Heritage Christian University: We want to welcome Heritage Christian University to the House-to-House Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. This past week we provided training to dozens of their students and staff. One student already enrolled the congregation where he preaches. We will be returning every other year to train these students.
Canal Heights church of Christ, Demopolis, Alabama: Bryan Cook (preacher) reports, “Sunday had many returning to worship with our numbers better than they have been in recent history. The lesson came from John 4, showing the evangelistic technique that Jesus employed with the woman at the well. We had the young men pass out the contact cards and a large number forgot to fill them out by evening service. After services, many stayed to fill out their contact cards. We counted 71 contacts total with many more expected next Sunday. We have started inviting others to eat with us after worship. A good crowd joined us at Mr. G’s (Italian restaurant) with one being a first time visitor to our worship services. Our evangelism table is set up (though still missing a table cover), but the essential materials are in place. We also have a lady who has volunteered to maintain the table in the future. Everyone is still excited. Prayers are covering our contacts this week and expecting God to move the hearts and lives of these precious people.”
Forestview church of Christ, Memphis, Tennessee: Tim Roland (preacher) reports, “I preached the first sermon from John 4 Sunday. We had 70 present with 12 visitors. I was happy to announce another person placing membership with us; that makes a total of five for the month! We are truly excited about that. Sunday we began our training by passing out and explaining the first step: Contact Cards. I asked everyone to write down ten names of people they know that are not Christians and then pray about them all week. We’ve had 115 visitors in seven weeks, and our Encouragement Ministry Team sends out cards to the visitors and others who need a little encouragement!”
Highway church of Christ, Benton, Arkansas: Steven Ford (preacher) reports, “This week has been quite robust and productive. We have organized our teams and named the coordinators. Our evangelism table is up and running, and training on the BTTB pamphlets will commence this coming Sunday morning. Yesterday we had the second installment of the John 4 Evangelism sermon series. It was very well received, and some even commented that they have been encouraged to reach out to their family members that are blatantly living in sin.
“The preachers and elders met briefly on Sunday afternoon to discuss the current progress and to consider separating the congregation into groups for the compassion cards. We seem to be on track with progress and the congregation is quite excited to get things going.
“We filled out 88 compassion cards on Sunday afternoon (four recipients, 22 cards each). While the full process isn’t yet up and running, several people needed to be contacted immediately. We set out the cards and asked members to come fill them out after morning worship. They will be mailed out in groups of five at a time this week.
“Things seem to be going well so far. With prayers, focus, and determination, we will flourish to God’s glory!!!”
Shiloh church of Christ, Florence, Alabama: McKinley Pate (preacher) reports, “We finished Lesson 1 this week during the sermon portion of the Worship. Before worship began, we took out our bookmarks and prayed for those names that were written on the bookmarks. After we had our individual silent prayer for the names on the bookmarks, I asked the congregation if they had anyone on their list who is sick. No one responded. We were able to secure two card racks for our cards, and Lord Willing, the Eldership will be assigning someone to oversee that effort.”
Paintsville church of Christ, Kentucky: Zach Collins (preacher) reports, “This week, our process of implementation has been completed. We divided each member into their groups, posted those groups on the evangelism table, and their group coordinators notified each member, as well. They are ready to get to work! We began our first mass search for contact cards in our evangelism update at the conclusion of morning services. This resulted in four contact cards being added to our card list. We also have a gospel meeting taking place this week. Per the request of the elders, the topics that Brother Todd has centered his lessons around are the principles that Rob taught in his seminar. His central theme is, “Using the Evangelistic Tools We Have Been Given.” The success of this process are starting to unfold and we are excited!”
Towne Acres church of Christ, Muncie, Indiana: Mark Reynolds (preacher) reports, “Our second compassion card group met yesterday to write cards to the people on our contact list. We currently have two studies ongoing. We have had very positive responses from the people who are receiving our cards! The church is 100 percent behind this effort! Next week I am starting to preach on John 4 and how Jesus made a contact from an adulterous Samaritan woman.”
Jacksonville church of Christ, Alabama: Rob Whitacre (member) reports, “Brother Keith Ritchie recently handed out the contact bookmarks and has been asking the congregation to pray for the contacts. Each week an effort is made to collect names from the members and begin prospecting them with cards and love. The results: a Baptist preacher of 50 years came because he received 53 cards. He asked Keith if he could start attending. Wow! We are also prospecting others, including Dennis. On Tuesday, two of our members are taking him a special dessert as they continue to prospect him. Last week Brother Keith spent two hours with Mary as we continue to work on her heart. In addition, we passed out the baptism Bible to Nyliah on Sunday and celebrated her conversion. It was wonderful to see the expression on her face.”
Wewoka church of Christ, Oklahoma: Gage Coldwater (preacher) reports, “Hey brother! We had a good week last week. We planted our community garden, and we had a huge crowd of brethren showed up for that event. We have one lady who has been coming is not a member, but she loves everything we are doing, and she pitched in during the garden planting. We are hoping to get her to finally agree to a Bible study soon!”
Monroe church of Christ, Georgia: Charles Harris (preacher) reports, “Before my sermon, we went over bookmarks today and prayed for individuals whose names have been written. Then I preached about benevolence emphasizing that the purpose of it is to open doors for the gospel to be taught. Next week, we plan to focus on the names written that fit into a particular need. Having gathered many contacts through this process, we are going to work on prospecting now.
Tonight, Blake was baptized. I’ve had the pleasure of studying with this young man. Our elders have studied with him as well. I do believe Heaven is rejoicing!”
Riverbend church of Christ, Georgia: Austin Fowler (member) reports, “It was another busy week at Riverbend! On Tuesday, Ernie Sanders and I completed study number two with George. It went well. When we got to instrumental music, he said he knew that “your church” doesn’t use them. By the time we finished that section, he understood why we did not use them because of biblical authority. We are going to complete study three with him on Thursday of this week. Be praying for that study. George is very near to the cross.
“On Sunday, I preached because Brother Grider was away in a meeting. I preached on everyone doing their part in the work of the church, which is evangelism. I had a lot of good feedback from the lesson. Vada and Miranda Grider volunteered to keep our visitor bags stocked and on our visitor table. Sister Debra Doler volunteered to be over the New Movers bags to make sure we have plenty of them ready to use. One of our deacons, Jason Osgatharp, was telling me about his neighbors that have been in and out of the hospital lately, and he has helped them with yard work and projects around the house. He wants to add them to the compassion card list, and I said that is exactly what we need to do. After completing the bookmarker part, we had several members fill out contact cards to add to our compassion card list. It is a very exciting time at Riverbend.
“Next Sunday, we begin our new SALT groups that are going to focus on evangelism by filling out compassion cards, delivering New Movers baskets, and following up with our own members. Damaris Byers takes attendance each week for the congregation. We plan on using the results from that to follow up with our unfaithful members. I could not be happier about the cultural change that has taken place in this congregation! It is a very exciting time to be a member at Riverbend!
Regarding AMC, I met with a few of the West End and Karns elders for the campaign in Knoxville this summer. It was a fantastic meeting! They are very eager about the campaign. They had a lot of questions about follow-up work and how we would keep track of the contacts that we collect during the campaign. After the meeting, we scouted out a few places they would like us to door knock.”
Coldwater church of Christ, Murray, Kentucky: Luke Puckett (preacher) reports, “This past Sunday we had some visitors come by. They are members of the church that have recently moved to the area. We are always excited to meet members of the Lord’s church, and we are grateful they visited with us. We recently had another family place membership with us. They were given a bookmark, and we explained to them to write down names of contacts and how we can turn them into prospects. We are continuing to work with our work teams on compassion cards. We sent out over 40 cards this week with hopes of making good prospects. Our goal is to go and visit these families and build relationships with them, and of course our ultimate goal is a Bible study.”
Deerfoot church of Christ, Birmingham Alabama: Richard Harp reports, “Tomorrow (Monday) we have two studies scheduled; one is with Pamela Duke. We hope to begin the second book. Her husband Dwayne is not in the picture at the moment; we hope to be able to reach her.
“The second study will be with Steve Putnam, Jeff Howell, and Frank Salumn. Frank has already gone through the first two books, so tomorrow will hopefully complete the third book.
“We also had a visitor, Cora White, who expressed a desire to be a part of a church that seeks restoration. I told her I just so happen to have three books. She seemed interested, but I am not sure. We are praying to see her next Sunday. Joe Hanson attended the new Christians class, and hopefully he will continue. He is struggling but has remained faithful. We also have several people who have indicated they want Bible studies from our breakfast with the bunny event. We have made efforts to reach out to all who were contacted. We took Easter baskets and also called last week for follow-ups. Please pray for these efforts. There are souls ready to hear the message. Sol Godwin, one of our shepherds, has a Bible Study with a visitor named Jim on Wednesday morning.”
New Hope church of Christ, Middleton, Tennessee: Cole Wade (reports), “We have recently had a baptism of one of our younger attendees. He has been thinking about it for a while, and he said that he “didn’t feel ready.” So we studied together, and he said that he wanted to be baptized that night! He had been hearing lessons in class and sermons, but having a personal Bible study helped out tremendously! We are continuing to work with New Movers and sending cards. We have so many prospects; it is only a matter of having the studies! Continue to pray for us!”
Northern Oaks church of Christ, San Antonio, Texas: Mel Hutzler (elder/preacher) reports, “We just completed training for our greeters for filling out visitor cards. Also, we did extra training for our card team leaders and co-leads. We also have four teams to take down visitor information. We hope to use the end of every sermon as a way to get contacts from members’ bookmarks. We have visitor bags going out and are in the process of making more. Also, we offer to take visitors out to eat. We have several Bible on-going studies going as well as prospecting contacts and some training one-on-one for better results. We plan to increase the amount of cards going out in May by making these tweaks to our evangelism program with better training and four evangelism teams, and we will continue to names from our members’ bookmarks right after the preaching.”
Shertz church of Christ, Texas: Jay Stewart (elder) reports, “This week Brother Crowley preached a great lesson about giving glory to God, and one of his main points was how spreading the Gospel honors our Savior. In other news, the contact bookmarks that were handed out last week were used today to pray for the people on the lists. The congregation was reminded to pray for those on their lists every day because next week we will begin collecting the names for the master contact list and the compassion card list. We continue to seek input from the congregation on the best way embrace our visitors. Our elder’s original plan was to have the compassion card work groups host them at alternating fellowship meals, but with the small size of the groups, there are many concerns we need to address. Our next attempt to start fellowship meals will be in June.”
University church of Christ, Montgomery, Alabama: Austin Faires reports, “First, our Card Ministry continues to grow. We are having good participation, and many cards are sent weekly. Second, the New Movers Ministry is very active. We had 18 New Movers in the 36109-area code in April. Our members are delivering the New Movers Baskets and seeking prospects. We are in the process of doing away with the plastic baskets and replacing them with large tote bags with the University Church of Christ logo. Then the bags will be carried to various locations by these individuals, and people will see our logo. Just a little marketing tool. Third, we regularly remind our congregation about their top ten prospect cards.”
Rogersville church of Christ, Tennessee: Ethan Tate (preacher) reports, “We finally received our Evangelism Table Cover along with prepping the bags ready for any visitor who walks into the building. The past week has opened more prospects from a member’s family who had a wedding. While at the event, I ran into one of the people we have been sending cards to for the past three weeks. He is not a Christian, but he could not stop saying thank you for all the cards. He plans to come by the congregation soon (and we’ll be ready for him). This past Sunday, we began book two of the Back to the Bible series. We have had a consistent visitor attend each of the lessons so far. Please keep prayers coming our way; every bit of help from God from your prayers would mean a lot to us.”
Berea church of Christ: James McQuire reports, “Good morning, Brother! I wanted to let you know that we have a new baptism! I have watched many of your lessons and trained myself to share the Back to the Bible series booklets with all of our congregation. We have started an Evangelism Class to train our members. I have been working to adapt the booklets to be able to conduct virtual Bible studies online.
“Last week my father-in-law’s sister, who lives in Ohio and is very sick, expressed interest in a Bible study. We used Facebook video to set up a Bible study. We went through the Does It Matter booklet through online video. After completing the study, she was ready to be baptized! So we set up the baptism with a strong local congregation near her. and she was baptized into Christ!
“During the study, her husband was at the table but not in the video. We could hear him helping her find some of the scriptures and getting her to where she needed to be in the Bible. This morning he has reached out and expressed interest in studying more; he realizes he needs to be baptized as well!
“My father-in-law and I are just beginning our studies to reach the Lost! I am working to build content and reach more and more people each day online so that we can build relationships that will lead to Bible studies!
“I have several ideas that we as members of the church need to practice in order to restore energy and enthusiasm so that we can become the fastest growing Church in the country once again! My wife and I are certified health coaches, and we are using the talents that God has given us to give people their lives back physically. By showing them love along their journey and building a relationship with them, we hope to work on their spiritual health as well! Thank you so much for all the work you and your family are doing! It is what the church desperately needs today!”
Hickory Grove church of Christ, Hickory, KY: Bradly Smith (preacher) reports, “Everything is going well with my new work. The congregation is very motivated for evangelism, and we are making several contacts for Bible studies. I wanted to tell you about Mandy (pictured). She works at a very popular consignment store in town. She met one of our members, Danny Pritchett, who is pictured with her, about three years ago. They very quickly began talking about the Bible. Mandy came from a varied religious history. She loved reading her Bible, and she would attend religious services with anyone from any group who invited her, but she didn’t really understand what was happening. Brother Danny began studying with her, as she wanted to increase her Bible knowledge. COVID, personal health issues, and the tornado in Mayfield slowed the study down significantly, but on Tuesday, Mandy called Danny and said that she realized that she needed to be baptized immediately, and could he do it as soon as she got off work. A few of us met at the building, and Mandy was baptized into Christ at about 6:00 PM on Tuesday. Something that stands out to me is that brother Danny is not a preacher, elder, deacon, or Bible class teacher, yet he still successfully conducted a Bible study. Everyone can evangelize!”
Oak Hill church of Christ, Covington, Georgia: Tate Sutton reports, “We delivered more new mover baskets this Sunday to some people who were glad to see us. Also we sent cards to those who are in need of prayer.”
Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Matt Amos (preacher) reports, “Our visitation team went out visiting last Sunday. We had our first official meeting of our Evangelism team. In addition, our Bible study application class is in progress. We continue to train the congregation, and excitement is at an all-time high.”
Siwell Road church of Christ, Jackson, Mississippi: Derek Broome (preacher) reports, “Over the past few weeks, we have had several more members taking opportunities for evangelism. Some of this has been through acts of kindness, some through our card ministry, and some through personal Bible studies. Our greeters group is getting better and better week by week. Right now, we are extremely excited about the opportunities the newest s, a group of us will be go out and meet some new people in our community. We had a couple of studies recently that did not go as we hoped they would. We are continuing to pray for those individuals and for additional opportunities to reach them. We are going to continue working the soil and praying for open hearts. Day by day we are trying to grow stronger and stronger, constantly thinking of ways we can improve.”
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.
Recent Comments