Reaching the Lost- Success Stories

Statistics
Total baptisms reported from U.S. Congregations in 2021: 649
Seminars in 2021: 52 in 11 states.
Total baptisms reported from U.S. Congregations so far in 2022: 444
Personal Seminars in 2022: 33 in 12 states
Digital Seminars in 2022: 7

Upcoming Seminars
August 17-25 Polishing the Pulpit
September 6-8 Hatton church of Christ, Alabama
September 18-20 East Main church of Christ, Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Featured Work: Parkway church of Christ, Kentucky

On June 24, HTHSOE went to the Parkway church of Christ, where Will Hester serves as the preacher.  We were impressed by the attendance of the members and the commitment from the elders. The congregation has followed the process and is taking the training to heart. They already have had one baptism and are working to implement each step of the evangelism model. We submit this report and ask for your prayers as they reach out to their community. —Rob Whitacre
Contacts – Community Outreach
Written by Will Hester
We are pleased to say that we handed out 200+ backpacks on August 2. We filled these packs with folders, pencils, a notebook, and (most importantly) a welcome letter + two tracts from HTH/HTH. We have the opportunity on August 9 to hand out another 300+ backpacks filled with the same materials. We are taking advantage of this great evangelistic opportunity. Please pray for receptive hearts.

Also, we gave a Defending the Faith Study Bible from Apologetics Press to our new brother in Christ this past Sunday morning! Great things are happening at Parkway church of Christ! We have begun studying Back to the Bible on Sundays, and we are looking forward to going through this important study! There is an excitement here that has not been felt in years.

Congregational Reports
New Union church of Christ, Manchester Tennessee: We want to welcome the New Union church of Christ to the House-to House/Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. They had incredible attendance for the training and elders who were engaged at the highest level. We look forward to their first report next week!

Karns church of Christ, Knoxville, Tennessee: Terry Clark (elder) reports, “We had our backpack drive this afternoon. Compassion cards were mailed this past week, and we have many new HTH contacts. Currently, we are working and identifying our coordinators.”

North Meadville church of Christ, Pennsylvania: Bryon Shultz (preacher) reports, “Today I preached a lesson on the importance of our need to abide in the word of our Lord in order to be good and effective teachers of His word. We put together our card teams and began sending out cards to the visitors we have had and to those we have on the contact list. In the afternoon we began teaching Back to the Bible in class. It is going well. We are taking our time, going through each booklet, and making sure we understand how best to use them. It may take several weeks to go through each booklet, but we will be well equipped to use them when we are done.

“We did have a response from one of the recipients of our card program after just one mailing.  She said she is interested in coming to visit. She was very surprised she received the cards. It may be, in her case, an opportunity for a family relationship to improve as well. We are also working with another congregation that had a young man baptized into Christ to bring him to our congregation while he is attending a nearby college. Please, please pray that our efforts will be fruitful. Pray that we will let it work itself out so that we will see what God does when we just obey Him regarding our relationships and interactions with one another and with those whom we seek to bring into the fold of Almighty God. Pray for God’s wisdom, grace, and peace to rest upon this congregation to His glory.”

York church of Christ, York Pennsylvania: Fred Nowell (preacher) reports, “We are trying to help the Hanover congregation. We do have good news; one of our contacts is now living in a cabin owned by one of our members. The contact is attending on Sundays. We have helped him financially, and Jere Nace helped him to get a job starting this week. We are also working with a couple that worships with us faithfully every Sunday. One is a Christian and the other is not. We hope to study with the husband soon. Also, we had a new family of four worship with us this past Sunday. They spoke about placing membership with us, and the husband said that evangelism is ‘right up his alley.’ We look forward to being able to go full throttle.”

Sunrush church of Christ, Chillicothe, Ohio: Jeryl Webb (deacon) reports, “We at the Sunrush Church of Christ keep moving forward in our evangelism efforts. Two of our ladies are going to transform our library into our new evangelism room.  We have selected two men to lead our evangelism teams. Another gentleman will keep us informed about our elderly, our shut-ins, and our widows and widowers. This evening, we will send compassion cards to a few contacts. We talked about reaching out to those contacts who have visited our congregation within the last three months. Our congregation remains motivated even though we have several who are still out with Covid and other illnesses. We received several contact cards this evening and signed cards to send out. I talked to Anne Thomas, and she will be working with several women to prepare welcome and new movers’ bags.”

Covington church of Christ, Tennessee: Wayne Dalrymple (elder) reports, “It has been another great week for Covington. We are busy planting and watering the seed as well as tilling the soil by prospecting. Last Friday, my wife and daughter met Ms. Tonya at Walmart, who was struggling to carry her groceries. They helped her with them and helped her sit down. She told them a little about her situation and said she was not financially able to get everything she needed. They helped her buy groceries and asked her if she had a church home. She said no and asked where they went to church. They told her and invited her to visit. They got her contact information, and we arranged for our bus to pick her up Sunday morning. She came and was welcomed heartily by many of our members. We gave her a visitor bag with some goodies and information about the church. She asked if there was a Bible in it. We told her no, but we could certainly get her one. Within a couple of minutes, we had one for her. She was very grateful and said she would definitely visit again. We hope to prospect her further with cards and calls this week. Judy Jones was not able to attend this week due to health reasons, but she plans to come back as soon as she was well.

“On Sunday morning, I stood before our members and reiterated the importance of having many contacts. We passed out new copies of the contact bookmark to every member and had them fill out the names of ten people they know. After a couple of minutes, I asked those who needed to add a name to our congregational contact list to raise their hands. Several did so. On Monday evening, we had our weekly Monday Night for the Master gathering. We wrote many cards to contacts. Jon McCain and I also delivered a few new movers’ baskets. At one house, we met Booker, who promised that he and his wife would visit our services soon. God is truly blessing us as we seek to be the instruments God uses to grow His kingdom.”

Greenfield church of Christ, Tennessee: Clint Monroe (elder) reports, “A couple of Bible studies are in progress with prayers for God to give the increase. Our gospel meeting started and had several visitors on Sunday morning. Hopefully, we have gained some contacts with hopes of gaining more through the week. We are pleased to announce we have a new sister in Christ. Lauren Ray was baptized after our Wednesday evening Bible study service. Although her decision was not a direct result of our ongoing Bible studies, we are pleased to have a new sister in Christ, and we pray that she will inspire others to obey the gospel soon. Next Sunday, the elders will reach out to the congregation and encourage each member to find a place in our evangelism work. We have developed a checklist for each member to fill out in order to make proper assignments within our groups. Elders will also follow up with individuals that are interested in conducting Bible studies and mentoring new converts.”

Fayette church of Christ, Alabama: Kaleb Hall (preacher) reports, “We are beginning follow-ups this month after four weeks of sending cards. Twenty-eight people have received cards for four weeks now. About half of those have sent us some kind of thank you or correspondence. Sadly, one of the 28 passed away. We plan to prospect the ones who have expressed how much the cards have meant.”

Carthage church of Christ, North Carolina (digital enrollment): Randy Chambers (preacher) reports, “Our new convert begins her study in The Beginning of Confidence book, and today she and other members that have not shown spiritual growth were invited to be part of our first principles class on Sunday mornings. We are using the Growing in Christ book by Bobby Bates. The rest of the congregation began our study in BTTB book two, regarding the church. We are also studying and preaching on the church from the pulpit. We continue to send out compassion cards. Prayers are going up for all the contacts while we build relationships that will make them prospects and lead to Bible Classes. Everyone is focused and motivated! We praise God for His blessing and pray for all the saints and all who requested prayers for the work here at Carthage church of Christ.”

Honolulu church of Christ, Hawaii: Tagiilima Esene (preacher) reports, “Aloha from the Honolulu church! This past week, our church had an important congregational meeting. Our elders gave our members some updates and guidance concerning our work moving forward. Lima has two ongoing Bible studies using the Back to the Bible booklets. Some of our members were able to send out cards to three visitors from our local community. One of our new converts, Jesse, served on the Lord’s table this past Sunday. Seeing him serving the Lord’s supper together with Jedidiah (who studied with him) was very encouraging. We are currently prospecting three families that have been visiting our services. Please pray that God continues to give the increase.”

Crossville church of Christ, Tennessee: Alan Judd (preacher) reports, “Currently, the congregation is rebounding from an outbreak of COVID. We continue to seek contacts. We have learned that just asking often yields results. We had a name submitted by an individual who, due to various factors, is extremely limited in what he can do in serving the Lord. However, hearing our efforts to reach out prompted him to submit a name who will now receive cards. We hope to cultivate this contact into a Bible study. One of our members is using Back to the Bible to study with a caretaker while in a nursing facility for rehabilitation. Other opportunities continue to be presented. The growth of new converts is progressing, and we continue to beg God’s blessing in expanding His kingdom here on the Cumberland plateau.”

Highway church of Christ, Benton, Arkansas: Steven Ford (preacher) reports, “This week has been better. We have a new study. They have gone through Believe the Bible and are now on the second book from Back to the Bible. We are continuing other efforts and starting some new training times for the congregation.”

Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Greg Garner (deacon) reports, “Our congregation is meeting this Sunday evening to write and send cards. We sent 15 cards to one contact last week. We are working on two new contacts right now. We have six Bible studies in progress, and two more will begin this Saturday. We will begin delivering new movers’ baskets again this Sunday. Since the seminar, we have had fourteen baptisms.”

Kensington Woods church of Christ, Hattiesburg, Mississippi: Chris Donovant (preacher) reports, “We have been working on a contact from one of our community events. She was a visitor from our Trunk or Treat to the Master’s feet!  We rejoice and praise God for her baptism!”

Spring Valley church of Christ, California: Rob Whitacre reports, “Four years ago, this congregation hosted a HTHOE seminar. We have not heard from them in a long time. Last week, one of their sisters contacted us with exciting news. She has been using Back to the Bible and helped six souls come to Christ through baptism. We are certain that our reports are not all inclusive. There is a lot of good going on that we will not know until we meet them in heaven!”

Natalia church of Christ, Texas: Jim Word (preacher) reports, “We had a study Friday with a woman named Rosie whose mother-in-law is one of our members. She does not know anything about religion except what she remembers as a little girl going to the Catholic Church with her parents. We studied a basic Bible overview with her and have set up a study with her mother-in-law later this week. We also got a contact with a family member of one of our members who recently passed away. Darla and I will have our first study with her tomorrow. She has been a Baptist her whole life but was moved by the compassion of our congregation at their recent loss. Please pray for these two strong prospects.”

Cowetta church of Christ, Oklahoma: Keno Shrum (preacher) reports, “This coming Friday evening, a man who recently moved to the area will have dinner with us, followed by a Bible study. He is a friend of some of our members and has been attending for the past few weeks. He is very new to religion of any kind but seems eager and open to learning. We hope to get through all three lessons within the next couple weeks. Please keep this study in your prayers!”

Aberdeen church of Christ, Maryland: Will Brown (preacher) reports, “This week we made additional new movers baskets. One will be given out this week. We are looking at purchasing the new-to-the-area list from House to House to add another avenue to increase our contact list. Two Bible studies started this past week. Pray that those souls obey the gospel.”

Deerfoot church of Christ, Birmingham, Alabama: Richard Harp (preacher) reports, “We continue to develop contacts into prospects and conduct Bible studies. We ask for everyone to pray for Jacob Ramey who started as a Universalist but now sees the truth. He is close to the kingdom.”

New Hope church of Christ, Middleton, Tennessee: Cole Wade (preacher) reports, “The plans for this week and for the next few weeks are to visit everyone on our visitation list. We have many who have not been present with us during Covid and are not with us today. We also have some whom we have contacted over the past few weeks that need prospecting. So, we will form teams among our members and take trips for the next few weeks! We also had a response yesterday during worship service, which was great news!”

Northern Oaks church of Christ, San Antonio, Texas: Mel Hutzler (elder/preacher) reports, “Things have been going very well with the evangelism program. We had nine baptisms so far this year with more on the way, Lord willing. We have yet to establish our new mover’s program, but I would like to see that get started soon. Teams meet every week and cards are continuously go out. We want to continue to focus on evangelism without neglecting other areas as well. The Evangelism Program has helped us tremendously to become organized in our efforts to reach the lost. We still need to work on follow-up and closing the study. We hope to fix both soon.”

Coldwater church of Christ, Kentucky: Luke Puckett (preacher) reports, “This past week was a good week for us as we focused on contacts and prospects. We were able to send out several compassion cards and make some in-home visits. We pray this will open doors for us. We also had our visitors back for a fourth week in a row. It is difficult to get to know them as they continue to decline invitation to go eat. We are working on a plan to encourage them to stay for a potluck so we can spend some time with them. We also spent some time on the phone with a congregation in Eastern Kentucky. They had major flooding. We had a tornado come through last December, and we talked with them and tried to offer advice on how to use this as an opportunity to evangelize.”

Rogersville church of Christ, Tennessee: Ethan Tate (preacher) reports, “This week we worked on planning to evangelize while inviting the community to our gospel meeting. We are excited as our meeting will focus predominantly on the Baptist faith, but we pray that there will be many souls who come to hear the truth and set up Bible studies. A lot of our members have fallen ill recently, and we also ask your prayers for them and for a study we have with a man and his wife later this week.”

Monroeville church of Christ, Alabama: Andrew Wynne (preacher) reports, “Nicole and I had the privilege of studying with one of the ladies at Central who has been attending the services for some time. After completing the Back to the Bible series, Edith Harrison was baptized into Christ on August 2. She is as overjoyed as are we. We plan to participate in the annual door-knocking on October 8. Please pray for our efforts that we will be able to generate contacts and set up Bible studies. This is a wonderful area with much potential. We are excited about the mission before us.”

Warner Robbins church of Christ, Georgia: Dave Dominque (elder) reports, “To date, we are roughly ten months post-seminar, and it is a good time for revisiting our objectives in reaching the lost. We are getting positive feedback from people who are receiving compassion cards. The message that we care is coming through. Last Sunday night, the elders invited the compassion card team facilitators to a meeting for their open and candid feedback on what seems to be working and what is missing. The feedback was helpful in revisiting our goals of reaching the lost.

“Our elders are meeting every Sunday morning at 7:45 a.m. to pray for the saints and for wisdom in how to best reach the lost. It can be a challenging and daunting task for them at times as they shepherd all the needs of the flock. It can be a bit overwhelming. They find solace in remembering that God expects them to be “overseers” not “overdoers”—doing all the visitation and connection. Right now, we keep a detailed congregational list that includes prospects who are lost, those fallen away, individuals we are concerned about, meaning those who are disengaged, missing in action, or unknown sick as well as those prospects who might want to identify with the congregation and the sick who need visitation. This Sunday we talked about delegation and how to optimize the work to go after the lost more efficiently so as to increase Bible studies. Further, we discussed the need for evangelism recharge on an ongoing basis. Prayers are appreciated as we help to feed, grow, strengthen, and stabilize the church in Warner Robins.”

Schertz church of Christ, Texas: Jay Stewart (elder) reports, “This week we continued to host John and Eta Grubb. John gave a lesson on Wednesday about the importance of true worship. It was a good foundational lesson that strengthened and underpinned principles in our evangelism efforts. We also resumed our Visitor/Fellowship group meals after AM worship. One visitor’s family stayed. They are already Christians, but we will take all the growth we can! During the meal, we emphasized that beyond the great fellowship we have together, there is an expectation for all of us to be developing contacts into prospects for Bible studies.”

Paintsville church of Christ, Kentucky: Zach Collins (preacher) reports, “This week, we had another baptism! Carson Matney, the son of one of our members, obeyed the gospel after Sunday morning worship! This is our sixth baptism in the last three months and our second baptism in the last two weeks! This evening, we also sent 120 cards to contacts that were developed by our members. Great things are happening at Paintsville! Pray for us, as we continue to renew our focus on evangelism.”

Chase Park church of Christ, Huntsville, Alabama: Pat Cowden (preacher) reports, “We continued our study with the four relatives of our newest convert this past week. They are extremely engaged and are seeking answers. We also had several visitors who have recently moved to the area, and we are reaching out to them. Please continue to pray for our efforts.”

Monroe church of Christ, Georgia: Charles Harris (preacher) reports, “A family of three came over for supper and we studied Back to the Bible 3. I would appreciate your prayers as they did not obey. They are strong in their thoughts of being saved. We went over Acts 19. We hope we can continue studying. They did say they were saved first. They think since they study God’s Word daily that they are okay. I stressed the urgency of baptism in Scriptures and asked them what they were baptized into. The study was lengthy, and there was so much to consider. The good news is that they came to all services Sunday. We talked a little throughout the day. The door is still open for further study.”

Canal Heights church of Christ, Demopolis, Alabama: Bryan Cook (preacher) reports, “This Sunday was another eventful day. The congregation was reeling from the recent passing of one of our young fathers. The evangelist outreach has had the side benefit of strengthening our efforts at edifying one another. Teams were already in place to now take care of this young family. It is a beautiful thing to see. We are at the stage now where we are setting up tables for our visitors and have decided to have two separate bag types. One will be for our fellow Christians as they are visiting our fine city, but another bag will cater to local people who need to study the Bible. This last Sunday we had prayers for those going back to school and focused on reaching out to those on our bookmarks who are dealing with this. One of the strategies we have developed is to identify an upcoming need with people we know and then springboard off of that premise. Continue to pray for our efforts as we pray for you all.”

Beloit church of Christ, Kansas: Dustin Doughtery (preacher) reports, “We just concluded an awesome VBS, using Apologetics Press Flood curriculum. Attendance was in the high 20s, and several adults and parents stayed for the adult classes. It was a great contact generator. All the teachers and attendees had a fantastic time. Several came for services this morning and stayed for a fellowship potluck after worship service. One of the young men I baptized last fall presided over the Lord’s Supper. It is great to see growth and maturity in converts. Now that VBS is concluded, we are going to begin planning next year’s VBS and add a school year VBS that will run one Wednesday night a month beginning this fall. We hope this will keep the momentum going. I will be going to another congregation this fall and teaching them how to do personal evangelism; I am looking forward to doing that. To God be all the glory.”

Eisenhower church of Christ, Odessa, Texas: Allen Weakland (preacher/elder) reports, “As always, God is so good. We have experienced a number of things that caught us off guard, but with God’s guidance and help, we have brought our attention back to evangelism. In fact, this past Wednesday immediately after Bible class, we joined together to write cards to four different parties. The energy was high, and the focus was intense. It is such a pleasure to work with brethren who realize the importance of evangelism as well as the commitment it takes to succeed. Please pray that these new contacts will be overwhelmed by the love of God. On another note, we were told by a visiting couple that they want to place membership with us. They are excited about our focus and overwhelmed by what is being done and the results we are seeing.”

Sylvan Springs church of Christ, Alabama (digital enrollment): Caleb Aldridge (preacher) reports, “We are having a campaign in October for four days to door knock. Memphis School of Preaching is sending students down. I finished the study of the Back to the Bible sets. Right now, we are needing more contacts so we can begin prospecting.”

Riverbend church of Christ, Georgia: Austin Fowler (member) reports, “Tuesday night, Cooper Watson was baptized into Christ. We are excited as he starts his walk in Christ. On Sunday, we had a visitor from our contact list. It was one of my co-workers. The church did a great job of making her feel welcome. One couple invited her to sit with them. One of the teens took her a visitor bag. After services, I told her how glad I was that she came to services. She said that she was raised in the church of Christ. I have worked with her for the last four years, and I never knew that. I told her I would like to talk with her more about being raised in the church and her background one day at work. We also had several other visitors from the community. We got their contact information to add to our compassion card list. After services, our members added two more people to our contact list. Group one stayed to write cards. We mailed around 100 this week.”

Siwell Road church of Christ, Jackson, Mississippi: Derek Broome (preacher) reports, “The past two weeks, we have spent following up with some recent contacts. We have several involved in correspondence courses right now as well as a couple of in-person Bible studies. We have one study that I especially would love for people to pray about. The study started out well, but after the first two studies, they stopped. We are continuing to reach out to them and pray for them. We hope they will soon be willing to continue the study. Our card groups continue to be going well. Recently we did some updates, and some newer families committed to greet and take visitors out to eat in an effort to create additional opportunities to spread the Word. Praying for more and more opportunities.”

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.