Canal Heights church of Christ, Demopolis, Alabama: We welcome the Canal Heights church of Christ to the House to House/Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. This is a racially mixed congregation with great potential. On the third training lesson, Immani came forward during the invitation song to be baptized. It was a wonderful way for the congregation to see the power of evangelism.
Forestview church of Christ, Memphis, Tennessee: Tim Roland (preacher) reports, “I just want to acknowledge that God is doing a great work among His church at Forestview! We had 82 in worship with 23 visitors! Charles and Sandra Fleming placed membership with us! We rejoice in their decision to be a part of our church family! Great things are in store for those who love the Lord and seek to do His will! To God be the glory! I am still working with our EMT (Encouragement Ministry Team) sending out several cards each week!”
Highway church of Christ, Benton, Arkansas: Steven Ford (preacher) reports, “First sermon from John 4 is in the books. One elder stirred us with encouragement, and we passed out the contact bookmarks. Tonight we are doing the PowerPoint.”
Paintsville church of Christ, Kentucky: Zach Collins (preacher) reports, “Our evangelism table is constantly having to be updated, as members are taking the material home to train and, hopefully, utilize. In addition, we sent out 12 cards to three contacts that were developed through visitors and members. This week, we have been focusing on making everything operational. We have delivered the leadership/management PowerPoint to all of the congregation, along with providing them with a handout of the possible ways they can get involved in this work of the church. This coming week, we will begin adapting our Wednesday night Bible Class to teach our members to use the study materials and conduct a Bible study. We also have a gospel meeting coming up this week. The challenge was issued this morning, during our weekly evangelism update, for each member to invite one contact to our upcoming gospel meeting. We are anxious to see how many of the invitees can become prospects!”
Towne Acres church of Christ, Muncie, Indiana: Mark Reynolds (preacher) reports, “We started our Compassion Card groups today with great participation. We have four groups with deacons over each group. We have nine contacts to whom we are sending cards for a month; three are erring members, and the rest are going through difficulties in life. The interest is extremely high throughout the entire congregation!”
Westside church of Christ, Muncie, Indiana: Mike Gors (elder/preacher) reports, “Bible study continues—second study was this afternoon. The third one is next Monday at 4:00 p.m. Brandon is his name, and he is 23 years old. I think he is living with his girlfriend, and that issue may be coming up next week.” That Bible study has presented a second opportunity. We have third study next Monday at 6:00 p.m. with Elijah; he is 20 years old. This coming Sunday, we will be asking the congregation for contacts from their bookmarks and begin doing Compassion Cards Sunday afternoon.”
Southwest School of Bible Studies, Austin, Texas: Jessie Stuart (student) reports, “I wanted to start with an evangelism update to brighten your day a little bit. I spoke with Julia on the phone for over an hour last night, and she said she has never seen so much love shown to her. She has received about 50 compassion cards so far; just yesterday she received nine more cards and looks forward to studying with me again. We are planning on meeting the Monday after Easter to complete Back to the Bible lesson 3. Please keep this study in prayer. Also yesterday, my daughter Adrian (a member of Southwest) and I went to visit Mike and Cyndi Sullivan. As soon as she opened the door, she , ’Come in. I have to show you something,’ and she took us to the kitchen and showed us her stack of compassion cards. I am also supposed to meet Keisha and her girls on Sunday night or Monday to do study 3 of Back to the Bible with Keisha and study 3 Believe the Bible with the girls. Please keep them all in prayer. Lord willing, I can study with my cousin Kyle, too, while I am there as I still need to do Back to the Bible study 2 with him.”
Covington church of Christ, Tennessee: Wayne Dalrymple (elder) reports, “It has been a great week for the Covington church. Last weekend, 73 of us were in Little Rock, Arkansas, for the Lads to Leaders convention. It was so encouraging to be around so many people who love the Lord and to see all the young people growing in their knowledge of God’s Word and in their service to Him. While we were away worshiping with brethren there Sunday morning, I was told there were many visitors to our service at home. Shara and her girls were there again. We will be transitioning to a study with her soon. Another family who visited were Cody and his children. Cody is an erring member who grew up worshiping with a congregation in Memphis. He fell away immediately after high school. He is now married to a non-Christian, and they have two children. He is in his late twenties. Our youth minister, Jeff Phillips, and I visited him Monday night. He knows he needs to make God his priority. He said he plans for his entire family to visit again this Sunday. His wife works at a local grocery store and was working last Sunday, but she will be able to attend with the family this Sunday. Please pray we will be able to prospect this family. There are so many great things going on with the church at Covington. God is truly blessing us with wonderful opportunities to reach the lost and to grow the saved. To Him be the glory.”
Linville Forest church of Christ, North Carolina: Kelly Brown (preacher) reports, “Katika has been coming through our bus program and has been studying with Sherman Transou using the Back to the Bible lessons. John’s wife Lucy is from the Philippines and was baptized in the church of Christ there. They moved out here and started attending with us. His wife has been studying with him, and we have been teaching lessons using the Back to the Bible study guide. He finally made the decision to be baptized. He received the HTH New Movers Postcard!”
Wewoka church of Christ, Oklahoma: Gage Coldwater (preacher) reports, “We have been working hard here to get new prospects. We have been planning for months to develop a large community garden to help us engage as a congregation with more people from Wewoka and give us opportunities to follow up after benevolence. Tonight we started working on the garden. We had two semi loads of composted manure for the garden, and Wednesday night we have a special service planned to help the whole congregation get behind the effort. Please pray that we are successful so that we can reach more souls.”
Riverbend church of Christ, Georgia: Austin Fowler (member) reports, “What a week! We had a fantastic Gospel Meeting with David B. Smith. He had some fundamental heart-checking sermons. During the meeting, we had three non-Christians visit with us. We collected contact information and added them to the compassion card list. After the meeting Thursday night, Maggie and Jase Brooker were baptized into Christ. Then on Saturday night, Max and Brady Osgatharp were baptized into Christ when we returned from Lads to Leaders. On Sunday, their younger brother Dean responded to the Lord’s invitation and was baptized. On Sunday afternoon, I got a call saying that their son wanted to be baptized. A group of us met at the building to see Griffin McCutchen be baptized.
“On Sunday, we began promoting, publicizing, and producing contacts. We did what you suggested two Fridays ago with your Success Strategies using the HTHSOE Bookmark. After doing it, a lot of members came up asking questions about different contacts they had. It was very encouraging!
“The girls’ soccer team at the high school where I work is going to State Competition. They needed some assistance with meals because they are going to have to travel all the way to Savannah to play on Wednesday. Our members at Riverbend stepped up and donated enough money to buy two meals for the whole team! Because of that, I asked if Brother Grider could come give a short message and pray for safety. The coach said absolutely! He did a great job. We told them we were members at the church that provided them the meals for their trip. One of the members of the soccer team was one of our visitors during the Gospel Meeting. We are prayerful that this planted seed into their hearts!
“On Tuesday, one of my elders, Ernie Sanders, and I going to do our second study with George Mizzell. I am excited about this study. I went by yesterday to deliver him a large print Bible. He is excited about the study, and so is his wife! We have other members prospecting and working on people on their list. It is an exciting time at Riverbend right now!”
Coldwater church of Christ, Murray, Kentucky: Luke Puckett (preacher) reports, “This past week, we focused on compassion cards. We sent out 40-50 to contacts we are hoping to turn into prospects. We are also continuing to focus on tornado relief efforts to find new contacts. A couple of the studies we have had going on with tornado victims have been postponed by the people due to being moved around from temporary housing and from sickness. We are hoping to continue those soon. We are developing one contact who has had cancer. We have helped him some with bills while he was out of work, and we continue to send cards to him weekly. He has finished his treatments, and we are hoping soon that he will be able to have visitors so we can visit him, or they can visit Coldwater. We plan to continue going through contacts, developing prospects, and turning those into Bible studies.”
Natalia church of Christ, Texas: Jim Word (preacher/elder) reports, “Things are going well so far; we are still waiting on our table for the foyer to be built. I reinforced the need to fill out contact cards this Sunday. Our card ministry is going great as our members are bringing in a lot of addresses from people they know who need prayers and encouragement as well as the names of some who are actively involved in Bible studies.”
Deerfoot church of Christ, Birmingham Alabama: Richard Harp reports, “We had our first annual Breakfast with the Bunny on Saturday. It was a great success with the community as we gained connections with our surrounding neighbors. We have eight prospects who desire to study the Bible. We had one family come to services from the breakfast, Eloise Trotter; she is a single grandmother with eight children. She is a great prospect and plans to return. Tonight we will be delivering 26 Easter baskets to prospects who came to this event. The hope is that they will consider worshiping with us on “Easter” Sunday. Please pray for this effort as the follow ups are vital for teaching and maintaining contact. Also, Jeffery Howell and Steve Putnam have completed the second study with one of our recent visitors named Frank. Please pray for this effort as well.”
Gonzales church of Christ, Louisiana: Patrick Adkins (deacon) reports, “My 14-year-old son Peyton and my 15-year-old great nephew Cayden Moore, whom we have been bringing to services this past year, recently began a Bible study using Back to the Bible. They started doing a one-on-one study via Duo. They met every Friday evening at 10 p.m. They did the third booklet on the fifteenth into the early morning hours of the sixteenth. At the end of the study, Peyton asked if he was ready to repent and make the changes in his life so he could start living for Jesus. He answered, “Yes.” Peyton asked him what that meant. He said he needed to be baptized. Peyton asked if he was ready now. He said yes. He was baptized at 2 a.m. Saturday, April 16.”
Northern Oaks church of Christ, San Antonio, Texas: Mel Hutzler (elder/preacher) reports, “We revamped our evangelism program by going from two card groups to four,so one team will meet every week. We went back to the beginning to ensure all members have bookmarks filled out with ten names. Each week right after preaching, we will either be praying for those on the bookmarks or ask them to raise their hands if they need to add someone from a bookmark to the contact list. We will at that time have a deacon take down their information. We also have extra training for our team leaders and those who take record information. We have several members who are in Bible studies and others who are prospecting potential studies. We are trying to incorporate evangelism into every program we have. We hope to have the New Movers program and HTH set up soon.”
Shertz church of Christ, Texas: Jay Stewart (elder) reports, “The contact bookmarks were passed out at the end of the morning service along with the instructions to think about ten lost individuals they know and intend to evangelize this year. They were asked to add the names to the cards and bring them back next Sunday so we can move to the praying for those listed. Today we also announced the congregation’s assignments to fellowship/work groups with the intent of holding the first visitor’s fellowship meal on 1 May. This will also give us a chance to encourage one another and write/collect compassion cards for the week. The ladies are working on building our first batch of visitor bags. Our secretary has sent the congregation much of the electronic HTH material to further encourage our members to get into the evangelism mindset and arm themselves with effective outreach tools. The young lady involved in the Bible study is still contemplating what she was taught during the three lessons. We are continuing to encourage her and stand ready for further study.”
Oak Hill church of Christ, Rome, Georgia: Brother Murdock (elder) reports, “We have had ten baptisms since the campaign. We average sending out 500 compassion cards a month. We average 20 follow up contacts on contact cards per month. We have had five restorations since the campaign. On April 12, we baptized Judy Cribbs after she completed Back to the Bible book 3!”
Rogersville church of Christ, Tennessee: Ethan Tate (preacher) reports, “It has been an awesome week! One of the families that has been visiting (to whom we have been sending cards) has given us a lot of new contacts. They were so touched by all the cards they received that they want to share that same care to the people around them, which has really encouraged the congregation immensely. We had our first community event with an egg hunt after evening services, and it gave us another family who is highly interested in hearing more about the church. Pray for them (the Hutson family) as we strive to help them with the gospel. One member finished a custom-made card rack for our compassion card ministry. He did a fantastic job and has helped us in organizing and planning for new cards to use. Please also continue to pray for us as we continue in our weekly studies of Back to the Bible as a congregation, and we will be keeping everyone who is also striving to grow the kingdom in prayer too.”
East Ridge church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee: Charles Cochran (preacher) reports, “I wanted to share the pictures of a recent baptism at East Ridge. His name is Dylan Dial. He was asked to study the Bible by Donald Payne. Dylan works for Donald. His fiancé is also studying. Donald’s wife, Christy, prepared meals for the study. Chris Wheman, one of our deacons, conducted the studies. Also, a visitor attended Sunday because of our compassion cards. I visited her, and she was receptive. We will continue to follow up with her.”
University church of Christ, Tyler Texas: David Westbrook (preacher) reports, “Naturally, the holiday brought in visitors. We established some good contacts with them, and we have a meeting set up with a visitor who has moved to Tyler from Africa. We pray that this visit will go well, as he has a large family. We continue to send out cards. Everyone is maintaining a good evangelistic attitude. We ask for prayers that our efforts will be successful.”
Adairsville church of Christ, Georgia: Rick Lawson (preacher) reports, “Trey Hunt, the son-in-law of Kerry Smith, has been visiting on and off for several years. He finally agreed to a Bible study with Steve McCaslin, one of the elders. He was baptized Wednesday night! Praise God.”
Lythia Springs church of Christ, Georgia: Larry Acuff (elder/preacher) reports, “Just baptized this young man who came to us through the New Movers program and studying with Back to the Bible. May God receive the glory.”
Oak Hill church of Christ, Covington, Georgia: Tate Sutton reports, “Our community egg hunt went well. We established multiple contacts and took a family out to dinner. Taking people out to eat is an effective way to get to know people. We expect a Bible study with them in the future.”
Lafollette church of Christ, Tennessee: Ben Shafer (preacher) reports, “We had a good week working on some of the contacts that we have made. One of the elders and I took a visitor out for lunch on Thursday as a rain check for the Sunday that he visited. We had a great time getting to know him, and we found some interesting connections he had to the church. He has agreed to study the Bible with me, so please keep Ronnie and his wife in your prayers. I am planning on having the third study with a family member who has fallen away. We are working through quite a bit of baggage. Please keep this effort in your prayers. On Sundays we have begun taking time before our worship begins to think about the names of those on our bookmarks. We end this with a prayer to find opportunities to reach these people. This has had a great effect on the congregation.”
Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Matt Amos (preacher) reports, “We have selected three general committees: Evangelism, Visitation, and Service Projects. All the works that you have recommended will fall under these three areas, as per the elders. We continue to pray for our names on the bookmarks each week and encourage the congregation to fill out contacts cards.”
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.
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