that she has in your love for her. That's the encouragement that I would give. And then not an encouragement, but I think I would like to just say thank you because as much as we can sit here and talk about how residency has been about your growth and your development and you growing into looking more like Jesus and growing into skills and all of the things, you have been that to me as well. We could do a whole nother podcast episode on how your residency and how you specifically and because you were the person that God had in all of your uniqueness, be a part of our team for the past two years, how that has made me look more like him and love him more. And clearly, Alison can say the same because she's chiming in.
Alison Mezger:
Yeah.
Julie Kotulek:
And so as much as you can sit here and talk about all of the ways that it's benefited you, it has done the same for me. And so I just want to say thank you. Thank you for saying yes, thank you for doing hard things. Thank you for coming standing back up when you got knocked down, and I'm so proud of you for finishing well, yeah.
Leyna Crommarty:
Thanks juju beans.
Alison Mezger:
Well, if it's not clear, we love you.
Julie Kotulek:
I'm glad that this is good.
Leyna Crommarty:
I love you guys too.
Alison Mezger:
I can't say, this isn't like actual goodbye.
Julie Kotulek:
Same.
Alison Mezger:
Glad that Denver ad school is online, actually in Denver. Well, I hope too that it's just an encouragement for God's listening this thing that God can work through both the hard things. That's kind of a story we're always trying to tell. It's like God works through hard things. He works through the things that we expect, but he works through the things we don't expect. He certainly works through each other to refine each other. That's definitely a theme I think with the three of us, is how there has been definitely refinement because he's given each of us his spirit and we'll use us, it doesn't matter, hierarchy or any of that kind of stuff like there's an element of just family and community and the work that God is doing is real and he's going to use each other to bring that out about in our lives.
And I'm so thankful that that's been such a significant part of my life and Julie's life and your life for the past couple of years. So we will, I'll always look back on these tears with you really, really fondly, and we will always be cheering you on.
Leyna Crommarty:
Yay. Maybe, I'll come back, round two.
Alison Mezger:
Second residency. Well, I would be remiss to not say, guys, if listening to this, your interest is peaked around the idea of residency as a way to discern ministry, calling as a way to serve the local church in a more formal way for a two-year season of time and get developed in the process, we would love to talk to you about that. So reach out to women@austinstone.org. Reach out to anyone on the Austin Stone Institute or ASI team who really is the engine behind the residency program. We can't say enough good things about what that experience for us is as a ministry and in as sad as we're mostly just sad that Leyna is leaving. But we are always excited about the idea of the opportunity God might have for us to do this again with someone else. So want to leave that encouragement out there.
Leyna Crommarty:
Yay.
Alison Mezger:
Any final words?
Leyna Crommarty:
Do it. Residency's great. Honestly, I didn't mention this earlier, but I think one part of an actually mountaintop, if you will, experience was support racing. And I think you mentioned it too, that it's like it's not something anyone goes in and wants to do usually, but to see God provide over and over and over and over again and that he's still provided for every single dollar that I have made over the last two years is just literally so incredible. So I just feel like someone needs to hear that that support raising is worth every single second. And there's over a hundred people that I email every month that are praying for me and supporting me. And that if that's not God, then you're wrong.
Alison Mezger:
Yeah. She's convinced.
Leyna Crommarty:
Yeah.
Alison Mezger:
She's convinced.
Leyna Crommarty:
Oh, I am. If he says it, I believe it.
Alison Mezger:
Yep. It's a good word. Okay. Well, Leyna, how about you sing us out, but this time Julie and I will join in with you.
Leyna Crommarty:
Okay.