My family and I are blessed to visit with churches of Christ all over the nation. We are surprised when on occasion we meet those who have never heard of House to House/Heart to Heart.
When I was in local work, this publication was a constant source of contacts. Each year, it produced conversions. When we started the House to House/Heart to Heart School of Evangelism, I assumed that everyone was seeing the same results. I was wrong. In fact, I quickly realized many congregations use the publication only as a mailer with little direct involvement from the congregation. Most have no idea about other ways to use HTH, such as accessing our free websites, targeting new movers in a community, targeting specific areas, making contact lists, and participating in the annual door knocking day. As a result, contacts are overlooked and Bible studies are missed.
We know this pandemic has been tough but thankfully, there are still things we can do to evangelize. We produced a video to encourage you and to share some evangelistic strategies; it is attached below.
Consider a few success stories during COVID using the House to House/Heart to Heart program. When the Pandemic hit, churches all over the country sent out the special Hope edition. This was one of the largest editions in HTH history and was designed to reach people during a time of fear due to COVID. It worked. For example, Terry Pafford, an elder in Midland, Texas, sent this text: “The man who was baptized as a result of the special HTH publication is Gary Peacock. We had a follow-up study on Tuesday and plan to get together once a week for further teaching.”
Matt Wallin recently reported, “I had a call from Bob Bliss at the Mt. Dora Church of Christ in Florida. He used to be with the Tabernacle Church of Christ in New Jersey. He told me that he loves House to House and wants to get it started at his new congregation. When he was at Tabernacle, they had multiple visitors every time they mailed an issue, and they baptized eight people who were direct contacts from their House to House mailings.”
In April, I spoke to Shelby Hopkins from the Stanford church of Christ in Stanford, Kentucky, and learned that HTH contacts had produced four baptisms there.
Wes Garland was able to set up a Bible study with a contact from our New Movers ministry. He wrote, “Just baptized Bridgett Weaver using the three-book system! She was a clerk at Family Dollar.” Wes Garland, Central church of Christ in Saraland, AL.
I recently read that healthcare researchers have discovered there are more than 70,000 ways the human body can fail–that’s 70,000 different diagnoses for our thirteen organ systems. We have developed 6,000 drugs and 4,000 medical and surgical procedures. The medical profession is now trying to deploy that capability, town by town, to everybody alive. It is the goal of HTHSOE to do the same regarding evangelism. We have discovered methods that work in saving souls. If you are not already enrolled, contact us today as we train the saved to teach the lost. Don’t forget to watch the evangelism video from WVBS attached to this message.
In His Service,
Rob Whitacre, Director HTHSOE
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