Mission Yearbook: ‘New Way’ podcast guest the Rev. Rola Al Ashkar offers ways to avoid burnout

Image

Rev. Rola Al Ashkar

“Are you really loving others? Are you really loving God when you're doing it at the expense of your own well-being?” the Rev. Rola Al Ashkar asked during a recent podcast exploring the need for ministry leaders to set boundaries, practice self-care and attune to their bodies in the midst of their calling to serve God and others.

“Because burnout is a clear sign of a deficit in self-love,” Al Ashkar posed to her “beloved colleagues” before admitting that “this is the sobering and the hardest lesson I had to learn: Your worth does not come from what you give to the church. Your worth is assigned to by your Creator. How would your ministry be different if you operate from that understanding?”

Al Ashkar was a guest on the “New Way” podcast, a production of 1001 New Worshiping Communties. In its 12th season, “New Way’s” host, the Rev. Sara Hayden, and its producer, the Rev. Marthame Sanders, focused on spiritual practices that deepen what Dr. Howard Thurman called “the sound of the genuine.”

In two episodes, Al Ashkar describes the ways she felt hemmed her in by what she called the “legacy church.” At the same time, Al Ashkar felt pressured to not set boundaries of time and space around her work in the congregation, to ignore habits of self-care and to dampen authentic expression of emotions. Like many congregational pastors, Al Ashkar experienced a prolonged season of burnout followed by an extended sabbatical and finally a decision to leave traditional ministry for the experimental and experiential space of new worshiping communities.

Al Ashkar is a teaching elder in the PC(USA), a dancer, a yogi and the founder of ἴαμα yoga, described as a community integrating yoga, somatics, spiritual exploration, trauma-informed care, breathwork and connection. Inspired by “ἴαμα (ee-yah-mah)” the Greek word for healing, Al Ashkar began focusing on healing the body-mind-spirit connection as a form of ministry by offering free yoga classes in the courtyard at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Sacramento before expanding into the online communal spaces of Instagram and TikTok, where she is found at “@embodiedpastor.”

During two episodes totaling 45 minutes, Hayden’s conversation with Al Ashkar covers Al Ashkar’s personal history of dissociation through her experience as a Lebanese war baby, her efforts to fit in culturally in the American mainline church while at times challenging it politically, her sabbatical year on learning permaculture farming in Hawaii and the practices she dedicated to in order to bring herself back to the Imago Dei within her.

“That whole year of farming and being out and being so close to the earth just reminded me of how wide and how deep this universe is,” said Al Ashkar, who wondered why our views of God and ministry are so narrow. “I feel like I did a lot more ministry in that year off than I did in seven years of being in the church.”

When Al Ashkar immigrated to the United States to become a pastor, her whole community was the church. But she felt herself being called out of that context and community for good. “I'm not serving any traditional church, and I don't plan on ever going back, because I simply realized this is not my gift to the world,” she told Hayden.

“I think our first call was to be pioneers of change in society, and I’m not sure if we're doing that,” said Al Ashkar, who described how the church is still a part of the system that maintains the status quo even when it feeds the hungry or prays for the suffering.

“I found this disconnection in the church’s values and what I value, and what most people my generation value,” she explained as she described the forms and focus of her new ministry as a new worshiping community leader.

Al Ashkar creates community by encouraging embodiment and supporting showing up as our whole selves. “When we are expecting and creating an environment for people to show up with all of them, with their emotions, this is where a community becomes a refuge, a place for people to go to find that nourishment, rather than just another chore to add to their week,” said Al Ashkar.

Listen to Hayden’s conversations with Al Ashkar here.

Beth Waltemath, Communications Strategist, Interim Unified Agency, PC(USA)(Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Joseph Russ, Global Ecumenical Liaison , Global Ecumenical Partnerships Interim Unified Agency
Yvette Russell, Vice President, Customer Engagement, Board of Pensions  

Let us pray:

God of compassion and justice, let us and all siblings in Christ work together in love to right the wrong and give hope. Amen.

Minute for Mission: Gifts of New Immigrants

September 22, 2024

Rola Al Ashkar

Rola Al Ashkar is a Presbyterian Christian from Lebanon. She grew up in a nonreligious family, in a culture drenched in religion. Her parents took her and her brothers to church and Sunday school on occasions. When she had her confirmation class, she received her first Bible, and even as a teenager, she read the Bible with critical eyes, questioning parts of it and searching for answers. Her curiosity led her to regularly attend Sunday services, youth meetings and church summer camps, and through those experiences her faith grew, and she found a community in the Presbyterian Synod of Syria and Lebanon.

Rola continued to search for more depth and to struggle with her commitment to her reformed faith, as she experienced religious discrimination in a culture where Presbyterians were a minority in a minority. At age 17, she decided to study theology and serve the church, though being a female minister wasn’t heard of at the time. Due to family opposition and cultural restraints, she could not join seminary until seven years later.

In 2011, she finally joined the Near East School of Theology in Beirut and was a part-time student for four years. Afterward, she transferred to Princeton Theological Seminary, where she graduated in 2016.

Even after her graduation, there were still no precedents to women ordinations in the Middle East, and Rola almost gave up her dream to become a pastor. This is when she decided to travel to the U.S., where she started serving Parkview Presbyterian Church in 2018, an intercultural PC(USA) church in Sacramento, California. Rola found a loving and supporting community in the Presbytery of Sacramento, where she was ordained in April 2021.

Now, Rola serves Westminster Presbyterian Church in Sacramento as ministry assistant for Outreach and Christian Education and is the organizer of the Iama Yoga New Worshiping Community.

Rev. Magdy B. Girgis, D. Min., Middle Eastern Ministries, PC(USA)

Today’s Focus: Gifts of New Immigrants

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Eileen Schuhmann, Associate, Global Engagement & Resources, Presbyterian Hunger Program, Presbyterian Mission Agency 
Michelle Schulz, Administrative Manager, Information Technology, Administrative Services Group (A Corp) 

Let us pray

Lord Jesus, today you call us to welcome the members of God’s family who come to our land to escape oppression, poverty, persecution, violence and war. Like your disciples, we too are filled with fear and doubt and even suspicion. We build barriers in our hearts and in our minds.

Help us by your grace,

To banish fear from our hearts, that we may embrace each of your children as our own brother and sister;

To welcome migrants and refugees with joy and generosity, while responding to their many needs;

To realize that you call all people to your holy mountain to learn the ways of peace and justice;

To share of our abundance as you spread a banquet before us;

To give witness to your love for all people, as we celebrate the many gifts they bring. We praise you and give you thanks for the family you have called together from so many people. We see in this human family a reflection of the divine unity of the one most Holy Trinity in whom we make our prayer.

Minute for Mission: Gifts of New Immigrants

September 25, 2022

Rola Al Ashkar

Rola Al Ashkar is a Presbyterian Christian from Lebanon. She grew up in a non-religious family, in a culture drenched in religion. Her parents took her and her brothers to church and Sunday school on occasions. When she had her confirmation class, she received her first Bible, and even as a teenager, she read the Bible with critical eyes, questioning parts of it and searching for answers. Her curiosity led her to regularly attend Sunday services, youth meetings and church summer camps, and through those experiences her faith grew, and she found a community in the Presbyterian Synod of Syria and Lebanon.

Rola continued to search for more depth and to struggle with her commitment to her reformed faith, as she experienced religious discrimination in a culture where Presbyterians were a minority in a minority. At age 17, she decided to study theology and serve the church, though being a female minister wasn’t heard of at the time. Due to family opposition and cultural restraints, she could not join seminary until seven years later.

In 2011, she finally joined the Near East School of Theology in Beirut and was a part-time student for four years. Afterward, she transferred to Princeton Theological Seminary, where she graduated in 2016.

Even after her graduation, there were still no precedents to women ordinations in the Middle East, and Rola almost gave up her dream to become a pastor. This is when she decided to travel to the U.S., where she started serving Parkview Presbyterian Church in 2018, an intercultural PC(USA) church in Sacramento, California. Rola found a loving and supporting community in the Presbytery of Sacramento, where she got ordained in April 2021.

Now, Rola serves Westminster Presbyterian Church in Sacramento as Ministry Assistant for Outreach and Christian Education and is the organizer of the Iama Yoga New Worshiping Community.

Rev. Magdy B. Girgis, D. Min., Middle Eastern Ministries, PC(USA)

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Marissa Galvan-Valle, Associate, Hispanic Resources & Relationships, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
David Gambrell, Associate, Worship, Theology & Worship, Theology, Formation & Evangelism, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Lord Jesus, today you call us to welcome the members of God’s family who come to our land to escape oppression, poverty, persecution, violence and war. Like your disciples, we too are filled with fear and doubt and even suspicion. We build barriers in our hearts and in our minds.

Help us by your grace,

To banish fear from our hearts, that we may embrace each of your children as our own brother and sister;
To welcome migrants and refugees with joy and generosity, while responding to their many needs;

To realize that you call all people to your holy mountain to learn the ways of peace and justice;

To share of our abundance as you spread a banquet before us;

To give witness to your love for all people, as we celebrate the many gifts they bring. We praise you and give you thanks for the family you have called together from so many people. We see in this human family a reflection of the divine unity of the one most Holy Trinity in whom we make our prayer.