Success Stories: September 17, 2025

Bridge Avenue church of Christ, Weslaco, Texas:  We welcome the Bridge Avenue church of Christ in Weslaco, Texas, to the House to House/Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. This is a unique congregation that has a bilingual worship service. It is one congregation with two languages that worship together like the first-century church. We believe they will be an example for our generation on how to reach the lost in a multicultural city.”

Glencoe church of Christ, Alabama: Keith Ritchie (preacher) reports, “On the heels of our lectureship, the Glencoe congregation had an excellent Sunday attendance. We had several visitors and also held an evangelistic planning session. We are about to embark into uncharted territory for this congregation, and we are very excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. Our door-knocking teams will become our transition teams for next month. We currently have three ongoing Bible studies. Our Evangelism model is filled and posted in two areas with the names of members who want to be workers for the Lord. Please pray that we are successful in our efforts to save the lost. To God be the glory!”

Central church of Christ, Saraland, Alabama: David Dixon (preacher) reports, “As part of Evangelism Month, this Sunday we examined Jude 22-23. It was a much-needed lesson. Next Sunday, we will explore Paul’s method of going into all the world. We are looking forward to Door Knocking Day this coming Saturday. We pray that the Lord’s Kingdom experiences growth as a result of this nationwide effort. In response to the events of the last week, I have seen several people mention increased church attendance. I pray sincere hearts will turn to the Lord with all their strength because they understand the truth, not because they are memorializing a modern political figure.”

Cedar Grove church of Christ, Andalusia, Alabama: Josh Holloway (preacher) reports, “We had a wonderful Bible study with a woman named Terri on Monday. She is the mother-in-in law of one of our members. She started as a prospect. She attended a service to support her grandchildren, which led to cards and visits. Now she is regularly attending and going to our weekly Wednesday morning Ladies’ Bible class as well. She has a husband who was raised as a Catholic, but she has bounced around denominations throughout the years, looking for truth and consistency. We had a great study; she actually asked me to stay longer and go over more material. So, we studied for a few hours on Monday afternoon and are continuing our study weekly. On Tuesday night, we had a Bible study with Michael. He has finished the first book of Back to the Bible. He has a mega-church background, and he played guitar when he attended there. He has some major questions about instrumental music. We will tackle the church booklet this upcoming week, so please pray for us as we study. We had another Bible study at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday with Matt. It went really well. He is in the last Back to the Bible book. On Friday and Saturday, we went on 18 visits to various prospects. We had a great visit with one of our wayward members, Wendy. She was very discouraged, but she is going to try to set up some weekly Bible studies with some of our ladies with whom she has a connection and has studied with in the past. We had a good visit with another wayward member, Kathy. We had some good discussions, but I do not think we will be able to study with her. She has had some health problems that have led to some mental issues. I do not believe she could comprehend the study, but I will continue to ask. We went to see another wayward member named Mr. Ronnie. We had a great visit. He was cleaning up his yard, so we walked around and picked up pinecones while we talked. He seemed excited about getting together more and scheduling a study next week. We had a great visit with a community contact, Marylin. She was interested in future study, but not that day. She had been to chemotherapy treatments. But she sent a letter to the congregation thanking us for the cards and so on. We read it to the assembly on Sunday. We are mailing 158 cards this week for a grand total of 1,863 cards since June and 259 for September. We also received our invitation cards and have started distributing them to the congregation. We ordered a thousand, and within a week, we are already putting a good dent in the supply. Also, we are having our first door-knocking day as a congregation this upcoming Saturday!”

Hatton church of Christ, Town Creek, Alabama: Chris Miller (preacher) reports, “We have several studies in the works and a fast track on some studies with a couple of people in critical condition. Our elders remind the congregation every Sunday that everything we do ties right to fulfilling our mission, and that has kept card-signing moving and service projects moving.”

Creekwood church of Christ, Mobile, Alabama: Tucker Presley (preacher) reports, “It seems like we have had a steady dose of visitors recently. We add them to the prospect list and then follow up with them. Several have come multiple times! We currently have one Bible study still ongoing. As I mentioned last time, we are planning our trunk-or-treat event. We have ordered postcards to go out to last year’s trunk or treat visitors and VBS visitors from over the summer. We are also giving some out at the local Christian school. This could be a great outreach event!”

Petersville church of Christ, Florence, Alabama: Adam Richardson (preacher) reports, “Petersville rejoices with Macie Hope after her decision to put on Christ in baptism last week! We have had six baptisms this year and are in the midst of completing a study that should result in two more. We sent eight compassion cards last week. We also hosted a community mental health workshop that saw 60+ participants, and half of them were visitors from the area. We advertised on social media and in the local paper, and we also had members passing out flyers and making personal invites. A local Christian counseling center came to conduct eight different sessions and did a wonderful job. I highly encourage other congregations to consider a seminar like this because the community is desperate for it. We gained about four new contacts from those registered who do not attend any church!”

Hartselle church of Christ, Alabama: Justin Smith (preacher) reports, “We are praising God this week for a baptism! We are prayerful that more may come from this family as well, and we have begun to prospect. Our New Movers and Visitors ministries met and assembled baskets and bags for the upcoming month. We have healthy congregational involvement, and we are excited to see fruit from our labor.”

Rison church of Christ, Arkansas: Keden Shrum (preacher) reports, “A man from town mentioned a few months ago how much he has enjoyed receiving House to House Heart to Heart in the mail. We have talked several times since then, and one of the elders and I had given him an invitation card at different times. He finally came and visited us on Sunday morning. We were thankful for that. We invited him to lunch, but he was not able to go. He did tell me he plans to come back. The Besaws could not finish Book 3 of BTTB last week because of their work schedules, but they returned to worship with us on Wednesday evening and Sunday morning. We have invited them over this week, and hopefully, we can complete the study. Two of our elders are going this week to visit with prospects who have been receiving compassion cards. Care Team B met Sunday evening to work on compassion cards for four prospects, and we have two more ready to be added next week.”

Mountain Home church of Christ, Arkansas: Joshua Adams (preacher) reports, “We had the joy of welcoming two brand-new sisters into Christ! On Wednesday, Allie Shipman and her parents met with me because she had been expressing for some time her desire to be baptized. Her parents had been teaching her faithfully, and when we met, it was clear she was ready to take that step. Any hesitation or delay was completely absent—Allie was certain. I know many people wrestle with questions about when, how old, or how much a child or teenager should know before deciding to be baptized. But when someone understands the Gospel, recognizes Jesus as Lord, acknowledges his or her sin, and cannot be deterred, it is time to act! Allie is a seventh grader, and her father had the privilege of baptizing her into Christ. Then, on Thursday, Cindy Novak, a visitor who had been studying with a member and close friend, decided it was time to change her life and give it over to God. We met to talk, and I had the privilege of baptizing her into Christ that afternoon. What I love most about this past week’s experience is how it reminds us of the incredible influence we have on the faith of others—whether it is your children or a friend, your faith matters and can guide others to Christ. Those two bring us up to 21 baptisms since the HTHSOE Seminar hosted in March of this year. Additionally, several of our New Movers Basket Teams went out and distributed baskets with varying degrees of success, and we also had a good group stay after evening services to fill out compassion cards.”

Avalon church of Christ, Milton, Florida (remote): Preston Silcox (elder) reports, “We enjoyed another great week focusing our attention and efforts on planting and watering the Gospel. We had four Bible studies and eight visitors. We use Sunday night to write cards, cover material from the Fishing for Men book, and brainstorm for upcoming events that will be outward-focused.”

Margaret Street church of Christ, Milton, Florida: Troy Spradlin (preacher) reports, “I recently had the privilege of baptizing a young man into Christ who had studied his way out of the Baptist denomination (though he also had some help from a member of the church). After confirming his understanding and before we went to the baptistery, I reminded him that he cannot continue in that religion. I told him he must count the cost and follow Jesus’ commands in life and worship as found in the New Testament. His response was, ‘Jesus said if anyone does not carry their cross, or loves their family more than Him, they cannot be my disciple.’ What a great understanding and so very true! There is great power in God’s Word. We received a large number of contacts this week through our pantry program and visitor inquiries. We are excited to get to work on these! Our current 2025 Year-to-Date Accountability Board numbers are: 266 Total Contacts received; 68 Visitors; 181 Neighbors (Prospects whom we have loved and/or studied with); 70 Bible studies (total completed); 1,935 Compassion Cards sent; two Restorations, and 17 Baptisms.”

Niceville church of Christ, Florida: Joe Palmer (preacher) reports, “Sometimes it takes time for the Gospel to produce the fruit we want. When we first started with this ministry, Leanna and I had a study with a vibrant lady from the nation of Bolivia. Karyn is a permanent resident of the United States who has lived here for many years. She came into the church needing some help and having some spiritual questions. We invited her to our house for dinner. We studied through Back to the Bible, and I was sure she would obey.  However, when we got to the closing lessons, she hesitated every time. We then went through Does it Matter?  Again, something was holding her back.  As we continued to study, she introduced us to her friend, Eveliss. We went back through BTTB with her and Karyn, and Eveliss obeyed, but Karyn just was not ready. After a while, she started working on Sundays, and we did not see much of her. A couple of weeks ago, she returned, and we learned that she had obeyed the Gospel. She said, ‘I woke up one day thinking that I need to be baptized.’ Karyn went to California for her son’s wedding, and he baptized her. On Sunday, she helped me in my Spanish New Convert’s class. She has become active, and we are so happy to have her as our sister in Christ. The seeds that had been planted eventually brought forth fruit in her life. This week we had three studies. We mailed out 18 cards. On Sunday, we had four visitors, and two people placed membership. Scott and Jackie came to us from Tennessee. One of the things that impressed them about the church in Niceville was the compassion cards. We had one visitor come in and has asked to study. I am thankful that two of my faithful sisters in Christ have stepped up to teach her. One of our recent new converts was joined in attendance Sunday night by her husband. We were rejoicing to see him. We are seeing the progress that comes from consistency and the blessings and favor of God. The Gospel is powerful, but only if we get it into the hearts of those needing it.”

Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Matt Amos (preacher) reports, “WCOC and the Sunabella Assistant Living Facility had ten non-Christians at the devotional on Sunday. The HTH Door Knocking group is preparing for the National Door Knocking Campaign that is set for September 20.  The Compassion Card group created and sent eight cards. WCOC had eleven non-Christian visitors this past Sunday morning worship. We also had one Bible study.”

Edgewood church of Christ, Columbus, Georgia: Mitchell Deering (deacon) reports, “We now have eight active Bible studies—a new study was added this week. With 45 more compassion cards sent, our September total has reached 123 cards. We welcomed two visitors this past Sunday, bringing the month-to-date total to six. The follow-up team continues to coordinate visits and ensure prospects are being contacted regularly. We will be assigning follow-up for the two new visitors.”

Collinsville-Troy church of Christ, Illinois: Jason Wright (elder) reports, “We had a congregational Bible Bowl competition on the book of James on Sunday afternoon. This is part of our Lads to Leaders program. On Friday evening, we delivered new mover’s baskets. We invited the teens to join us and began with a devo. I talked about how our youth are the church of today as well as the future. Ten teams made 24 visits. Seven baskets were delivered for a 29 percent success rate. Then we met for ice cream. We go out multiple times each week at different times with varying success rates. We made four contacts. We mailed 160 compassion cards. This weekend is the St. Louis Area Wide Lectureship. Many blessings to those door-knocking on Saturday.”

Lincolnway church of Christ, Columbia City, Indiana: Drew Reece (preacher) reports, “We are continuing our training and getting ready to start making transition visits! We also have our New Convert’s class up and running. We are praying for good soil! We currently have nine prospects.”

Judah church of Christ, Indiana: Joe Moon (preacher) reports, “We had three visitors this week. A married couple from the community is trying out churches, and our other visitor is a son of one of our married couples. We also had one Bible study this week.”

Highland Village church of Christ, Bloomington, Indiana: Mark Stauffer (elder) reports, “Activity at Highland Village in September includes sending 37 compassion cards, making two visits, and having two visitors for worship. We currently have one prospect. Congregational training has focused on using the Second Thoughts materials to study with straying members and a review of the Contacts bookmark, emphasizing that our Lord loves those who are lost and has given us the responsibility and opportunity to reach out to them with the Gospel.”

Beloit church of Christ, Kansas (remote): Dustin Dougherty (regional trainer) reports, “We had a small number in attendance, but we had one organic visitor, and one family member visitor. There are quite a few outreach things I want to implement, but I do not know where I will fit them into the schedule. I am going to continue working diligently to reach as many as I can. I am thankful for this work.”

Columbus church of Christ, Kansas (remote): Matt Fowler (member) reports, “Suzanne completed the first study of Back to the Bible with her brother. She said it went very well. Her daughter, Brooklyn, is set to continue her studies with her cousin next week. I started a study with Dom, one of my senior football players. He has never studied the Bible before but believes in God. We started with the Believe the Bible, Study B, about the inspiration of the Bible. When we got to the passage about Thomas seeing the Lord after his resurrection, he became very emotional. It was so precious to see the Word of God and the love of Jesus pierce his young heart. He told me he had never read that before. Never doubt the impact the Word can have on honest hearts. I am looking forward to continuing the study in two weeks. We currently have nine prospects and have sent out 52 compassion cards this month. We appreciate prayers for our work, and we pray for the work of other congregations.”

Flatwoods church of Christ, Kentucky (remote): Nathan Adkins (elder) reports, “On Saturday, we had about 25 of our members go into our community and knock on doors. We made some good contacts with 15 requesting prayers, two requesting Bible correspondence courses, three said they were looking for a church, and two families wanting in-home Bible studies. It was an encouraging day. The members are less apprehensive about door knocking for two reasons. Once they know that all they are trying to do is make friends and get their contact information, they are less nervous. They also discovered that most people are friendly and willing to talk. Yesterday, after our evening worship, we prepared cards to be sent to the contacts we made. Our preacher, Todd, and our sister, Janet, are making plans to revisit those requesting Bible studies this week.”

Central church of Christ, Paducah, Kentucky: Adam Faughn (preacher) reports, “We are rejoicing that Scott Seagrave was baptized into Christ last Wednesday evening at the conclusion of our midweek services. Scott has been visiting with us for a few weeks, and he knew he needed to be immersed, so we were so glad to do that last week. Studies with Sam and Marilyn were postponed, but we hope they will restart this week. Sharon has also been visiting with us for several weeks, and one of our ladies is setting up a study with her. Central is in the middle of a search for additional elders, and we are praying that these men will help us continue in our efforts to reach the lost. To God be the glory for all the good happening in Paducah!”

Gonzales church of Christ, Louisiana: Patrick Adkins (deacon) reports, “We signed 71 cards. We delivered seven new movers spaghetti meals. We also had training for the upcoming Brotherhood Door-Knocking Day on September 20.”

Beltway church of Christ, Camp Springs, Maryland: LeAndre Johnson (preacher) reports, “We are four Sundays past our 12 weeks of preplanned sermons. We are continuing to do our T3 classes on Wednesday night to train our lead teachers. This past Saturday, we had our Community Day Health Fair.  We secured two Bible studies from the event and will start an additional study on Saturday. A current ongoing study should complete Lesson 3 today.”

Aberdeen church of Christ, Maryland: Will Brown (preacher) reports, “Our congregation is participating in the Brotherhood Door-Knocking campaign this Saturday. We currently have five ongoing Bible studies, and as our city and county continue to grow, this effort presents a great opportunity to spread the word about who we are in our community and to invite others to Bible classes and worship services. In addition, we are reaching out to a large number of members we have not seen in months—or even years—with the goal of restoring them to fellowship, or at the very least, updating our understanding of their well-being. We ask for continued prayers for our efforts, and we trust that God may bless the work and open hearts to His Word.”

La Plata church of Christ, Maryland (remote): Eric Sykes (regional trainer) reports, “This past week, we sent out 50 compassion cards. We started a new mentoring program for our young men, ages 8 to 18. It is called the ‘Young David’s Program: Men After God’s Own Heart.’ The Mission of the program is to mentor our young men ages 8 to 18, and to help them grow into the faithful men that God is calling them to be—leaders, servants, and faithful followers after God’s own heart. Through mentorship, biblical teaching, and real-life guidance, we help young men grow in wisdom, strength, and character. We challenge them to live with purpose, stand firm in their faith, and serve others by using the gifts God has given them to bring lost souls to Christ, so that they can be saved! Our goal is to raise up a generation of Christian Soldiers who know God’s Word, love like Jesus, and lead with humility, courage, and truth. We ask for prayers as we strive to grow God’s family here in La Plata and evangelize our community.”

Jackson church of Christ, Missouri: David Selvig (elder) reports, “God is so good! We had two baptisms this week. The Back to the Bible books make sitting down for a study so easy. As we worked through Lesson 3 this last Thursday, Bill realized he was not saved. After 50 years, it was suddenly clear to him what he needed to do.  We closed the study, and he looked at me and said, ‘We need to go to the building so I can be baptized.’ We also had one from our congregation who responded after studying on Lesson 2 of BTTB. She was concerned that she was not saved and wanted to be baptized.”

Aberdeen church of Christ, Mississippi: Jonathan Hagar (preacher) reports, “We had three visitors Sunday and a good number in attendance. We had a guest speaker who is a Youth Minister candidate, which brought many of the younger parents to this Sunday’s service. Last week, we did our transition visits. Sadly, we could not find anyone home, so we will try again this week to visit those on the prospect list at different times until we see them. We signed compassion cards this past Sunday. We wrote 200 cards to mail. The coordinator said we had more participation this Sunday than the last time we did compassion cards, which is always good to hear. The New Convert’s class is going well. They are going through the Growing in Christ book, and so far, we have nine in attendance. I have four Bible studies lined up this week with six people, so we ask for prayers that the studies go well. We hit a milestone on our accountability board, 100 visits, since we started the HTHSOE this past June. So far, the accountability board stands as: four baptisms, five restorations, 55 Bible studies, 10 prospects, 701 cards sent, and 101 visits made.”

Iuka church of Christ, Mississippi: Sam Glover (preacher) reports, “We conducted a Gospel Meeting last week with Ty Rhymes, who ably preached on different aspects of evangelism and was a fantastic encouragement to the congregation. We had two responses to the invitation yesterday, one for restoration and renewal, and another desiring to place membership and be all in for the work of the church. Further, we are planning and prepping for the Door-Knocking campaign on September 20. I am excited to hit the streets, and let as many people as possible know that the church of Christ loves Iuka and is here to love, serve, and evangelize.”

Concord church of Christ, New Hampshire (remote): Shane Belinger (member) reports, “Greetings from the Concord, New Hampshire, church of Christ. The last couple of weeks have been somewhat quiet with regard to visitors and Bible studies. This past Sunday, we had four visitors! One of the visitors has agreed to a Bible study and was there because she is looking for the truth and not finding it in the world.  The events of the last week have compelled her to seek out God!  Our studies have been continuing in the Back to the Bible series, and we are covering lesson number two in the Wednesday night Bible class. We will also take the time on Wednesday night to fill out compassion cards to send to the visitors we had this past Sunday. God bless.”

East Flushing church of Christ, New York (remote): Clarence Jenkins (preacher) reports, “On Sunday we had eight visitors. After worship service, we watched the video ‘Bible Studies: Community Bible Studies.’ Our metrics thus far for and through the month of September are six baptisms, eight visitors, 19 prospects, nine Bible studies, and two in a new convert study.”

Alkire Road church of Christ, Ohio: Tony Dunnagan (deacon) reports, “We had nine visitors, five of whom are a family that are members looking for a congregation. The other four are returning visitors already being prospected. We have two new prospects and one Bible study.”

New Concord church of Christ, Ohio: Terry Townsend (preacher) reports, “Our Gospel Meeting with Rico Brown started on Sunday, and we had several first-time visitors from the community (one of whom expressed interest in a Bible study; we hope to report on this next week). A second round of compassion cards is being mailed out this week to one of our new contacts. The elders are re-strategizing and tweaking some aspects they hope will encourage more members of the congregation to get involved.”

East Sparta church of Christ, Magnolia, Ohio (remote): Andrew Masterson (preacher) reports: “We have had five follow-up meetings with prospects over the past two weeks. We had 11 Visitors, and we wrote 19 compassion cards. We have had rainy sessions after evening worship the past two Sundays, and those are going well. We also have seven people in our New Converts class. On January 26-29, 2026, Keno will be coming back to our congregation for Continued Education training.”

Owasso church of Christ, Oklahoma: David Combs (elder) reports, “Our second New Convert class just completed Week 5, and they are doing great! After service on Sunday evening, 15 card writers met to write 150 cards to be mailed out starting Monday morning. Our prospect timeline is as follows: six are on Week 3, two are on Week 2, and one is on Week 1. Our accountability Board Statistics for September include Visitors – 11, Prospects- 9, and Cards sent- 285. We have had seven Bible studies and 18 Baptisms.”

York church of Christ, Pennsylvania: Mark Rashke (deacon) reports, “Aden was baptized on Tuesday! He is a local high school student who recently started attending with us and has been studying with Fred and Pam for the past few weeks. I am sharing a photo here. We had a light crowd on Sunday, as a few members were traveling. We did have one young man bring his girlfriend, and we also had another young man who is a frequent visitor. Fred gave a good lesson from 1 Timothy in the morning, reminding us to preach the word in season and out of season. In the evening, he preached on the footsteps of Jesus and leaving behind the world to follow as Matthew did.”

Cookeville church of Christ, Tennessee: Joshua Kennedy (preacher) reports, “We are working with 16 names on the compassion card list. We have new movers’ baskets that we are wrapping up. We had a door-knocking program that we have been planning, which we hope to have once or twice a month. This past week, we door-knocked in preparation for our Gospel Meeting. We knocked on 175 houses, had 11 team members, established 11 contacts, and set up possibly four Bible studies! We are praying that we will be able to capitalize on those opportunities this week! I’m including some pictures from the event.”

Stewart’s Creek church of Christ, Smyrna, Tennessee: Caleb Wisterman (member) reports, “We have been working on reorganizing our processes with the change of oversight on our evangelism mission. We have updated our prospects tracking to be broken down by specific categories (New Movers, New Visitors, Compassion Card Prospects, and Unfaithful). As a prospect moves through the process, we will color-code them, so we all know where we stand with that individual prospect. Our biggest current issue is getting more of the congregation involved. We currently are relying on around 20-25 people carrying the majority of the burden, and we need that group to grow so we can reach more contacts! We have 20 new mover baskets sent out from August, and we are currently working on our September baskets. We have set a date for our Fall community outreach event on November 1 from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. It will be a Fall Family Festival with different games and activities, as well as a chili cook-off, to get them to come into the building. We do still have one Bible study in progress, and we are still praying for her to make the decision to be baptized soon!”

Lafayette church of Christ, Georgia: Jessee Teague (deacon) reports, “We had about 24 folks at a family and youth devotional on Saturday: a good time of study, food, and fellowship to strengthen the saints. Next month, we have a similar event with a hayride. We typically, have a lot of visitors for it, and we look forward to showing the love of God to our community. Our Gospel Meeting is mid-October; we are putting a flyer in every bulletin (and have been for the last few weeks), and we are encouraging all members to share the flyer with someone each week.  If anyone on the HTHSOE update list knows of a soul in the Lafayette, Georgia, area—encourage them to come hear Cliff Goodwin October 12-16! We have plans to set up a booth at a community ‘scare on the square’ event at the end of October. We do give out candy, but the real treat will be trying to make contacts and handing out literature about the Gospel. Several pending Bible studies are not yet fruitful, but we will continue sowing seed and tilling the soil. There is much to do with work on every hand. God is good!”

Ocoee Street church of Christ, Copperhill, Tennessee: R.E. Vann (elder) reports, “A local family of three visited this week. Our pew greeter was able to obtain their contact information, but they were reluctant to accept our lunch invitation. They will be receiving compassion cards this week. After our evangelism refresh last week, we proceeded to modify our card ministry by dividing our congregation into two groups and writing cards after the evening service. We wrote 40-45 cards after the services last night. We will be participating in the Brotherhood-Wide Door-Knocking campaign this Saturday, concentrating on much-needed transition visits.”

Covington church of Christ, Tennessee: Wayne Dalrymple (elder) reports, “Last Wednesday, Conrad made the decision to put the Lord on in baptism. He is a teenager who has been visiting regularly with his family. His dad is a Christian, but his stepmom is not. Please pray we might reach her with the Gospel as well. We are so excited for him and his family. We have several family members of our members who are on our contact list. We are working to get studies with them. We have two studies going on now. Also, we went door-knocking on Saturday. We had 15 to go with us. We knocked on about 60 doors, met around 30 people, and made eight contacts. We sent cards to these contacts on Monday evening. One of the contacts was a grandfather who is a member of the Lord’s church from somewhere else, but he has not been attending anywhere since moving to our area. He said he has been thinking about visiting us. We pray he comes soon.”

West Sparta church of Christ, Tennessee: Justin Turney (deacon) reports, “We are excited to report we had a baptism yesterday! A teenage boy who attends quite often with some of his family was baptized yesterday morning. We had the sermon/training on compassion cards last night, and we plan to start sending cards on September 28. We currently have 17 prospects, and we have four Bible studies taking place. We had visitors yesterday morning as well, whom we were able to take out to lunch. They were also excited and agreed to start a Bible study this upcoming Friday evening!”

West Fayetteville church of Christ, Tennessee: Steve Jefferson (elder) reports, “We had a wonderful day of worship that was concluded with a young man putting on Christ in baptism. Jacob Jennings has been visiting with us on occasion through a family connection. He came to me yesterday, a few minutes before morning worship was to begin. He expressed that he was concerned about his past and wanted to be in the right relationship with God, and he also wanted to be a good example for his young daughter. We discussed the importance of understanding what God expects from us in order to be saved. Time would not allow us to go into any depth, so we agreed to meet after lunch. We sat down together and discussed God‘s plan of salvation. We also studied Scripture on remaining faithful until the end. With a full understanding, he said he was ready and wanted to come forward to be a good example to others, but especially to his young daughter and to his family. We are excited for Jacob and his decision to become a Christian!”

Grundy Street church of Christ, Tullahoma, Tennessee: John Summers (preacher) reports, “Our Care Card program is up and running. Last week was the first week we had a team to assemble and write cards to send out, and since our attendance numbers were down somewhat, we had fewer folks to participate in card writing than we had anticipated. Nevertheless, we still sent out 75 cards (70 of those to our 13 people on the Active Outreach list). This is a very solid number. Everyone one on our list received at least one card each day sent to them this past week. This week, our attendance numbers were back up in more of a normal range (even with several families traveling), and we had really good participation from a solid group who assembled to write cards. So, the number we will report next week for what are sent out will jump significantly, even though last week was still solid. Our learning curve is steep right now, and we are learning that we probably will have a lot more cards and stamps on hand in our inventory than we previously anticipated. We are also learning some tricks about how to organize things so that we can process all the cards more smoothly and efficiently. Basically, we are figuring out what works for us and what does not. I will try to get pictures to share next week of how this is working out now. We are moving forward!”

Arlington church of Christ, Tennessee: Brandon Tibbits (preacher) reports, “We are continuing the work one of our new deacons has agreed to take charge of.  The new movers work have a Mission Monday coming up next week where we make our visits. I believe we sent close to if not over 1,000 cards. I know if we continue on this track God will give the increase.”

Chapel Hill church of Christ, Tennessee: Matt Jones (deacon) reports, “We continue to work with recent converts, along with a couple of prospects, for ongoing Bible studies. We did have our recent round of new movers’ addresses sent to those helping with that effort. We continue to keep our card teams busy with new visitors or with those needing encouragement to remain faithful. Overall, everyone is working hard to reach the lost.”

Mountain Creek church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee: Michael Tomshack (elder) reports, “We initiated ‘Connect Groups’ in May, dividing the congregation into four groups for in-home Bible study and fellowship. Gary Massey, Elder and Minister, develops the lesson plan each month for the groups. Each group determines the time for their fellowship based on their group schedule. One of the objectives is to invite non-Christians to these meetings as an informal way of introducing them to a Bible study. We have had a few visitors and are attempting to establish relationships, which, Lord willing, will result in individual Bible studies. We continue monthly mailings of House to House in our immediate area and the new movers contacts in the same area. We have a significant number of apartment complexes in our area. This demonstrates our commitment to reaching the lost through various avenues.”

McEwen church of Christ, Tennessee: John Jones (preacher) reports, “We have had a number of visitors from the local lineman school coming to worship. We plan to have them over for a meal soon, and we hope to get them into a Bible study. The two Bible studies we have ongoing are progressing well.”

Collierville church of Christ, Tennessee: Justin Evergarden (evangelist) reports, “We have sent 36 cards to six people this week, and we continue training. We have now been teaching a group Bible study method called the Discovery Sword method in addition to the BTTB studies. Also, two people asked to place membership with our congregation this week.”

Soddy church of Christ, Tennessee: Joe Mallory (preacher) reports, “Yesterday, we had the privilege of greeting eight visitors who attended at least one of our services. As a result, we were able to add many of them to our compassion card list. One of our friends in the community (Jose) asked for a Bible study that will begin this week. Please pray for this effort. Care Team 2 met together and will send 44 compassion cards this week. Praise God as He blesses the work of His servants.”

Philadelphia church of Christ, Lebanon, Tennessee (remote): Alex DeGraves (associate preacher) reports, “We have been sending out more compassion cards recently. We are praying that we will have opportunities to spread the Gospel because of them. Also, we are still waiting for two studies to resume.”

Hillcrest church of Christ, Springfield, Tennessee: Tim Taylor (evangelist) reports, “We had another baptism at Hillcrest this week! After completing Book 3 of Back to the Bible, Jett made the decision to be baptized into Christ. We are grateful that the seed of the Gospel continues to bear fruit. Also, our brother Eddison responded yesterday, asking for prayers of restoration and encouragement.”

Birdwell Chapel church of Christ, Cottontown, Tennessee: Kerry England (elder) reports, “As we continue our evangelism training, Dale presented an excellent lesson Sunday morning on Christian mentors. We had several visitors on Sunday morning. On Sunday night, we had an opportunity to help an individual with benevolence. He heard a timely lesson on family that touched him directly as he was caring for his young grandson and was feeling discouraged. He said the lesson was exactly what he needed! We collected the information, and he assured us he will be back on Wednesday night. We are hosting a BBQ dinner and corn hole tournament this Saturday. We have sent invitations to our recent contacts. We are praying they come!”

Rivergate church of Christ, Madison, Tennessee: Doug Tooley (preacher) reports, “We had six visitors on Sunday morning and one on Sunday night. We had one person come forward requesting prayers on Sunday morning. Two visits were made last week. We started a new Bible study that came from our House to House mailings.”

White Oak church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee (remote): John McGiffin (preacher) reports, “The struggles of small congregations seem to be hot and cold at times. In exactly one year’s time serving the congregation, we have held at least 12 community outreach events. Our goal was one per month. We have utilized the contact book marks, and we had a booth at the local city celebration. We also had trunk or treat, a Gospel Meeting, and a Family and Friends Day. We distributed racks of WVBS video cards to doctor’s offices, House to House Literature Distribution Box, and four Door Knocking Campaigns. We delivered new mover baskets, advertised on Facebook, invited the Bible Lands Museum, had a Holiday Meal distribution to needy families, and had Next Door postings and more. We have reached out to 71 contacts via email, phone calls, and texts. With small numbers in attendance, we struggle to find able-bodied volunteers to help coordinate areas of need. As soon as one event is over, we are organizing the next. We will look at hosting fewer events and taking time between events to transition the prospects into Bible studies. On a good note, we are following up on the postings for a free Bible study and reaching out to reschedule the three that were cancelled by the participants. We will repost it this week and give it a second try for new prospects. Last week, my wife and I personally recontacted over 60 of those 71. We just received an email that said a husband and wife want to be baptized. He further asked if there were any requirements to do so. I asked if they could meet with me, and they said any time after 2:00 p.m. I asked if they could meet today at 4:00. They have yet to respond. We plan to use Does it Matter? The contact was from the trunk or treat event. That was the first community outreach we held one year ago, after several dormant years of inactivity.”

Eisenhower church of Christ, Odessa, Texas: Allen Weakland (elder) reports, “The congregation has been sending an average of 20 plus cards each week to those who are in need of encouragement and to those who have visited us throughout the week. As a result, we have seen one more Bible study with a young man named Walter.  He has been deeply engaged in a weekly Bible study with one of our deacons, and he has manifested a growing faith. Please pray for this young man. On another note, we had a visitor this past Sunday who expressed that she really wants to attend, but her husband shows little spiritual interest. Please pray that we can display kindness and tenderness before her husband, and that God will provide a soft heart for the Lord. We also engaged in a discussion with a young lady by the name of America. She first attended a Young Ladies’ class on Wednesday evening and felt comfortable enough to share some hardships she had endured. The topic of the class was well-suited to her circumstances, and she expressed how much it meant to her. She returned this past Sunday for worship, and a couple of our deacons and their families took her out to eat. She informed them that she felt like they had opened up to her, and it was the first time she felt like part of a family. We request prayers as we engage in our study with America. We end these thoughts realizing how people are starting to turn to God. May the church of our Lord respond with interest, mercy, and truth. Let us avoid being too busy with this world and realize the mission set before us.”

Seagoville church of Christ, Texas: Kodie Martin (evangelist) reports, “This last Sunday, we passed out the post-evangelism seminar survey during the morning service for the congregation to fill out so we can begin considering people’s interest in evangelistic areas, as well as possible coordinators. We will next present the H2H model sermon and give out the training cards this next Sunday, as per the training schedule. We have also begun to locate the best place for the evangelism table, and we are beginning to organize materials and design the table to begin setting that up.”

North Jefferson church of Christ, Mt. Pleasant, Texas: Davin Whatley (evangelist) reports, “Yesterday, we brought out our Neighbor Bookmarks and asked people if anyone on their list was struggling with health issues, cancer, or surgeries. We had two contact cards turned in, and I believe more people are filling them out. Team 4 turned in fifteen compassion cards yesterday. The Foundations Class for our new converts is going well! Over the summer, we hosted a weekly, summer-long VBS on Wednesday nights, and it went very well. Throughout the program, we welcomed nine visiting parents and thirty-two visiting children. The Wednesday night setting created a family-oriented environment where we successfully invited parents to attend the adult class while their children participated in VBS classes and activities. Afterward, everyone enjoyed snacks and fellowship, which gave our members the opportunity to connect with the visitors. On average, we had 12 visiting children each night, and some of these families have continued attending regularly even after VBS concluded! We began a Bible study with one of the families, though it unfortunately ended when the wife struggled with the content in Book 2. Thankfully, she is still regularly dropping off her children on Wednesdays, and she attended with them again just yesterday. We are praying she remains open and that another study opportunity will arise. In the meantime, we are in the process of studying with one mother and working toward starting a Bible study with another visiting family. We also had a wayward member attend VBS consistently with his wife and two children. His daughter even won the prize for bringing the most guests! Her reward was to choose the youth group’s next outing, which turned out to be a trip to Celebration Station near Dallas. It was a wonderful event for both our youth and the visiting families. Before the activities began, I presented a devotional from Hebrews 11:6.”

Natalia church of Christ, Texas: Jim Word (preacher) reports, “Casey obeyed the Gospel on Tuesday evening and was baptized. He does not live in our area, but he will be worshipping at the LaVernia congregation. I have been in touch with Wayne Robbins there to help him in his new walk. We have scheduled a study for one lesson with Murdi Jones this Saturday at 10:00 a.m.”

Southwest church of Christ, Austin, Texas: Bryce Mayfield (evangelist) reports, “We begin delivering new movers’ baskets this week. I plan to preach a sermon on Sunday, reintroducing the ‘prospect’ phase of the program. Also, our youth will be gathering together this Sunday, and we will spend time preparing more visitor welcome gifts, new mover’s baskets, and writing cards. We also have two studies going on at this time. One of them is progressing extremely well, and I prayerfully believe that it will lead to a baptism.”

Granbury Street church of Christ, Cleburne, Texas: Ryan Cowan (deacon) reports, “Last week, Rob contacted Granbury Street and provided the name of the son of a recent convert who is imprisoned in our area. We were able to contact Paul Murphy, who then called the jail, and subsequently created a strategy to visit with this lost soul. Just a few days ago, Paul and another member, Bill Cashion, were able to make this visit to the county jail. Unfortunately, Paul and Bill encountered some difficulty in having a study with this prospect, but a good spiritually based conversation took place. The net effect of these efforts is that both the new convert and the new convert’s son know that the church at Granbury Street genuinely loves lost souls. We appreciate the opportunity.”

Bridgewater church of Christ, Katy, Texas: Doug Suggs (deacon) reports, “We have a couple of Bible studies that are going on, and we are getting close to completing them. Our new mover’s group will be meeting this Sunday evening to mail out things to those who recently moved to our neighborhood. We continue to have visitors and are trying to make contact to study with them.”

Roanoke church of Christ, Texas: Caleb Rutherford (preacher) reports, “We had a great Sunday with around 25 visitors. This is fairly typical for us, given our location. The majority were already members of the church who were looking for a church home. We have recently been growing numerically because of this. There was, however, a young man who visited, whom I plan to follow up with this week. He was not a member of the church. One of our other young men has been bringing his girlfriend, and we plan to follow up with her once we complete our card sending to her. There is also another young man who was a waiter for a table at a restaurant I visited. We struck up a conversation, swapped contact info, and I plan to follow up with him this coming week. Group 3 wrote cards to five prospects. We are rapidly approaching 3,000 cards written and sent since January. Transition visits are taking place. In fact, one transition visit resulted in some visitors returning to services on Sunday! We are working on scheduling a study with them. We are excited for this coming Saturday (9/20) and for our participation in the National Door Knocking Day. We plan to focus on new movers. Our list has over 80 new movers; we are blessed! We are excited to take advantage of this. We are thankful for our senior group for shopping for and assembling our new mover’s baskets. We are shifting the way that we do things to allow more focus on our evangelistic efforts. On the last Sunday of each month, we will move to an afternoon worship service instead of an evening worship service, to allow us to focus on delivering  new movers and making transition visits. This will take place each month! We believe this will benefit us greatly!”

Colleyville church of Christ, Texas: John Garza (regional trainer) reports, “Concerning our current Bible studies Josh Hill has finished his exam, we are hoping to keep talking to him about the Gospel. Unfortunately, he had strep last weekend, so we will have to keep trying. Regarding Jessi Mendez, Grant Puckett and Alyssa Gibson studied with him Friday afternoon. They went through book one of BTB and had a very good study. Please keep this study in your prayers for continued success. Concerning our prospect, Cheri Wamsley has been released from the rehab center and is now at home, but they have found another complication with her back. She will be having another procedure soon, which will hopefully take care of her problems. There is much optimism concerning Brian’s parents, so please continue to pray for them! Luis Ortiz and I had coffee with Luis. It went very well. I learned a lot about him including his childhood in the Dominican Republic, his time spent in college at a Southern Baptist school in Tennessee, and a whole lot about his wife and daughters. I learned that they were homeschooled, and knowing that we are planning to homeschool, I used this as an opportunity to invite them into our home to share a meal and see how they approached the topic. Of course, this was just a way to get them into our home to build a deeper relationship and trust— while learning how they raised their kids outside of the school system. He agreed, and we scheduled a time that works best for him and his wife.”

Crosby church of Christ, Texas (remote): Jon Wheeler (elder) reports, “This past Thursday, we completed the BTTB study with Cody. He wanted to be baptized immediately. On Sunday, he, his wife, and his mother-in-law joined us. We had a young lady visit on Sunday for the first time.  She indicated that she had not been going to church, but she had been reading her Bible. She answered enthusiastically “yes” when asked about a Bible study. We will schedule one when she checks her work schedule. We are prospecting a family that has been visiting often. They will eat with us next Sunday.”

Wheeler church of Christ, Texas: Garrett English (preacher) reports, “There is a contact who spoke to me last week, and I am working to transition to a study. We continue to see good work done by the card ministry, and we have plans to reach out to many who have received written cards.”

Northern Oaks church of Christ, San Antonio, Texas: Mel Hutzler (elder) reports, “We have begun our follow-up work, and it is running smoothly. Members who were trained are becoming more confident in asking the three questions. After each follow-up is completed, Matthew Montgomery asks, ‘How did it go, and how did they respond to the questions?’ This is allowing us to tweak and continue to encourage those going out. This past Wednesday, we trained the entire congregation on ‘How to fill out a contact card.’ We needed to do this because members are begging to bring names from their bookmarks to our attention. Our deacon for youth, Chris Mulliniks, has teamed up with our deacon of evangelism and our evangelists to make sure that our youth are instructed once a month in evangelism opportunities for the Sower program, a part of Lads to Leaders. This past Sunday, Kaden Groda (evangelist) led our first youth training. This past Sunday, two contacts were made with our visitors. We have two contacts to follow up on this week. We currently have some six in the New Convert’s study. Currently, we are sharing the Gospel with three people.”

Howe church of Christ, Texas: Aaron Alsbrook (preacher) reports, “We are so thankful for the work that is going on in Texas and around the country with HTHSOE. I am thankful for the renewed spiritual interest in so many people. We continue to write cards and make visits. Last week, we had a Singing with the Spirit Seminar with our brother Myron Bruce. We had an area-wide singing on Friday and started off our week of worship with a ‘Sermon in Song’ from Myron. The congregation was edified by singing God’s praises. We are continuing our New Convert’s class this Sunday and continue to write cards and making potential contacts to prospects by visiting. We have created an invitation card that we will introduce to the congregation to hand out to anyone else we may ‘run into’ with the hopes of making more contacts and turning them into prospects. We continue to put the pieces of the HTHSOE model together. To God be the Glory.”

Abingdon church of Christ, Virginia: Freddie Klein (evangelist) reports, “Since the beginning of the year, we have sent out over 1,500 compassion cards. Our Week 2 group will add to this ever-growing number. This past week, we made several new movers visits, one of which resulted in a new contact card. We also welcomed a returning visitor as a result of the HTHHTH mailing. In addition, a new convert Bible study is currently underway.”

Williamsburg church of Christ, Virginia: Jim Bishop (elder) reports, “This week we reviewed the evangelism tips on the use of metrics in identifying the projected baptisms. We reviewed this in order to educate those who did not know how we identified our goal of ten in our Congregational vision and goals. God blessed us with three local visitors today, and our first-time visitor bags were well-received. We continue to ask God to send us opportunities to spread the Gospel. We were blessed yesterday with being able to see how congregational evangelism reaches the depths of the love God shows us every day. A wedding shower given to a recent convert and a young man who was restored provided everyone with the true love of God. He rescued this couple from the world. This marriage was truly consecrated by God. The many brothers and sisters in Christ showered them with God’s generosity and gave them all they needed to start a strong, loving marriage. To God be the Glory! We pray for all those reaching out to spread the Gospel here and abroad. We pray for the continued efforts of the missionaries serving in the many areas of turbulent unrest, like our missionaries in South Asia. May God provide peace, comfort, and love for all those in need.”

West Side church of Christ, Salem, Virginia: Jeff Durham (elder) reports, “We use it so frequently, I imagine one of our members wishes he had trademarked his ‘Get Fired up!’ motto!  Keno Shrum did a terrific job adding to our evangelism fire with the Refresh lessons yesterday. Our Family and Youth Minister’s lesson was also on-target for keeping our focus on spreading the Gospel in our community. Here are some takeaways I had from their lessons: 1) We need to retrain our brains to see contacts at every location/gathering we attend. 2) Success does not equal Comfort. Work or effort is always involved. 3) There is no wasted time sowing the seed everywhere. 4) Service does not equal ‘I have arrived!’ Be a doer of the Word. 5) Building relationships is vital to proper ‘soil preparation’ for teaching others. 6) Steadfastness does not equal just showing up. This is where endurance and discipline come together. 7) Christianity is not something you DO; it is something you ARE! As we continue implementing additional aspects of the Congregational Evangelism model, we want to challenge ourselves to take on a new role(s) to make our efforts all they can be and to give God the glory!”

Shawn Rockett, Indiana (HTHSOE student) reports, “My wife, Hayley, and I are foster parents, and right now we are caring for a little girl. We have built good communication with her parents, and a few weeks ago her mom, Ashly, agreed to visit church with us. She was overwhelmed by the love and welcome she felt from our church family and kept saying how comfortable it was to be there. As we talked more, we learned about her background with religion and that her ‘baptism’ as an infant was not biblical. Ashly asked if our church practices baptism and hinted that she wanted her daughter baptized. Practicing principle number 1, ‘Defer, Don’t Debate,’ we explained that we absolutely practice baptism, but we always begin with a Bible study first. She agreed, and we set a time to start Back to the Bible. Through Lessons 1 and 2, she understood and agreed with everything, but she still wanted her daughter baptized. Finally, as we studied Lesson 3, she came to realize from Scripture that Biblical baptism is immersion, not sprinkling as she had experienced. We continued through 1 Peter 3:21 to answer her question about infant baptism. At that moment, Ashly made the decision to obey the Gospel, be baptized into Christ, and become part of His Body. We rejoice in her new life, and we ask for prayers that God will soften the heart of her husband, Gary, so that he, too, will come to obey the Gospel.”