Debbie Alsdorf Answers The Faithful Fifteen

July 2009

Debbie Alsdorf is an author, speaker and the founder of Design4Living Ministries. In this Faithful Fifteen interview, Alsdorf discusses her latest book, A DIFFERENT KIND OF WILD, and explains how women can apply her advice and insights to their spiritual and everyday lives. She also recounts her own rocky faith journey, names some of her personal and professional mentors, and shares the message she hopes readers will take away from her work.


Writing

FaithfulReader.com: Could you give a brief summary of your latest book?

Debbie Alsdorf: A DIFFERENT KIND OF WILD is a book about living in the Spirit. The message isn’t new, but the idea that we can actually live differently is exciting to most women I know. We all know how to act out --- we’ve been doing it since we were two years old. In A DIFFERENT KIND OF WILD, women are encouraged to learn what it means to Live Up! in the Spirit’s power and the fullness of life as one belonging to God. In my first book, DEEPER, I wrote about God calling us to come to Him each day. A DIFFERENT KIND OF WILD is the next step --- learning what it means to actually follow Him. It is learning to live by a mission statement that is counter-cultural but biblically correct. Christian women often live in worn-out and dry faith rather than passionate, courageous and wild faith. This happens because too much attention is on self: preserving ourselves, perfecting ourselves, and fulfilling ourselves. In this book, WILD stands for being a Woman In Lifelong Development. This is embracing the process of the journey with Christ rather than stressing over the race for perfection. In the process of development we learn that life is lived more fully when we look up, pray up, and learn to live up. That is why this book is about a different kind of wild. Wild scares us and is usually associated with rebellion. This book is not about women flipping out on spring break, summer vacation, or during a mid-life crisis --- those wild women are acting out, and anyone can do that. But it takes a different kind of woman to be wildly devoted to the God who made her --- a woman who is committed to learning to live up!

FR: What role does faith have in the book? What inspired you to write it?

DA: A few years ago I was in the middle of a trial, and in discouragement I cried out to the Lord. To my surprise his answer to me was, Debbie I want you to be wild for me. Wild? That sounded strange. What could God possibly mean by wild? My eyes began to be opened to how tame my faith walk had become. Tame is subdued and dull…and in many ways --- though I loved Jesus --- when things were hard, they were just hard, and my life as a believer didn’t look much different from anyone else going through a rough patch. Yet I remembered that all through Scripture were people who were different from me…wildly different. They trusted God in the worst of times and followed hard after him. I began to see that this is how God intended me to live. Without faith we cannot please God, and so I began to ask Jesus to make me WILD for him. This new call to be wild has been a challenge to my daily walk and how I live my daily life. I am learning how to live up, rather than spending so much time down under my circumstances and down in the negative spin of the flesh life.

FR: What do you feel your calling is as a writer?

DA: To encourage women to Live Up! in the Truth of God’s Word --- unpacking Scripture in a way that makes it practical for the everyday woman living in everyday realities.

FR: Who are your favorite authors and mentors? How have they influenced your work?

DA: I almost feel there are too many to mention, but if I have to single out a few, they would be Oswald Chambers, A. W. Tozer, Hannah Whittal Smith and Nancy Missler.

FR: Do you have any favorite stories of encounters with readers?

DA: Yes, I am gathering them daily. The most exciting things are happening to women who are embracing this message. They are wanting to change, wanting to learn to say “Yes” to God, wanting to do the WILD thing --- which is usually something opposite to their normal pattern and their normal habit of doing things their own way, without lining up their life and actions to truth. Women are changing and experiencing the abundance of what Christ came to give them --- it’s been so exciting!


Spirituality

FR: Tell us about your personal faith journey.

DA: I came to Christ 36 years ago, at age 17. I was a product of the Jesus Movement of the ’70s and filled my life with ministry from the start. But, after 17 years of being a Christian --- 12 of those in full-time ministry --- my life fell apart at the seams. It was then that I realized that my walk with God had been reduced to a Stepford reality, rather than the life-transforming reality it was meant to be. So, in the middle of a devastating depression, I started over after 17 years of being a believer. I got real with God and went back to basics, and He re-set me to live my life as His, in Him. It’s been a journey of growth, healing, restoration and amazing joy through His presence in my life and His love for me. This love compels me to want to love others and walk toward others the way that Jesus has extended Himself to me. This love has turned away my fears and changed the way I view just about everything. And I continue to grow in this reality every new day.

FR: Who are your spiritual mentors?

DA: I have a friend, Eileen, who is amazing. She is my local mentor. Nancy Missler is a long-distance mentor.

FR: What is your current church community involvement?

DA: I am on staff at Cornerstone Fellowship in Livermore, California. I have been the director of women’s ministries at Cornerstone for the past 13 years.

FR: What are your Scripture reading habits? Prayer habits?

DA: Coffee and Jesus, first thing in the morning! I read Oswald Chambers, MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST, each morning, then meditate on a portion of God’s word. Then I pray. But prayer for me is like breath; I do it off and on throughout the entire day. When preparing to teach Bible study I have a different study time dedicated to what I am studying. But, my morning time is for me to reflect and reconnect with God at the start of each day. Sometimes it is just 15–20 minutes, and other mornings it’s an hour. I am not legalistic about it; it is a relational time with God.

FR: If you had one message for Christians today, what would it be?

DA: God knows you, He protects you, He made you, and He values those He has made. Because of His love, we can be free of worry and fear. We do not belong to ourselves, to live for ourselves. We were created by God and for God, for two very specific purposes: to love God and to love others. I did not understand God’s love for me for many years. My own insecurities and feelings of not being enough clouded the view. God wants us to know who we are and whose we are --- and spend our lives living accordingly.


Life

FR: Tell us about your family. Spouse? Kids?

DA: My husband Ray and I have been married for 19 years and have raised a blended family. Our four adult children, ages 24–28, all love Christ and we are very close. This is something we don’t take for granted, for in a blended family this is a miracle of God’s grace. The blended family was very hard in the beginning, and there were times that it didn’t seem we would make it, but God in His faithfulness has done for us beyond anything we could have even asked for. My husband and I now do blended family ministry together, and our children are part of that ministry too.

FR: Do you and your family have any special traditions?

DA: On Christmas morning, while in our PJs, we worship together before opening our gifts. One of our sons brings his guitar and we sing about three songs and then pray. It is a sweet time as a family, now that the kids are grown. Then after gifts we share in a morning brunch that includes going around the table and sharing the main thing God has done in our individual lives during the year.

FR: What are some of your favorite hobbies and activities?

DA: I love to read, go to the beach, listen to music. I love people and friends, hanging out…going to coffee. Oh…and I love to decorate!

FR: What are your media habits? Television? Movies? Music? Etc.?

DA: I don’t watch much television, but when I do it is usually a reality show that I get hooked on. Real people intrigue me, so I like those types of shows. I like sappy love movies, or detective-type action thrillers. I love all kinds of music, especially listening to and supporting my youngest son, who is a songwriter and front man of the band Jaymes Reunion. I am a band mom!

FR: What excites you about life?

DA: Growth! Getting up each day and knowing that God has something in that day for me. He wants to speak to me, lead me, be with me. He wants me to follow Him into the day, and that is exciting to me. The truth that He is forming me into His image and changing me is over-the-top for me. I am also very interested in other people --- their hurts and stuck places --- and love to coach them along the path and see them experience freedom. That really is exciting to me.

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Current Titles

Debbie Alsdorf
Revell
ISBN:
(August 1, 2009)

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You were born to be WILD.

Not bad wild --- good wild, with a new zest for life, for Jesus, and for his thrilling, bold and creative plans for you. Join Debbie Alsdorf as she coaches you in the exhilarating process of developing as a woman of God. She'll show you how to break free from old expectations and boring patterns and find the WILD (Women in Lifelong Development) way of life.

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