Her Friday evening service calls her Rabbi, her Saturday evening service calls her Pastor, her five children call her mom. Who is this Crystal Lutton?
Crystal Lutton started her family in 1996 when she married William Lutton with whom she will celebrate her 15th wedding anniversary, and in 1997 their first child was born. At the beginning of 1997, with her husband’s strong encouragement, she began her Master’s program in Theology at Fuller Seminary. She earned her degree in 1999 as her second child was being born. Since then she has led a home church and attended Beth Simchat HaMashiach where she mentored under Rabbi Jack Zimmerman and served for the last two years as his Associate Rabbi. In 2010 she was ordained as an Elder in the Church of the Nazarene.
Crystal has lived in Buckeye for 7 years and she and William are raising their children in a home devoted to Godly living and founded on the two greatest commandments—love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. They are a homeschooling family and apply the concept of shema to every area of their lives.
The vision for Shema Congregation is simple. Focus will be given to the interconnectedness of the Torah (first five books of the Bible), Tanakh (entirety of the Old Testament) and the Brit Hadashah (New Testament) and the text will be studied with a desire to understand how the audience reading the text understood it and how it applies to us today.
Fascinating profile and sites. I can relate to your multi-hatted life. I am currently working through some of what it means to be a woman and pastor. In my setting, that’s an oxymoron. I’m especially wondering how you use the term “theologically conservative” as a woman in ministry. i don’t tend to associate conservativism with freedom for women. Please say more
That’s a great question
I understand “theologically conservative” to mean “I take the Bible very seriously and seek to live it out in all that I do.” One thing it’s been a challenge to communicate to people is that I do not read the verses about women and understand them the same way they do. I realized awhile back that some people assumed we all understood that it meant X and I didn’t want to listen so I was choosing to do Y. It shocked them to learn that I believe it says Y and doing Y is theologically consistent with my understanding of Scripture! I hope that helps 