Compassion Made Practical
Love Lived grew from years spent working directly with people. Its founder, Ashton McDonald, is a pastor and trained Motivational Interviewing practitioner and trainer whose work has centered on helping individuals navigate difficult conversations, spiritual questions, personal change, recovery, crisis, and everyday life.
Pastoral ministry revealed a recurring problem. Some of the most important work pastors do happens when they are with people—sitting beside someone in a hospital, listening to a grieving family, talking with someone after worship, mentoring a young person, responding to a crisis, or simply being present when someone needs another human being.
Yet enormous amounts of ministry time are consumed by preparation. Sermons. Bible studies. Youth lessons. Newsletters. Worship planning. Curriculum. Love Lived Church Resources grew from a simple question: What if someone could help carry the preparation so ministry leaders had more time for the people?
Ashton's experience with Motivational Interviewing revealed another expression of the same idea. People working in helping professions usually care deeply about the people they serve. But caring about someone doesn't automatically make difficult conversations easy.
Motivational Interviewing provides practical tools for listening, understanding ambivalence, respecting autonomy, and helping people discover their own reasons for change. That raised another question: What if compassion shaped not only what we wanted for people, but how we talked with them?
Those two questions became Love Lived. Different services. One philosophy. Compassion should become something we practice.
Ashton McDonald
Ashton McDonald is a pastor and Motivational Interviewing trainer whose work has centered on helping individuals and communities navigate change, faith, and personal growth. His approach to ministry and training is deeply relational, emphasizing the importance of listening before attempting to provide answers. Whether preparing a sermon or teaching MI, he believes meaningful work begins with treating people with dignity and honoring their autonomy.