In our Tuesday night Bible study we have been talking about our different personalities. We took a personality test, some of you probably recognize very similar to the Myers-Briggs personality test. The point was then to use this knowledge to understand how we can better serve the church according to our different personalities. So, I have been thinking about this a lot lately, because in the position we are in as missionaries, we basically end up doing a little bit of everything you could think of that goes along with maintaining a church, spiritually and physically.
Last night, we made a long list of ways to serve, specific to the Kayenta church of Christ. Then we looked at what one personality type might lean towards and what they might stay away from. For example, the extrovert would be more likely to greet visitors and evangelize in the public where the introvert would rather do something behind the scenes. While looking at this list, I noticed several things I enjoy doing while others I have to force myself to do. I put a star next to the things I actually enjoy doing. I asked Nick to do the same. I was curious of the things we actually like to do in our daily job as missionaries. Unfortunately, with a small church that has no elders or deacons and very few mature Christians, we end up doing everything on the list. Here is a summary of the things we each like to do.
Nick:
Teaching & Preaching
Praying & Studying with others
Encouraging
Writing cards
Organizing events & social activities
Working in the garden
Setting up for potluck
Helping with a funeral
Organizing church camp
Yard work
Counseling
Greeting visitors
Hospitality
Heidi:
Cleaning the building
Teaching Ladies class
Writing cards
Making bulletin boards
Paying the bills & dealing with finances
Prepare the Lord’s supper
Organizing events & social activities
Preparing, serving and cleaning up for Potlucks
Organizing church camp
Counseling
Teaching children’s classes
Organizing the food pantry
Producing a bulletin
Organizing & maintaining the library
When looking at these lists and our personalities, Nick likes to teach and explain the Bible. He has no problem getting in front of people. Nick is creative and patient and likes to do physical labor from time to time, which I think is why he loves working in the garden. His creativity also lends him towards organizing events and church camp. The things that we both have on our list are interesting, because I think we enjoy those same things for very different reasons. I like to organize events, not because I am creative, but because I am organized. I basically like to do anything administrative such as the finances and the bulletin. I like to write cards, because I can say heartfelt things I might not be able to say to some one’s face. I think Nick is good at writing cards because he can come up with original things to say that still mean a lot.
My point in all this is to say that we each have characteristics and talents that make us equipped for specific ways we can serve the church and ultimately, God. I would like to focus more energy into the things I have been blessed with. Also, one of our jobs in this church is to help the members understand what they have been blessed with and how they can better serve as Christians. I pray we make positive steps in this direction.
February 6, 2013
January 31, 2013
2012 Year in Review
It’s time for the 2012 Year in Review Issue of our monthly newsletter.
If you ignored our newsletter for the past 12 months or if you need to
hear one more update about the trailer this is your chance. (I promise the
trailer updates are finally coming to an end) It’s hard to sum up a whole
year in one newsletter, it’s hard to sum up one month in a newsletter.
There are so many events, personal stories, hard work, Bible studies, and
everyday activities that fill a year. Here’s a recap of the year’s biggest
news.
At the beginning of 2011, we gained a team member, Dan Keele. It was
nice to have another person working toward the same goal in building up
the church. He has a different style, different background and different
delivery than me. All of our differences made for a nice team,
complimenting each other and meeting a greater scope of the needs here.
Dan also has a knack for outreach, obviously important for the growth of
the church. At the end of the year, we lost that team member. He decided
to fill in for another church in Shiprock, NM who lost their preacher
earlier in 2012. We are glad he is staying on the reservation and pray his
work goes well. As much as we need help in this work, we were only
able to keep it for 10 months because of the greater needs around the
Reservation.
One change we’ve made this year was the organization of our services.
We moved our Sunday night Bible study to right after worship on
Sunday morning. This has greatly helped the attendance of our Sunday
Bible studies. On Sunday nights, we do a different type of fellowship,
such as a night of prayer, signing cards, or a bonfire devotional. We
could admittedly be more organized and creative with our Sunday night
fellowship times, but it’s been a pretty good change thus far.
One huge accomplishment that literally took the whole year was the
completion of the trailer project. Countless donations and hours of labor
contributed to the trailer on the church property actually becoming a
place to live. Five different church work groups from around the country
totaling around 100 volunteers helped in the development of the trailer
project. We were blessed to be able to move into the trailer in November
and help lower our cost of living. The trailer is not only a blessing to us,
but the church in years to come. We won’t live here forever, and it’s a
great selling point for a potential missionary because housing is very
hard to come by in Kayenta.
We try to make an effort every year to hold events that draw in the
community with the purpose of building relationships, getting people
into our building, and putting forth a positive image of the Kayenta
church of Christ. We had a “giveaway day” in May where we gave away
lots of clothes, household items and small furniture. Typically we would
call these clothing drives, but this time we had an assortment of items.
These always take a lot of time to advertise, organize all the items and
clean up the leftovers afterwards.
In July, we held Vacation Bible School, put on by the Northwest church
of Christ youth group from Fort Worth, TX. VBS always draws a ton of
kids to the building, but we also built relationships with a few adults.
Some of these adults are still visiting with us on Sunday mornings.
In the fall, we held a gospel meeting focusing on the role of the family.
We were blessed to have a dynamic speaker, Jerry Groves, come down
from the Lone Tree congregation. We’re making plans to get him down
here again. Phenomenal study.
Lastly, in December, we had some donations come in to help families in need during the cold winter months. We were able to purchase gifts for all the residents of the local women’s shelter. This included three women
and seven children. When talking to the shelter, they told us that none of the residents had winter coats, so everyone received a coat, hat and gloves along with a few other fun items. One lady has since attended service and the church was able to help her get her own place to live. We were blessed to be able to go home to spend Christmas with our families. Because of the distance we don’t get home often, but being able to go home for Christmas does us a lot of good. The men in Kayenta really stepped up to teach and to preach so that we could leave and feel comfortable that things were left in good hands. I hope there comes a day when I’m out of a job because these guys have stepped up to carry this work alone. There is no doubt in my mind that they have that potential.
For those of you interested in numbers, our average attendance on Sunday mornings in 2012 was 40 people. The most encouraging part of our attendance is that we’ve regularly had new visitors attending. With so many visitors we see a lot of potential for growth. Six people were baptized into Christ in 2012 and four of these people are still attending. I’d love to see the kinds of results that we read about in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost, but for a congregation as small as we are we’ve done pretty well to convert a small handful of people each year that we’ve been here. The real challenge is teaching them and training them and keeping them here. The growth of the church has so much to do with the people who are in the church, and right now in Kayenta we have a very solid foundation. We have the kind of leaders and workers who are making this job easier for us.
I was very pleased that we continued on with the second annual Kayenta Ladies Day. More importantly, some of the ladies started planning it while I was out of town. It was great to see them take the initiative and have an interest in this event. Ladies nights have continued on Monday nights, but have lost some momentum towards the end of the year. I would love any suggestions for fresh ideas including activities or Bible studies to do with the ladies. Please email me at hidLynnr@gmail.com if you have suggestions.
If you ignored our newsletter for the past 12 months or if you need to
hear one more update about the trailer this is your chance. (I promise the
trailer updates are finally coming to an end) It’s hard to sum up a whole
year in one newsletter, it’s hard to sum up one month in a newsletter.
There are so many events, personal stories, hard work, Bible studies, and
everyday activities that fill a year. Here’s a recap of the year’s biggest
news.
At the beginning of 2011, we gained a team member, Dan Keele. It was
nice to have another person working toward the same goal in building up
the church. He has a different style, different background and different
delivery than me. All of our differences made for a nice team,
complimenting each other and meeting a greater scope of the needs here.
Dan also has a knack for outreach, obviously important for the growth of
the church. At the end of the year, we lost that team member. He decided
to fill in for another church in Shiprock, NM who lost their preacher
earlier in 2012. We are glad he is staying on the reservation and pray his
work goes well. As much as we need help in this work, we were only
able to keep it for 10 months because of the greater needs around the
Reservation.
One change we’ve made this year was the organization of our services.
We moved our Sunday night Bible study to right after worship on
Sunday morning. This has greatly helped the attendance of our Sunday
Bible studies. On Sunday nights, we do a different type of fellowship,
such as a night of prayer, signing cards, or a bonfire devotional. We
could admittedly be more organized and creative with our Sunday night
fellowship times, but it’s been a pretty good change thus far.
One huge accomplishment that literally took the whole year was the
completion of the trailer project. Countless donations and hours of labor
contributed to the trailer on the church property actually becoming a
place to live. Five different church work groups from around the country
totaling around 100 volunteers helped in the development of the trailer
project. We were blessed to be able to move into the trailer in November
and help lower our cost of living. The trailer is not only a blessing to us,
but the church in years to come. We won’t live here forever, and it’s a
great selling point for a potential missionary because housing is very
hard to come by in Kayenta.
We try to make an effort every year to hold events that draw in the
community with the purpose of building relationships, getting people
into our building, and putting forth a positive image of the Kayenta
church of Christ. We had a “giveaway day” in May where we gave away
lots of clothes, household items and small furniture. Typically we would
call these clothing drives, but this time we had an assortment of items.
These always take a lot of time to advertise, organize all the items and
clean up the leftovers afterwards.
In July, we held Vacation Bible School, put on by the Northwest church
of Christ youth group from Fort Worth, TX. VBS always draws a ton of
kids to the building, but we also built relationships with a few adults.
Some of these adults are still visiting with us on Sunday mornings.
In the fall, we held a gospel meeting focusing on the role of the family.
We were blessed to have a dynamic speaker, Jerry Groves, come down
from the Lone Tree congregation. We’re making plans to get him down
here again. Phenomenal study.
Lastly, in December, we had some donations come in to help families in need during the cold winter months. We were able to purchase gifts for all the residents of the local women’s shelter. This included three women
and seven children. When talking to the shelter, they told us that none of the residents had winter coats, so everyone received a coat, hat and gloves along with a few other fun items. One lady has since attended service and the church was able to help her get her own place to live. We were blessed to be able to go home to spend Christmas with our families. Because of the distance we don’t get home often, but being able to go home for Christmas does us a lot of good. The men in Kayenta really stepped up to teach and to preach so that we could leave and feel comfortable that things were left in good hands. I hope there comes a day when I’m out of a job because these guys have stepped up to carry this work alone. There is no doubt in my mind that they have that potential.
For those of you interested in numbers, our average attendance on Sunday mornings in 2012 was 40 people. The most encouraging part of our attendance is that we’ve regularly had new visitors attending. With so many visitors we see a lot of potential for growth. Six people were baptized into Christ in 2012 and four of these people are still attending. I’d love to see the kinds of results that we read about in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost, but for a congregation as small as we are we’ve done pretty well to convert a small handful of people each year that we’ve been here. The real challenge is teaching them and training them and keeping them here. The growth of the church has so much to do with the people who are in the church, and right now in Kayenta we have a very solid foundation. We have the kind of leaders and workers who are making this job easier for us.
I was very pleased that we continued on with the second annual Kayenta Ladies Day. More importantly, some of the ladies started planning it while I was out of town. It was great to see them take the initiative and have an interest in this event. Ladies nights have continued on Monday nights, but have lost some momentum towards the end of the year. I would love any suggestions for fresh ideas including activities or Bible studies to do with the ladies. Please email me at hidLynnr@gmail.com if you have suggestions.
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