Exploring Life & Business with Jen Swindell of Asbury Church

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jen Swindell. 

Hi Jen, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
As a teen who dropped out of youth group, I never would have imagined myself being a pastor. My community of support in high school and college was my tight-knit, musical theatre tribe, and when I got re-connected with church through a campus ministry at UNC-Greensboro, I was able to understand that while I had a negative experience with that specific church community, that was not how Jesus taught the church to be. I also taught myself web and graphic design as a teen and as I re-engaged with church, I also found so many churches’ online presences to be lacking. All that came together for my Master’s Thesis to focus on the Internet and Evangelism. I’m excited to be serving as one of three clergy at Asbury Church, where I get to spend my time focusing on invitation and engagement with our community of faith and especially with our surrounding community in North Raleigh. 

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I definitely took a scenic route to get here – I was first a K-12 Theatre Teacher and taught at an elementary school in High Point, NC before I accepted God’s calling on my life to go to seminary and pursue ordination. 

COVID was a communications curveball that no one could have imagined. I started at Asbury Church in February of 2020, so I had about 4 “normal” weeks before COVID. My first Sunday I was scheduled to preach at the church was March 15th, so I successfully had ZERO people in the room for my Asbury preaching debut! Fortunately, a gentleman in the church had pioneered the efforts for Asbury’s amazing LiveStream setup, so we were able to immediately route everyone to our Facebook live and did have our “normal” attendance that Sunday, just online! It was an adjustment trying to get to know a new congregation while quarantined and I went from being able to meet LifeGroups in people’s homes to setting up almost 30 different Zoom Meetings for our various groups each week. It wasn’t the start I imagined, but it was exciting to be able to be in a place to be sure ministry continued to thrive despite the pandemic. 

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Asbury Church?
Asbury Church’s focus is on helping people to engage in relationships where Christ transforms. Everything we do centers around connecting people to people. We have three unique worship services: Traditional, Contemporary, and our newest Outdoor Service which was started because of COVID. We’re blessed with an amazing campus that includes an amphitheater and a large community garden. Asbury Preschool is a 5-star center and is one of the things most people come to know the church for. Asbury also has a “Christmas is Not Your Birthday” challenge that we’ve taken as a community since 2012. We ask each family to spend as much as they did on Christmas as a family on helping to end hunger and to build God’s Kingdom in North Raleigh and around the world. We regularly raise about $80,000 specifically to fund our big 3 mission’s partnerships: Rise Against Hunger, Hearts, and Hands for Haiti, and Lynn Road Elementary School. 

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
No one has it as together as they appear – and the more we can be vulnerable and honest with our support system, the more help we can give and receive to be able to thrive. 

Contact Info:

• Email: jen@asburyraleigh.org
• Website: www.asburyraleigh.org
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/asburyraleigh
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsburyRaleigh
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/asburyraleigh
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/asbury-church-raleigh