Service to the Community and Church

Church Activity

When we moved to Abilene, we started attending HOPE Church fo Christ, where I had been a member as a student from 2002-2009. I was an active participant at HOPE from the fall of 2015 until the spring of 2017, when the elders and preacher had a falling out and the church split. I continued meeting with many families from HOPE afterward, and we have since renamed ourselves the Refuge Church of Christ.

I have always attended the Refuge regularly, which meets on Sunday evenings, but during a season when the church was really struggling and my husband was very ill, I began to attend Minter Lane Church of Christ on Sunday mornings too. I was a regular at Minter Lane from March 2019 until the summer of 2021. Early on, I remember desperately needing the “re-gospeling” that I experienced every Sunday I went to Minter Lane.

Both churches met online for the first year or so of the COVID pandemic. As vaccinations became available, and “my churches” began to meet in person again, I realized that I was overstretched, and I couldn’t fully give myself to the service of either church. I decided that the Refuge simply needed me more than Minter Lane did. I love the Minter Lane congregation, and I still feel at home there, even though I’m not currently attending.

At every church I have regularly attended, I have taught occasional Bible classes for adults. At HOPE in the fall of 2016, I taught a 4-week Wednesday night series on the Psalms. At the Refuge, after we decided to follow the lectionary, I co-taught a 4-week series on the spirituality of the lectionary on Wednesday evenings. I volunteered to teach that class for a month and arranged for a guest preacher so that our preacher could take a much-needed sabbatical. The Refuge is very small, and instead of an “eldership,” we have a “Discernment Team”; I have been one of the Discernment Team members since the fall of 2020. At Minter Lane, I taught a Sunday morning Bible class introducing the Desert Fathers, offered several communion meditations, and was a guest preacher.

Guest Speaking

Over the years, I have been invited to guest speak and teach at churches, schools, and retreats:

  • Golf Course Road Church of Christ (Midland, TX), March, 2016. I taught a Wednesday night adult class on the Bible and the Quran at the invitation of minister David Ayres.
  • CrossPoint Church of Christ Women’s Retreat, September 2016. I led a weekend retreat on the Psalms focused on the theme “Wait for the Lord.”
  • University Church of Christ, a three-week Wednesday night series on Islam, January 2017.
  • Westgate Church of Christ summer series, a one-timeWednesday night class about Jesus in Islam, July 2017.
  • Abilene Christian High School. I have guest lectured about Islam for Cason Pyles’ senior Bible class several times, nearly every December before the pandemic began.

Next page: Reflection on Service