Heartbeat of Asbury Theological Seminary
by Sandra Blumanhourst, Asbury Theological Seminary, Alumni Office
Many alumni who return to Estes Chapel comment on how this is their spiritual home. It is here where they prayed, worshiped, and communed with God. For some, it is where they were married. For others it is where they released the things to which they have tightly clung. It is the place where many have been called to things greater than they could have ever imagined. Estes holds a special place in the hearts and minds of alumni and their families. Estes Chapel and the Chapel Office have a long history of being the spiritual heartbeat of Asbury Theological Seminary. This summer Asbury welcomes Rev. Jessica LaGrone as the new Dean of Chapel.
Rev. LaGrone is an alumna of Asbury Theological Seminary. She received her Master of Divinity in 2002. She has experienced firsthand how the chapel services at Asbury can be a place where the lessons learned in classroom and community meet in worship and where transformation happens. Learning in the classroom, living in community, and loving one’s family are layers built upon each other in the Asbury community and expressed uniquely in the community’s worship of God.
Since Chapel services first began at the Seminary, they have offered students, staff, faculty, and their families a place to come together and worship as a community. Throughout Asbury’s long history, our worship has been focused not on us, but on God. Worship in Estes Chapel provides a unique opportunity to see beyond styles of worship to the heart of our Creator. “When you come to Chapel, it is not about your preferences. You surrender your preferences,” said Rev. LaGrone.
With our focus on God and not ourselves, we are able to truly worship. Rev. LaGrone offers the image of worship as breathing out and breathing in. In the breathing out, one “releases what we’ve brought” and when breathing in, one “receives what God has for us.” This is the rhythm of giving and receiving, of revelation and response. As students graduate and they move with their families away, they go into the world as ministers of the Gospel. Whether they become preachers, teachers, counselors, missionaries, or leaders, each goes forward to reach the world through the love of Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit and to the glory of God the Father. This is embodied in the chapel services at Asbury. In the global Asbury community, members from all around the world serve each week in chapel. Alumni join with current students in worship both with their presence in Estes when they are on campus and most regularly as members of the online worshiping community. When alumni join with the campus for one of the weekly services, they become part of the congregation and a part of the heartbeat of Asbury which time and space cannot separate.
One of Rev. LaGrone’s visions for chapel is that it will “reach beyond the walls of Wilmore.” Whether an alumni, EXL student, or layperson, all are invited to be a part of the congregation in Estes Chapel. You can join the Asbury community for worship during the semester on Tuesdays, Wednesday, and Thursdays at 11am EST online through live streaming. During the summer and January terms chapel services are live streamed on Wednesdays at 11:30am EST. You can stay connected with Asbury’s Chapel on Facebook at ATSChapel, Twitter @atschapel, or through the Chapel Website.
Rev. Jessica LaGrone stands on the firm ground Henry Clay Morrison first laid, and which her predecessors have built upon, to proclaim “The Whole Bible for the Whole World.” As alumni, students, faculty, and families, we stand as a unique congregation together in Wilmore and throughout the world. It is God working through worship which transforms and informs the individual and the community. The dream of “Aunt Bettie” Morrison to “have a chapel on campus where we worship together”[1] continues. Won’t you join us in worship?
[1] Kenneth Cain Kinghorn, The Story of Asbury Theological Seminary, 72.
Congratulations, Jessica! I had the privilege of being the first woman invited to PREACH in Estes Chapel during my senior year at ATS. Prior to that May 1972 invitation, any woman (usually a visiting missionary) “speaking” to a chapel gathering spoke during a voluntary chapel service held in the auditorium in the basement of the Missions Building.