This week I want you to meet Shirley Crowder. Shirley is a fairly new friend that I met through our mutual friend Harriet Michael. I love the story of their friendship and how that it led to them being co-authors. God know how to connect us to just the right people for his purpose. So, please read about Shirley and her writing collaborations with Harriet and the other projects that she has in the works.

Hello, Shirley. Thank you for talking with us today. Tell us about your background and how you started writing.

I was born in a guest house under the shade of a mango tree in Ogbomoso, Nigeria, West Africa, where my parents served as missionaries. It was an idyllic place to live a good portion of my childhood. We had pet monkeys, baboons, snakes, lizards, frogs, and spiders (I never developed my oldest brother’s affinity for them!). We also had regular pets such as dogs and cats. I and other Nigeria Missionary Kids (MKs) were blessed to be raised in an extended mission family, and all these decades later still consider them our family.

Writing has always been a mainstay in my life, and is one of the ways I process information—the other is sitting down at the piano and playing! My mom and dad taught me to make notes in my Bible and in books I read so that when I wanted to refer back to something I could find it easily—remember, this was before the day of internet searches! Mom taught me to write my feelings, experiences, and prayers in a journal. I have kept prayer journals for 45+ years. It serves as a wonderful reminder of God’s faithfulness to me, those whom I love, and those for whom I have prayed. And, it often sparks ideas for blogs, articles, Bible studies, teaching.

What led you into writing, and what kinds of writing have you done?

Several years ago I ministered alongside Dr. Mark Shaw, a prolific writer. He and Dr. Bill Hines gathered a group of 22 contributing authors to co-write different chapters in a biblical counseling book, Paul the Counselor: Counseling and Disciple-making Modeled by the Apostle (Focus Publishing, 2014). I was privileged to co-write the chapter, “Paul and Women in Ministry” with my friend Ruth Froese.

Shortly after that, a dear friend challenged me to post biblical observations/thoughts about the holidays on FB every day beginning with Thanksgiving and ending on first day of the New Year. A long-time family friend, Harry Butler, liked one of my posts and contacted me about expanding the post, and submitting it through him for publication in The Gadsden Times, Faith Section’s “Paper Pulpit.” That was the first of several they have published (www.gadsdentimes.com and search “Paper Pulpit Shirley Crowder”).

During the time-frame of these daily FB posts appearing, several of my friends, including my lifelong friend and fellow Nigeria MK Harriet E. Michael, commented that I should write a devotional book. At that point Harriet had more than 100 devotionals published.

Some time later, I emailed Harriet and asked if she would consider co-writing a devotional with me. And then, I began a periodic blog.

You mentioned Harriet, how did you and Harriet become friends and what was the process like writing with your friend?

I do not remember a day of my life that I have not known Harriet Edwards Michael. Harriet and I were both born in Nigeria where are parents served as missionaries. We lived on the same compound in Ogbomosho, across the dirt road from each other. Her parents served as a surgeon (Dr. Keith Edwards) and nurse (Alice Edwards) at the Baptist hospital where my father (Ray Crowder) was administrator and my mom (Jeannie Crowder) taught kindergarten, Bible studies, and a myriad of other things. Our moms made the most beautiful clothes for the girls, and some of the most exquisite custom-made clothing ever worn by Barbie® and her friends!

Our mom remained close and talked often through the years and passed along news of our families. But Harriet and I did not reconnect first-hand until we were both in our late 20’s when our mom’s were talking at Christmas and handed the phones to us. Then, when our Nigeria Mission began holding annual reunions we began seeing each other at least yearly. And for several years before her death, my mom and I would spend Thanksgiving with Harriet and her family, just as we did so many times in Nigeria.

Going back to the FB posts. Harriet and I continued kicking around the idea of co-writing a seasonal devotional, then, with Harriet’s devotional-writing expertise guiding, we began working on a manuscript. Each of us wrote fifteen devotionals.

Harriet and I make an excellent writing team. Not only do our shared experiences as Nigeria MKs and MK adults help us in the writing process, our shared theological/biblical view and understanding made for sweet cohesiveness, our differences gave a fullness to our collective writing.

Harriet lives in Louisville KY, and I live in Birmingham AL, so, most of our work was done via email. Both of us would read everything and comment on our own or each other’s writing, then combine all of the corrections and rewrites into a master document. We talked on the phone a time or two, and met in Nashville—a good in-between place for both of us—late in the process to look at and talk through everything.

Glimpses of the Savior: 30 Meditations for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year (TMP Books, 2015) is the result of that collaborative effort. And, another of the many great things about this collaboration is that Harriet’s daughter, Kristin, who is an exceptional artist, did several sketches that are scattered throughout the book.

As soon as I began reading my copy of Harriet’s book Prayer: It’s Not About You (Pix-N-Pens Publishing, 2016) I began marking things that struck me, making notes in the margins, and thinking about how to teach the book to a study group.

In January of this year Study Guide on Prayer—A Companion to Prayer: It’s Not About You, the compilation of the reading and "sanctification boosters" (aka homework assignments) this group worked through was published (Pix-N-Pens, 2017).

Are you working on any new writing projects that you can share with us?

Harriet and I are working on our next collaborative devotional that we hope to have ready for publication in the next several months.

I have been researching and studying for a biblical counseling-related project, and hope to have it ready for publication by the fall.

I also have several projects in various stages of development, including several more collaborations with Harriet, Lord willing!

Where we can find your books and connect with you?

Mine and Harriet’s books are available at amazon.com.

Connect with me on:

Facebook: shirleycrowder

Twitter: @ShirleyJCrowder

Blog:Through the Lens of Scripture

Amazon: Profile Page

As we close our interview, do you have a favorite verse of scripture that you would like to leave with us?

Well, I have a difficult time narrowing it down to just one favorite!

At writer’s conferences I am often asked “What is your passion?” I hear most writers answer fiction or non-fiction, etc. But my answer is, “Disciple-making that takes a myriad of forms: teaching Sunday School  or Bible studies, biblical counseling, and writing (articles, blogs, books).

Matthew 28:18-20 is the passage from which as the Holy Spirit applies it to my heart, my passion—disciple-making—flows. is one of my primary “guiding’ passages. We all know it as “The Great Commission.” So many times when I hear this quoted, verse 28 is left out.

… “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (NKJV)

When I am counseling or teaching, I like to explain these verses the way I was taught,

Since God has given Christ-followers the power and strength needed, as we go about doing the things God has called us to do (grocery shopping, parenting, engineering, lawyering), in the places He has called us to do them (home, company, abroad), make disciple-makers.

Those whom I teach and counsel regularly laugh because any Scripture verse or passage I come to I say, “This is one of my favorites!”

I should have answered from Genesis 1:1, In the beginning God … through Revelation 22:21, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. (NKJV)

The Lord uses the entire Bible to teach me more and about Who He is and what He requires of me. As the Holy Spirit applies that word to my heart I am convicted of sin, encouraged, strengthened and directed in my walk with Him.