Success Stories: December 14, 2022

The battle for the church of Christ in America is being fought every day. We have suffered far too many losses over the past two decades. Since starting HTHSOE, we have focused on training congregations to address these losses and to win souls for Christ. Reaching the Lost reports these successes on a weekly basis for your encouragement.

Today, we want to highlight the unreported churches of Christ. As we have travelled around the country over the past four and a half years, the congregations who host HTHSOE training are not the only ones who benefit. Area congregations often come and learn as much as they can and take the message home. These congregations send reports of their baptisms periodically, but we know most are known only by God. Some are rural congregations and small in number, but their impact is important to the Kingdom.

If we are going to turn the tide and have growth, we need every congregation small and great to focus on the mission of Christ. Reported or not, every conversion is critical, and we are thankful to God for all who work faithfully to reach the lost. We realize our reporting is limited, but if it is any indication of our current status, then growth is occurring in small pockets all over this nation. To God be the Glory!

Congregational Reports

Glencoe church of Christ, Alabama: “We had another baptism on Sunday as Carmon’s mother, Gertrude, responded to the Lord’s Invitation. Moreover, Toni, one of our new converts, hopes to study with her children. I am meeting with the elders frequently to develop a robust plan for 2023. There is a strong desire in the congregation to evangelize.”

Bethel church of Christ, Martin, Tennessee: Brad Brewer (preacher) reports, “The men of the congregation met this past Sunday afternoon and began making preliminary plans to launch the HTHSOE Evangelism Model on January 1. We recognize that the trajectory we have been on for the past several years is not a good one, and we need to make a cultural change in our congregation. We made a list of unfaithful members and are sending cards to them this week in an attempt to make first contact. We will follow up with them in a couple of weeks.”

McKenzie church of Christ, Tennessee: Chance Steen (preacher) reports, “We have set our start date for January 1. We are meeting and planning behind the scenes. We can hardly wait to get started.”

North Bradley church of Christ: Andy Sneed (elder) reports, “We had four more contacts this week, which makes 11 for the whole list so far. Cards are being sent. People are excited. It is hard to get momentum going into the Christmas season, but we are doing the best we can. We have already heard some feedback from people who have gotten cards, and it has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Mid-Town church of Christ, Victoria, Texas: James Cammock (deacon) reports, “We had three baptisms this week! A large, extended family has been attending worship for several weeks. After worshipping this past Sunday, two brothers and one of their cousins were baptized by our preacher, Brandon Starling! We are grateful to God for their obedience to the gospel. We are looking forward to encouraging these new brothers in the faith. We launched the Compassion Card program last Sunday. All of our members are involved in the program and are taking turns writing personal cards to the contacts we have, including those in need of encouragement, visitors, and new Christians.”

Fruitvale church of Christ, Texas: Carl McCann (elder/preacher) reports, “Compassion cards are being sent and Bible studies are ongoing. Two studies have completed book 2 and should have book 3 completed by end of week. Please pray for these studies. This picture shows our young people hard at work making their own cards to send out as a part of our card program. Over 100 cards were made Sunday afternoon.”

Highway 95 church of Christ, Taylor, Texas: Benjamin Dossey (preacher) reports, “We now have 19 congregational contacts who will be receiving cards and prayers this week. Additionally, we have prepared our new movers and welcome bags for those new to the community as well as those who visit the congregation. Training on using the Back to the Bible series also began yesterday.”

Central church of Christ, Martinsburg, West Virginia: Robert Veil (preacher) reports, “Our new converts class and fundamentals class are continuing. For the new year, we are beginning a Sunday evening sermon series on the book of Acts, which will be both fundamental and challenging. Since many of our religious neighbors have stopped having Sunday evening services, this provides special opportunities to bring non-member guests.”

New Union church of Christ, Manchester, Tennessee: Paul Fulks (elder) reports, “We continue to review the bookmarks with our personal prospects each Sunday morning after the close of service. We pray for the individual prospects and those on our compassion card list. Members continue to do a great job of submitting contact cards. Sunday night after worship, Team 2 met before services and wrote ninety-two cards. In the past week, four visits were made, and five visits were assigned for the coming week.”

West End church of Christ, Knoxville, Tennessee: Adam Wilson (member) reports, “We asked for the brotherhood to lift up James Bellamy in prayer as he studied with Aaron and Leon. We asked that the study would happen, that their minds would be open, and that their hearts would be convicted by the word. We asked—and it all happened! Thank you for your prayers. The three men work together in excavation, and James has used that opportunity to build a friendship and to be a Christian example to them.

“Aaron and Leon visited West End several times this year before choosing to worship at a community church. Too many times, we would have stopped right there, but James did the hard but right thing and asked for a study to see what the Bible says about the church and worship. Taking advantage of a rained-out day when no construction work could happen, James led Aaron and Leon through all three Back to the Bible studies last Wednesday, and both were baptized into Christ. By the way, this was the first time James has ever used these studies, but I am confident that it will not be the last! James’s intentionality, persistence, and flat out love for this father and son’s souls is a great example and encouragement to us all. We already put Leon to work at Monday Night for the Master!

“We cannot thank the Bates family enough for such an effective tool (BTTB studies) that brings clarity to the Bible. Certainly, we are also thankful for HTHHTH and SOE for equipping and encouraging our body. Please pray for the contacts we visited tonight to see Christ through us and for a curiosity that leads to study.”

East Main church of Christ, Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Brad Rowley (elder) reports, “Last week we had four Bible studies. We wrote 82 compassion cards. We did not have any new contacts. Mark Isenberg (elder) will start the new convert class at the first of the year. East Main has decided to have the elders teach the new convert class. We are still working on a process for our bookmarks.”

York church of Christ, Pennsylvania: Mark Raschke (deacon) reports, “We are now in full swing with our compassion card effort. We have a ladies’ group who write a number of cards and then prep more cards and contact information for distributing to the rest of the congregation. We have been sending cards to multiple prospects each week. It is interesting that by distributing the cards and contact information, we have begun to realize that more than one member may have a connection with the same prospect. We have also had positive feedback from some of those who have been receiving the cards. The next step will be reaching out to those folks to see if we can have them visit a worship service or if they would like to learn more about the church. We had a cookie swap party on Saturday, and three of our contacts were there. Besides making good connections between the members and the prospects, we were able to make connections between the contacts themselves; hopefully building a strong network to draw them closer to us.”

Hatton church of Christ, Alabama: Chris Miller (preacher) reports, “Our congregation continues to see great results from a unified, combined effort. We have made some needed adjustments to continue seeing an increase in effectiveness. There are Bible studies set up for this week, and we hope to see baptisms from them soon. We met with Rob today for our three-month follow-up and had the opportunity to bounce several thoughts off him, including some advice on the transition from visit to using the three questions in order to get the study. To God be the glory!”

Covington church of Christ, Tennessee: Wayne Dalrymple (elder) reports, “The Covington church continues to plant and water the seed of the kingdom. Jeff Phillips studied with Tori last Thursday. After completing Back to the Bible, they are now going through Does It Matter? Their next study is scheduled for this Thursday. On Saturday, Charles Wolfe (one of our new members) and I delivered some new movers’ baskets. One lady we met was Lori Dowdy. She is recently widowed and moved to a smaller, more manageable house in town. She was very appreciative of the basket and said she wants to attend a church that is close to her house. Our building is less than a mile away. I offered for our members to help her if she needs someone to move furniture or boxes since she stated that she has not had much time to go through some of her things. We put her name on our compassion card list and sent her several sympathy cards Monday.

“Our newest member, Dustin, attended our new converts class Sunday. He is very engaged in learning more of God’s word. I also sent him a link to a video lesson by Don Blackwell on Christian growth. He was also present Monday night as we wrote cards. He is already growing. We still hope to study with his mother also. Please pray for all of these as we strive to grow in numbers and in the faith.”

Greenfield church of Christ, Tennessee: Clint Monroe (elder) reports, “We were blessed with several new visitors at services this week, and we are following up with each of them. A couple who visited in the past returned this week and have agreed to start a Bible study with Brent. A family in our community is currently on Lesson 6 of the HTH Bible Correspondence Course and is showing great interest in the study. Service Group 1 will be sending out compassion cards this week.”

Parkway church of Christ, Fulton, Kentucky: Will Hester (preacher) reports, “As we draw closer to the end of the year, I have been reflecting on the current year. Every year that I have been at Parkway, our baptism numbers have gone up! It is incredible to say, but there is a very real possibility that 2023 could see another grand achievement like this. The tools we have been given through this program gave us the confidence to go out to the community and show them we belong to Christ! It has been truly a blessing to be a part of this mission of reengagement with evangelism! We are looking forward to what the future has to hold for us, and for the kingdom!”

Honolulu church of Christ, Hawaii: Tagiilima Escene (preacher) reports, “The good news of today is that God continues to save souls through the gospel of Christ. I am so happy about Khristian and his decision. Praise the Lord! Our elders are planning to encourage more members to be involved for 2023.”

Aberdeen church of Christ, Maryland: Will Brown (preacher) reports, “We are working on delivering 42 new mover baskets and calling them welcome to the new year baskets. All new movers have received one welcome to the community card.  We are redoubling our efforts to evangelize for the new year. We are building a delivery team. Please continue to pray for our efforts.”

Highway church of Christ, Benton, Arkansas: Terrel Milks (elder) reports, “We have experienced more conversions since implementing the BTTB program than we have had in multiple years previously. The congregation still has a high level of enthusiasm and is working with spirit. We are finding it necessary to implement some tweaks to the way we are doing things in order to get all the pieces of the system to work smoothly together. It has become quite clear that concentrating too much on any one aspect of the program causes problems in other areas. Each part of the program must function smoothly for the following step to be able to work correctly. In order to correct that issue, we have recently placed one man over the entire program to ensure the production of contact cards, the writing of compassion cards, and the number of visits and studies. We are tracking our efforts and feedback to those in charge of different aspects of the program so that they are aware of any problems. We have found that the Back to the Bible program works if we will work it. We have a new converts class in progress for the first time in several years. To God be the Glory!”

Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Greg Garner (deacon) reports, “Our congregation meets on the second, third, and fourth Sunday evenings to conduct the evangelism workshop. Last week, the compassion cards group, sent 35 compassion cards. Last night, we created 20 compassion cards. The compassion group created 16 new movers’ coffee stations. One new mover sent a “Thank You” card for the coffee station and the invitation to visit. The service group is arranging follow-up visits to begin next week. The Practical Application class had five attendees. We have one Bible study in progress.”

New Hope church of Christ, Middleton, Tennessee: Cole Wade (preacher) reports, “These past few Sundays, we have had several members who had not been attending to return!  We had 91 people present in our smaller building this Sunday, and it has been wonderful to see the many who have recently returned. One of our attendees has been in our class recently, so I decided to raise the subject of becoming a Christian. It seemed that a lot of the barriers that were present before the conversation were not there by the end. Please pray that this person will consider making the great decision! We also have several on our list to send cards/flowers. We are still continuing our work and are excited to see how much our church can grow!”

Rogersville church of Christ, Tennessee: Ethan Tate (preacher) reports, “This past week we continued working towards the renovated classrooms to teach our children to focus on evangelism. As we continue gathering ideas and discussing curriculum, we have also reached out a family.  We will be checking on them later this week to set up a Bible study. Beyond these things, we are also thinking about improving our process for acquiring prospects. It seems to have slowed down over the past few weeks, but there are still needs out there! Please pray for us as we continue to improve our current process, and Lord willing, make it an even greater blessing in the months to come.”

Paintsville church of Christ, Kentucky: Zach Collins (preacher) reports, “This past week, we have begun preparing to center our New Year’s Eve party around evangelism. Each year, this event always brings into our midst at least five visitors. It is a wonderful opportunity to bring visitors to an event where, often times, their guard is down, and they feel more comfortable. We have focused on two goals for each member this year: 1. Invite at least one non-Christian or wayward Christian in your life to the event! 2. Remember that cordial conversations lead to contacts! Please pray that God will be glorified, new contacts will be connected, and old relationships renewed!”

Canal Heights church of Christ, Demopolis, Alabama: Bryan Cook (minister) reports, “This last Saturday, we had our monthly Saturday door knocking with a handful of people in abysmal weather. It was still a great time with 52 doors knocked and eight contacts. After door knocking, we prepared cards to have the congregation sign the next day at services. This Sunday, we had everyone think of people on their contact cards who need encouragement during this holiday season. We understand that many people suffer throughout the holidays for various reasons and decided this was an obvious issue for the congregational focus. We have grown so much spiritually as a congregation this year with many firsts. Several learned how to teach the Bible to someone in need of the gospel. Continue to pray for our efforts as we pray for you.”

Riverbend church of Christ, Georgia: Austin Fowler (member) reports, “Yesterday, Terry Smith became our brother in Christ. We started studying with Terry several months ago, but due to scheduling, we were just now able to do study 3. The study went well. We spent time talking about baptism and the correct order of salvation. I used two of the charts to help him see the difference. He was baptized into Christ by his cousin, Ernie Sanders, one of our elders. Last week, I mentioned a couple who had just married. Barry Grider, our preacher, is continuing marriage counseling with them and plans to do a Bible study with them as well. On Thursday, I am flying to Mexico to speak on a lectureship with Wade Webster, Wade Bryan, and Agenor Rudas. In one of my sessions, I am going to teach the seven principles and six steps of the HTHSOE. I am taking supplies of Back to the Bible and Does it Matter for the congregations that come. Please pray for these efforts in Mexico.”

Southwest church of Christ, Austin, Texas: John Garza (preacher) reports, “Things at the Southwest congregation in Austin, Texas, are going very well. Currently, we have six studies active, and two of the studies are in the third booklet of Back to the Bible. Pray that these will receive the gospel of Christ and obey Him in baptism. We also have two studies that seem to have been halted or hindered. I am not sure if it is because of the holiday season or if there is a loss of interest. Please pray that it is just the holiday season, and that we will be able to re-establish a study with them. Finally, we are finishing our first personal evangelism course. We averaged about twenty-five members willing to learn how to use the Back to the Bible booklets, and we covered a variety of topics, such as how to approach and get a study; how to teach with confidence and overcome objections; how to finish a study; and teaching after baptism. We will finish with a lesson on how to stay accountable and enthusiastic. We look forward to the new year to implement more of what Rob and his lovely family have taught us in the congregational evangelism seminar. To God be the glory!”

Northern Oaks church of Christ, San Antonio, Texas: Mel Hutzler (preacher/elder) reports, “We are mailing HTH, using the new movers’ program for visits, and sending lots of cards. We also had a special training session led by one of our elders Sunday night to go over the totality of our program. We have a few studies ongoing with others being prospected. We do need to make sure we get every visitor’s contact information. We also continue to take visitors out to eat. I hope to see more baptisms soon.”

Shertz church of Christ, Texas: Jay Stewart (elder) reports, “This week the Schertz congregation held a Friday night fellowship. It was an enjoyable time; some of the members brought extended family members to share time with us. We also began a new Wednesday night adult class about “Growing and Maturing Spiritually.”  Several key points included the need to be more evangelistic, noting that sharing the Gospel is a requirement to become a mature Christian. Our compassion card names continue to circulate through our work groups, and we continually call the congregation to bring more names forward. It is slow going, but we believe we are making progress.”

East Flushing church of Christ, Flushing, New York: Clarence Jenkins (preacher) reports, “We thank God that a member whom we have not seen in a while attended worship this week. We are continuing to send compassion cards to members who have not been worshipping at the building with us. The brothers are currently going through the evangelism coordinators list and the HTHSOE checklist. We are praying for the churches of Christ in their efforts in reaching the lost. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.”

Monroe church of Christ, Georgia: Charles Harris (preacher) reports, “Going after a Bible study with one soul led to a study being set up with someone else. A granddaughter of one of the members came to service last week and brought her boyfriend, Aiden. The granddaughter at the moment does not seem too interested, but yesterday Aiden came to service by himself. One of the first things he mentioned was thankfulness for cards he received. I told one of our other members who has been wanting to contribute to the work more about the situation. He was able to schedule a study with Aiden. This is another example showing that we are to be planters, not pickers.”

Coweta church of Christ, Oklahoma: Keno Shrum (preacher) reports, “This week I have challenged the congregation to compile as many contacts as they can from friends, neighbors, family, and coworkers. I am hoping we can get at least 50 leads so that we can start mailing out HTHHTH to them and then follow up after two issues to try to open doors for Bible studies. We also mailed out compassion cards to a family member of one of our members, hoping to set up a Bible study.”

Carthage church of Christ, South Carolina: Randy Chambers (preacher) reports, “We are still working the plan. Although we had a power outage for several days last week, we worshipped with flashlights and sent out several compassion cards. We had one BTTB third lesson study. After several attempts to close, the prospect wanted to study the Scriptures and meet again this week. We are keeping the water warm. Also, have a member who started a second study today, and we had a new study on Friday with BTTB book 1. Our mission Mondays are going well, and I have a visit with a fourth week compassion card recipient who has expressed gratitude. Prayerfully, we will have a good visit that will lead to a study of God’s word.”

North Jefferson church of Christ, Mt. Pleasant, Texas: Kris Groda (preacher) reports, “We had our annual giveaway and arranged it so that the people had to come into the building. We had between 50 and 200 people come. This event provided 60 contacts. We will be following up with them soon.”

Cordova church of Christ, Tennessee:  Bruce Hatcher (preacher) reports, “Our members contributed to a food drive over the last few months, and we were about to raise several thousand dollars. Kroger gave us a discount for buying in bulk. We went to a local school and talked to the guidance counselor who was able to give us contacts for needy families. Friday night we met and boxed up the food, and Saturday morning we delivered it. There were lots of thankful families and good contacts.”

Coldwater church of Christ, Kentucky: Luke Puckett (preacher) reports, “We continue to focus on sending cards and making calls to those who responded to our Thanksgiving giveaway. Reaching out to these people has created a couple of contacts, and we will follow up by sending material and making visits.”

NOTE: These reports are from Christians and congregations enrolled in the House to House/Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. These emails are sent to teach and provoke one another to remain focused on the mission of Christ. Each week, we share several reports and highlight one with more details. We hope you enjoy reading them.