Success Stories: November 8, 2023

Southern Hills church of Christ, Franklin, Tennessee:  We want to welcome the Southern Hills church of Christ to the House to House/Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. The eldership of this congregation is strong; the membership is dedicated, and the preachers have servant hearts. They are ready to take off with the One Mission!

Glencoe church of Christ, Alabama: David Marker (elder) reports, “It was encouraging seeing everyone working together to prepare for a successful Fall Festival. We had an enormous crowd, spreading much goodwill throughout the community. We had teams working to give out candy, prepare food, greet and meet, and others collecting information for our contact cards. We had set a goal for contacts, and we doubled that amount. With our success for that event, we decided to get a head start on sending out compassion cards. We met the next night and addressed approximately 275 cards. Sunday, we had a Deacon’s Appreciation Meal, and we had numerous visitors. This gave us additional contacts.  It has been a really good week, and we are motivated as we continue to find the few out of the many!”

Hatton church of Christ, Alabama: Chris Miller (preacher) reports, “We had our One Mission Sunday meal this week with great participation. The congregation continues to see growth, and in turn we continue to have added participation in evangelism efforts. We have been blessed to consistently keep a full contact list of people to receive cards. This week we made assignments to those on the current list who have received cards.  We have several people involved with studies who are extremely close, in our estimation, to obeying the gospel, so we continue to pray for them. The anthem of our One Mission is repeated constantly from the pulpit and in conversation; it is constantly on our minds. Our elders encourage us every Sunday as we begin our worship with directives regarding our responsibilities.”

Lake City church of Christ, Florida: Jim Flegert (elder) reports, “Tapping into new movers to our community has given us another opportunity to reach the loss. Our weekly compassion card writers are contacting several of our contacts from our past efforts from our visitor, pantry, and mover teams. Currently, several of our members are conducting BTTB studies.”

Niceville church of Christ, Florida: Joe Palmer (preacher) reports, “We had one local visitor this Sunday and gave out one gift basket.  When we did our Compassion Card team, we sent cards not just to our list from our members but to each visitor who came to our Trunk or Treat. We sent out 61 Cards.  Each visitor also got a letter and a brochure from the church.  On Tuesday, I went to make a purchase from a Facebook Marketplace. As I visited, the lady had a question, and I set up a study just from a conversation I had.  Our compassion cards are also helping us with people who have been missing worship a lot. We have found a dose of compassion cards brings people back to worship. We had two attend this week. Neither had fallen away, but both had been missing a lot because of illnesses and death in their family. I feel like the extra attention from the cards gave them the love and encouragement needed to feel the warmth of their church family. This week, we will have a church barbecue, emphasizing getting your friends and neighbors to come and see us.”

North Brevard church of Christ, Titusville, Florida: Doug Gerdes (member) reports, “We are still trying to get more members involved. We need more people to do Bible studies. We have plenty of prospects that we are reaching through the compassion cards. We recently received appreciation from three contacts for the cards. Another visitor placed membership and said the cards she received had convinced her to become a part of our church family. Our Food Pantry Day is next Monday.  It is our biggest source of contacts at this point.”

Fayetteville church of Christ, Georgia: David Gulledge (associate preacher) reports, “We gathered on Sunday evening and wrote our first bundle of compassion cards. We wrote to six prospects. Five of the prospects are dealing with illness and one prospect is a repeating visitor.”

Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Greg Garner (deacon) reports, “The Compassion Card Group created four cards and sent out 12 cards last week. The Prison Ministry is waiting for the Department of Juvenile Justice and Cherokee County Jail’s approval of the installation of the Back to the Bible and Does It Matter presentations on approximately 2,700 of their tablets collectively. We had 20 attendees in our New Convert class. The Greeter Group reported ten visitors this week for Sunday Morning worship. We conducted two Bible studies last week.”

LaFayette church of Christ, Georgia: Jesse Teague (deacon) reports, “Group 1 met to send out compassion cards. We discussed options and decided we would be more diligent to review the contact cards we received, and make sure the people are ready for the cards. As good as it is to have a plan, it is always necessary to review and change when needed so we do not get stuck in a rut!”

Honolulu church of Christ, Hawaii: Lima Esene (preacher) reports, “We have three ongoing Bible studies. We continue to have repeated local visitors in the process of being prospected. This month, we are having the baptized youth boys lead us in Sunday devotionals. Seeing these young men grow in their faith gives us hope for the congregation’s future. I want to highlight our greeters. They make our visitors feel welcome. When you visit the Honolulu church of Christ, you will be greeted with a smile and given a wonderful lei made by our ladies. Our greeters are key to the church’s first impression on visitors. That first impression matters, and we should make it a point to make a good one.”

Central church of Christ, Paducah, Kentucky: Adam Faughn (preacher) reports, “We are seeing a lot of the puzzle pieces come together. Saturday, we had a Fall Festival. It was planned before we began the School of Evangelism, but we could still have several guests, and we believe at least two are prospects. We are working on making some of our events in the coming year much more evangelistic. Sunday, we began training in Back to the Bible, going over some basic tips of holding a study and then working through much of Book 1. (On Sunday morning, we had studied the authority of the New vs. Old Testament, which was based on the latter half of the booklet.) Our next card-writing team met on Sunday evening. Seventeen were present (this is one of six teams), including some new members of the Central family, which is exciting. Just over 100 cards were written to be mailed this week. We have our follow-up teams and will begin assigning visits this week. We hope to begin a Bible study this week, and we are praying it goes well. We also hope that our follow-up visits provide more open doors for studies. To God be the glory for the opportunity to reach out to the lost, and we are praying for honest and good hearts!”

Blanchard church of Christ, Louisiana: Pat Cella (elder) reports, “We gave out 12 new movers baskets and had some really good meetings. We learned something that we think improves the new movers program. We started looking on Zillow and seeing what houses sold over the last month, and this is who we visited. Every single house that we visited had new movers. We have found that not every address listed from HTH is a new mover.”

La Plata church of Christ, Maryland (remote): Eric Sykes (regional trainer) reports, “We wrote 12 compassion cards on Sunday. We have two open Bible studies, and seven people are attending our new convert classes. We appreciate all prayers as we strive to train our members and implement the Congregational Evangelism Model here in La Plata.”

Aberdeen church of Christ, Maryland: Will Brown (preacher) reports, “We had Trunk or Treat Saturday, and received 35 contacts. Nineteen contacts said they are looking for a church home, and eight are new to the area. This week, all 35 will receive a card from us. In the next two weeks, all 19 interested are receiving a visit. The goal is to ask for a Bible study. We appreciate prayers for success. “

Southside church of Christ, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Freddie Klein (preacher) reports, “We continued personal Bible studies this week with two souls. They are progressing well. Another study should start this week. We are continuing to encourage a recent restoration. Our Sunday morning numbers are increasing, and our live stream is getting much attention. We preached on encouragement this Sunday morning and showed the video on treating visitors to meals at the evening service. Card Group 1 sent out cards to contacts made at the Trick or Treat trail and contact cards submitted by members. What an encouraging week!”

Looxahoma church of Christ, Mississippi: Blake Hawkins (deacon): “Teams wrote compassion cards and then received New Mover addresses to deliver monthly baskets. Every month, there is an opportunity to be encouraged by interactions with new movers. We consistently add to our prospects list after having positive conversations on their doorstep. Making deliveries is such an easy way to soften members to door knocking as well! There is nothing like delivering a gift basket with Christian hospitality to make it easier to approach a stranger’s door.”

Iuka church of Christ, Mississippi:  Robert Wimbish (elder) reports, “Our visitation group (a combination of New Movers and Mission Mondays) met and assigned eight visits. Two Bible studies are scheduled for this week. Saturday will be our monthly Food Giveaway Day, and the Iuka High School Boys Basketball team will be helping us. We encourage local youth groups to join in with this effort and share our love for our community. Following the Food Giveaway on Saturday, our congregation will conduct our second door knocking campaign of the year. We plan to enjoy brunch following the Food Giveaway and then spend about three hours finding more good neighbors to visit and worship with. Several new visitors were present at services yesterday, and we continue to see new faces each Sunday.”

Foristell church of Christ, Missouri: Rod Jackson (elder) reports, “We continue to reach out weekly with compassion cards. Last week, we sent 32 cards, and over the last month, we have sent 145 cards. We train weekly with the HTHSOE training videos, which help the congregation to keep evangelism at the forefront of our minds and to help us get better at our craft. Moving forward, we are visiting New Movers weekly to welcome them to the area and give out small gift bags. We appreciate all prayers as we continue to reach out in our area!”

Samford church of Christ, Steele, Missouri: Kyle Imel (deacon) reports, “We have started visiting contacts made from our door-knocking campaign. So far, we have had one Bible study from the campaign. We studied and went through some of Book 1 with Ms. Emma. Pray for her and the future visits of contacts from our door-knocking effort. A visitor from the community came to worship Sunday. We added him to our contact list and mailed cards to invite him to visit again. We continue to study with Susana and Kylie on Wednesdays. It has been a slow process, but we pray for positive results.”

East Flushing church of Christ, New York (remote): Clarence Jenkins (preacher) reports, “We consistently invite people to worship services. Though some do not attend, we are encouraged by consistently having visitors every Lord’s Day. Of the two visitors this past Lord’s Day, one consistently attends. Our Bible studies are ongoing. We are continuing to reach out to contacts and prospects, including providing transportation for them to worship services. We appreciate all prayers.”

Carthage church of Christ, North Carolina (remote): Randy Chambers (preacher) reports, “We have three Bible studies using the BTTB Studies, and another new study is scheduled for Thursday. We are still working on the plan and encouraging the members to be workers together with the Lord!”

Sullivan Village church of Christ, Lawton, Oklahoma: Steven Hill (preacher) reports, “We have set up our compassion card writing station and evangelism table. We have received many contact cards from members and will start writing compassion cards. We prayed for everyone on our lists. I have had two Bible studies with a visitor and one Bible study with two other visitors. We have encouraged the congregation to invite people they know to come to services as their guests. Several visitors came yesterday, and others are planning to come next week. I have finished preaching three lessons from John 4. This week, I transitioned to John 3 and preached on Nicodemus’ reaction to Jesus. I challenged the church not to be like Nicodemus and be a secret disciple; instead, we all need to tell others about our faith in Him. I made the point that a secret disciple of Jesus is like someone who does not evangelize but believes the gospel is the truth and believes he can be saved. Many are afraid, preferring men’s praises rather than God’s (John 12:42-43). To God be all the glory!”

Streetsboro church of Christ, Ohio: Ralph Price (preacher) reports, “We gathered contact names for our first prospect list. We will begin sending compassion cards Sunday. Our members are excited.”

Greenville church of Christ, Ohio: John McGiffin (preacher) reports, “The Sunday after the seminar, we had our traditional fifth Sunday opportunity for men other than the preacher to present a lesson. A retired preacher in our midst was glad to participate. In the morning lesson, he presented a great follow-up lesson on evangelism, I would have expected from an old preacher. I would not have been ready to start two days later. I was in the hospital for several days afterward and started the online training. The video and other training tools have put us on course to succeed. I reached out to Jake Medford, who is from the Jerseyville congregation, for some advice. I needed to speak to someone who does not have elders to learn how they navigated through the setup and organization. He was extremely helpful. On Sunday, we also had a visitor named Sara. We invited her and her son to our home for a meal last week. Several members are reaching out to the community already. One person has started a Bible study using Back to the Bible with his neighbor. In the past, he has had several Bible studies without successful results. He is so excited. He reports that the study was so simple, and he loves how it asks a direct question: ‘Do you want to go to heaven?’ When the answer was yes, it was almost impossible for the man to say no to the next study.

New Concord church of Christ, Ohio: Terry Townsend (preacher) reports, “We have now completed the first two weeks of training for HTHSOE. The elders and I meet every Sunday; we have begun the process of appointing coordinators. Last evening, we trained the congregation about Prospects: Compassion Cards. We should have that going strong in the next two weeks. Our Evangelism Table will be set up this week. One member recently told me he has been trying to teach a friend (co-worker) about Jesus for the past couple of years. The gentleman was recently diagnosed with a terminal illness desired that our member talk to him once more about the gospel salvation. Good News! The member was able to spend time with him, and by the end of the week, the man was baptized into Christ for the remission of sins.

“Yesterday, a middle-aged couple visited our services (invited by one of our members). Following services, I asked them if they knew anything about the churches of Christ and if they wanted to know more. They have become disheartened by denominationalism and agreed to begin a Bible study. We hope to begin it by the end of this week. I had planned to study with them, but an elder and his wife asked if they could invite the couple to their house to begin the study. Because I have two studies ongoing, we both agreed that the elder and his wife should take this new one!

“A young adult approached me, desiring to be baptized, but she wants to put it off for a week. I immediately set up a study with her, beginning this Tuesday afternoon. She knows some of the fundamentals of faith but needs further instruction. I will study the Back to the Bible series with her. My first study with another gentleman went well last week. We will begin Book 2 this week. He seems very receptive! We will continue to train the congregation every Sunday evening for the next ten weeks. The majority of the congregation is excited and on board! Folks are on FIRE! I am trying my best not to get ahead of ourselves. I am not sure how many prospects we would be able to handle each week/month. Only time will tell, but we are off to a great start!”

Coweta church of Christ, Oklahoma: Keno Shrum (elder) reports, “This has been a great week of fellowship and study. By fellowship, I do not mean the watered-down version of the word like drinking coffee or having meals together. I mean building relationships, like Luke was alluding to in Acts 2:42 when he wrote, ‘They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship.’ The Bible knows nothing of an independent Christian. We are to be interdependent. We are focusing heavily on mentoring our new converts and building relationships in Christ with them. It is encouraging to watch them all grow! We went through Lessons 1 and 2 with Kelli. She has been so receptive of all that we have studied up to this point and is eager to go through Lesson 3 on Monday. We went through lessons 1 and 2 with Annie this week, who was invited to worship by Kelli. Kelli has not even completed the study, but she already recognizes the importance of evangelism! We hope to get through Lesson 3 this week. We have three people who are finished receiving compassion cards. Now we will reach out to each one to obtain a study. God is good and blesses our congregation in so many ways. We are excited to continue growing numerically and spiritually, always studying the Word and teaching in Spirit and in Truth. The RTL reports encourage us tremendously! To God be the Glory!”

York church of Christ, Pennsylvania: Mark Raschke (deacon) reports, “Sunday, we collected a contact card from a visitor brought by one of our prospects. We had a nice turnout of prospects whom we had invited to our monthly potluck fellowship meal. We sent compassion cards to a relative of a member with some health issues. Next week, we will send cards to our new contact.”

Broadtop church of Christ, Warfordsburg, Pennsylvania (remote): Ed Howe (member) reports, “We ‘blew the whistle’ yesterday (November 5). I delivered the lesson on John 4, passed out the Bookmarks, explained the concept, and answered questions. We are moving!”

Union church of Christ, South Carolina (remote): Terry Hale (preacher) reports, “We have six individuals on our prospect list. We will mail compassion cards and pray for those receiving them. We are training nine of our members in special areas to know how to get to the study. We appreciate all prayers.”

Covington church of Christ, Tennessee: Wayne Dalrymple (elder) reports, “We have three ongoing studies right now. Jeff is still studying with Lisa, although that has been on pause for a few weeks. Frank Brown is studying with Steve and Annice. I am studying with Doresha. We started Wednesday and will continue this Wednesday during Bible class. Sunday morning, Maurice Jadon from Nazareth, whom we support, spoke to us. We had several visitors from the community. Two of them, Glenn and Kyle, stayed for the potluck lunch. Glenn and Kyle are a father and young adult son. We hope to develop a friendship with them. They said they plan to be back next Sunday. I delivered the cards that we wrote to them Monday night. May God bless us as we seek more lost souls to teach the gospel.”

New Hope church of Christ, Middleton, Tennessee: Cole Wade (preacher) reports, “We are sending out more cards, and we are growing our team of deliverers for new movers’ baskets! We have numerous prospects on our list, and we have recently added a prospect who may become a study in the future! Our members are growing in faith and in their relationship with the Lord. The church is doing well!”

West End church of Christ, Knoxville, Tennessee: Hector Cortez (evangelist) reports, “Some initiatives to seek and save the lost are at the starting point, and others are rebooting. Among those that are just starting, we have our New Movers ministry. We decided to place everything necessary to carry out this ministry in the lobby of the congregation, and we just started making announcements about this source. Within a four-mile radius of the building, we have 66 New Movers this month. Knoxville is a growing city! This gives us a great ministry opportunity.

“We have also begun to use digital and physical tools that allow us to contact our community before, during, and after visiting us for the first time. Since we started using this resource, we have been in contact with 42 non-churchgoing people. As a result, some are sharing their needs with us, and we are strengthening our relationship and service with them. We celebrated our Truck or Treat last month to connect with our community. This allowed us to confirm our desire to be of service and make them feel welcome among us. On the other hand, we are looking for areas in which we must make even more effort. One of these areas is our evangelism table. We do not have a coordinator for this table or other areas, so it was very unorganized. We already feel better seeing it updated and are eager to find a coordinator for it. We are sure we can glorify God better, so we have set several healthy goals that improve all areas of the method.”

East Main church of Christ, Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Brad Rowley (elder) reports, “Our compassion team wrote 52 cards. We had three ongoing Bible studies last week. Two of these studies are new and are going well. It is great to see more members getting involved in leading these studies. East Main had 62 people present last Sunday for Mission Day. We meet after morning service and have a meal together while we review HTHSOE activity, offer training on new strategies, and discuss success stories with the group. We assigned approximately 13 follow-up visits. We are unsure at this time how many new mover baskets were taken. East Main is looking at ideas to promote more new contact cards from our members. Chris Taylor, one of our deacons, suggested setting up a computer and monitor above the evangelism table to share evangelism ideas, success, and HTH videos. We are thankful for all of our members who work so hard in evangelism. To God give the glory!”

New Union church of Christ, Manchester, Tennessee: Paul Fultz (elder) reports, “We had six new contact cards this week. Card Team 1 wrote 67 compassion cards. Several New Mover Baskets were delivered. Members made seven follow-up visits and contacts last week, not counting phone calls and texts.”

Bridgewater church of Christ, Katy, Texas: Doug Suggs (member) reports, “We will begin a gospel meeting with Allen Webster on Sunday that will continue through Wednesday. Last Saturday, about 20 of our members met at the building to go into the community with door hangers (we are not allowed to knock on doors). We put 800 or more hangers on doors. These door hangers are inviting the community to come to our meeting. We will be looking for visitors to greet so we can make friends with them and eventually set up a Bible study. One of our community teams met Sunday evening to sign cards for those on our prospect list. Since Bo Petru, who has been coordinating this part of our program, is moving to Midland, another brother, Mike Ezell, has stepped up to do this work. We continue to receive a few contacts to add to our prospect list. We appreciate all prayers.”

Crosby church of Christ, Houston, Texas (remote): Jon Wheeler (elder) reports, “Last month, the town of Crosby celebrated its bicentennial, and we set up a booth with information about the church. We had a good response from those attending the celebration and sent letters to those who left their names and addresses. Sunday, we completed the sermon series on John 4. We have introduced bookmarks and contact cards. We delivered 21 new movers’ baskets on Saturday. One family visited Sunday morning after receiving a basket! We were so excited.”

Natalia church of Christ, Texas: Jim Word (elder) reports, “We are working to gain additional contacts.  Right now, we have two. We sent compassion cards on Sunday. We hope to transition to the Bible study soon.”

Eisenhower church of Christ, Odessa, Texas: Allen Weakland (elder) reports, “Brother Ubaldo recently spoke to a lady he works with, and she came to our Wednesday Bible study. She was excited about the study and returned Sunday morning. After services, she was surrounded by several ladies, and you could see she was becoming very comfortable. One family invited her out to lunch, which she accepted, and they spent the entire afternoon together. God be praised. We were again blessed with two more ladies attending Sunday evening. Once again, members gathered around them and chatted after worship. It was apparent that both visitors were feeling at home. We pray that our follow-ups will result in having them for dinner and a study. We are focused on having Jeff Miller here for a seminar in April of 2024. We have started the process of talking to both college campuses, Odessa College and University of Texas Permian Basin, about placing advertisements on their campuses and on several billboards as well as using several internet sites that share local news. We hope God blesses this endeavor and provides more contacts and prospects for His kingdom. The fields are white for the harvest; let us praise God.”

Canyon Lake church of Christ, Texas (remote): Jesse Stuart and Raoul Ferris (evangelists) report, “We have been delivering our pictures from Trunk or Treat and are using this opportunity to introduce ourselves and to apply the “How can we pray for you?” method of getting more contact information. Some of our Bible studies were canceled this past week due to school events. Other Bible studies were met with opposition. We have found that the illustrations provided in Evangelism Visualized assist us when faced with objections to the truth. In addition to Bible studies, new converts classes, and evangelism training, we do lots of landscaping. Our congregation has been cleaning up our property so it will be visible from the road and from businesses surrounding our building.”

Wheeler church of Christ, Texas: Garrett English (preacher) reports, “We will be delivering two new mover boxes this week in hopes of new contacts. We will be studying BTTB studies on Wednesday nights through November. Compassion card groups are still being organized, but we will get started soon.”

Highway 95 church of Christ, Taylor, Texas: Benjamin Dossey (preacher) reports, “We delivered over 30 new movers’ baskets to the community Saturday. We have four prospects and sent out cards to them yesterday.”

Southwest church of Christ, Austin, Texas: John Garza (regional trainer) reports, “Things continue to go well, even though we have had fewer studies than we have had previously. This only means that we will focus on contacts once again. We will strive to reach our contacts individually by reminding members of the evangelism table and tools for their personal use. We will strive to reach more souls by using the New Movers program more effectively. Soon, the students of Southwest will be delivering information and following up with the contacts we make. I am preparing and planning to re-light the fire of evangelism in our member’s hearts, and then to keep it going.”

Granbury Street church of Christ, Cleburne, Texas: Ryan Cowan (deacon) reports, “Granbury Street continues to write an average of 100 compassion cards per week, mailed to potential prospects. So far, we have visited at least 75 people who have received cards and have asked them our three questions. Our Mission Monday group is scheduled to meet on November 13, to review Bobby Bates’ principles of personal Bible study as discussed in his book Fishing for Men. I am actively seeking a member who can help me track and account for contacts who have accessed the House to House website within the last 30 days. I believe that with the assistance of a church member meeting them on their front porch, these cold contacts could be turned into warm connections. On Sunday afternoon, member Kaitley Cowan studied Book 3 with Karolyna Ramirez. We rejoice that Karolyna put on Christ in baptism that same afternoon. Shepard Jeff Day shared the great news with the entire body at our evening service and then showed a video of Karolyna’s baptism.”

Graceton church of Christ, Diana, Texas: Johnny Willeford (elder) reports, “We held our first Sunday Fellowship Luncheon for November. Three families visited with us and stayed to share a meal. These three had recently received compassion cards from us. After the meal and a devotional service led by our young men, Group B wrote 194 compassion cards to 14 contacts. Seven of those contacts came from the new movers’ group last week. We had one of our largest attendances for a Sunday morning service this year. We had requests for prayers for two members. Little Ivy Hendricks had her open-heart surgery on Wednesday and came through it well. She is now three weeks old. Kenny McCary one of our elders, had his second stroke last week. He is now going through rehab and slowly improving.”