Reaching the Lost- Success Stories

Statistics
Total baptisms (2018-2022) reported from U.S. Congregations: 2,345
Total Seminars Conducted (2018-2022): 181
Congregational Enrollments in 2023: 27
Digital Enrollments for 2023: 26
Student Enrollment: 114
States Reporting: 20
Total baptisms reported from U.S. Congregations 2023: 717

Upcoming Seminars
August 16-24 Polishing the Pulpit (Sevierville, Tennessee)

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HTHSOE Checklist

Featured Work: Karns Church of Christ, Knoxville, Tennessee 

Editor’s Note: Just over one year ago, we conducted an AMC in Knoxville, Tennessee.  The Karns church of Christ hosted this event. The West End church of Christ also participated, and together, over 150 Christians combed through the local communities creating contacts.  The training was extensive during and after the AMC event. The following report from Karns provides a powerful reminder of how evangelism can work in America.

 

AMC Results One Year Later: Thirty-Eight Baptisms!
By Spencer Clark (Evangelist)

 

This past week, we welcomed a new sister in Christ named Mary, one of our door-knocking contacts from the AMC Campaign in 2022. Mary had requested help repairing her stairs, but we sadly lost her contact information (which perhaps was providential)! We looked for her input for several months; when we found it in June, we sent out a team to repair her stairs. Mary began attending services, received compassion cards, was taken out to lunch, received weekly meals from the TLC team (who cook for shut-ins), and completed all three books of Back to the Bible over the course of 7 sessions. Last week she was baptized into Christ.

Last month we marked the first anniversary of the AMC campaign at Karns. Since the campaign, we have had a total of 38 baptisms. Youth baptisms comprised a majority of these, with 11 from our Youth Group (both member-children and outsiders) and another six from good work at the nearby Tennessee Children’s Home. Each conversion story has been unique. Some were like Mary, receiving the entire efforts of the HTHSOE Evangelism Model. Others, like the young people who have grown up in our congregation and went through Back to the Bible last fall, only needed a brief study on baptism to decide. So far this year, we have had 26 baptisms, surpassing our 2022 total of 25 baptisms. Lord willing, there will be more to come. We plan to participate in the Brotherhood-Wide Door-Knocking Day and continue doing HTH follow-ups the following week.

Congregational Reports

Glencoe church of Christ, Alabama: David Marker (elder) reports, “As I mentioned last week, we have several visitors attending. We are planning a homemade ice cream supper Sunday night. We are using that as an occasion to invite friends, family, and New Movers to this great night of fellowship. In conjunction with that, we are in the process of delivering gift bags to our New Movers. We are also busy with plans centered around our gospel meeting coming up in September. We are also utilizing that event to invite others with the hopes of adding additional contacts!”

College Avenue church of Christ, Enterprise, Alabama: Phillip Rabren (HTHSOE graduate) reports, “This past Sunday, the training video on the HTHSOE Model was shown to the auditorium adult Bible class prior to their Bible study. Attendance was lower than usual, so our elders had it shown again before worship. These short training videos will be shown every week. Evangelism Bookmarks were passed out to every member, teenage years and upward. Caleb Cochran (preacher) started his first sermon on John 4 during the worship hour. After his lesson, he reviewed the Bookmark, and asked everyone to write down 10 names of people in our community that they know who are lost, pray for them every day this week, and bring their Bookmark back with them next Sunday, as it will be used each Lord’s Day. “On Sunday evening, the training card on the HTHSOE Model was given to everyone who could read. Caleb (preacher) taught the congregation about the six-step Evangelism Model and then reviewed how an individual contact on the Evangelism Bookmark moves to a contact card and onto the congregational prospect list.

“Our elders and preachers continue to work on selecting coordinators for the Evangelism Table, Contact-Prospect List, Compassion Cards, and Visitors. The Evangelism Table will be stocked this week with the proper tools as laid out in the curriculum; items not intended for the Table will be left in the Evangelism cabinet. “The Preaching/Teaching Timeline is being followed. Our elders will inject a Sunday night training for the tools of evangelism on the Evangelism Table, and another night will be devoted to Door Knocking training in preparation for the Annual Door Knocking Day in October. Our elders have adjusted our three CIA Groups to prepare for Compassion Card writing. Every member will receive in the mail this week a copy of their group list with their names highlighted, included with a letter from our elders encouraging every member, and even their children, to be involved in writing cards. Thank you for your prayers as we all work together to become fully functional in the Evangelism Model.”

Fayette church of Christ, Alabama: Josh Taylor (deacon) reports, “I have taken the last couple of weeks to make sure our recent convert has settled in at church. He has attended with his wife regularly for the last few services, so we are thankful for that. We will have our Mission Sunday this Sunday and work on finalizing our newest contacts.”

Hatton church of Christ, Alabama: Chris Miller (preacher) reports, “Three new families have attended worship this week. One family is already Christians, but two families are not members. Our group greets visitors with gift bags. We have their contact information, and so they are at the top of our list. We are looking forward to studying with these new families soon.”

Lake City church of Christ, Florida: Jim Flegert (elder) reports, “After our first week of visiting new movers in our community, we are excited about receiving 50 percent of those visits as positive reactions to our efforts. The positive feedback from those new movers allows us to add additional names to our compassion card recipients. We also received two additional names and addresses from visitors. We are thankful to God for providing us with these new opportunities.”

North Brevard church of Christ, Titusville, Florida: Doug Gerdes (member) reports, “This past Sunday, Matt, our minister, gave the second in a series of five lessons that connects John 4 and other scripture references to the Evangelism Model. He emphasized the personal and congregational mission to save the lost in our community.  This Sunday, the bookmarks were given to members to capture the names of family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and others they want to see saved. This week they were asked to pray for those on their list. The evangelism material has been stored and the Evangelism Table was positioned below our Bulletin Board and populated with relevant material.

“The elders are continuing to have weekly coordination meetings as each phase of the model is rolled out. The Compassion Card coordinators and team have started on a fast pace to send Compassion Cards to 32 contacts from our Food Pantry Program. These contacts requested prayers last week. We want them to receive cards before the next food pantry day. The Lord is not waiting for us to get the grain silos ready. We will work out the kinks as we go.”

Niceville church of Christ, Florida: Joe Palmer (preacher) reports, “Can you start a revival in a month?  I believe we have started to see a real change in our church. I (Joe Palmer, the preacher) am out of town at PTP, yet the work is progressing. So far, eight people who have received Compassion Cards and personal contacts are attending worship services.  One of our deacons, Joe Butler, presented the lesson “Quantity, not Quality” today. Another deacon, Demetrio Gonzales, did the evening training session, and two of our hard-working ladies set up the Compassion Cards. We gave out four visitor bags.  Two prospects, who are currently in studies are attending services.  Another member brought two contacts. We have four people currently in studies and have yet to do an in-home visit with anyone on our contact cards.  Our secretary set up a study with a young lady who visited worship today from the community, so we have five people in studies.  Our Compassion Team took food this week to a lady who broke her kneecap last week. She will be getting compassion cards for the next few weeks. We have been collecting warm contacts at a fast pace.  Our compassion card team met for the third week, and we sent out 224 cards.”

Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Greg Garner (deacon) reports, “We prayed for our prospects on our bookmark cards on Sunday. We had three visitors Sunday morning. The Compassion Card group met and created 11 cards; we sent out 15 last week. We delivered two New Mover baskets. Five-door hangers were left at homes with no answer. One group made 60 more door hangers.  “The evangelism application class had seven attendees. We had 21 in our New Convert Class. We collected three contact cards to work on this week. Our new mover’s group delivered two baskets; five-door hangers were left at homes with no answer. One group made 60 more door hangers. We have eight Bible studies in progress. “We had three baptisms this week! On August 14, we welcomed Caden White and his grandmother, Cara White. Joey O’Dell, who conducted their Bible study, used BTTB. On August 15, we welcomed Samantha Ihle, who was baptized by her father Scott Ihle.”

LaFayette church of Christ, Georgia: Jesse Teague (deacon) reports, “Group 2 met Sunday night to complete compassion cards. Ken reports that the first study with Robert went well, and he agreed to the second study. Several active families are at PTP this week.”

Honolulu church of Christ, Hawaii: Lima Esene (preacher) reports, “Aloha from the Honolulu church of Christ! I am excited that our family is blessed to be at PTP this year. Evangelism involves helping others to become soul winners. I am thankful for the opportunity to share the success of our congregation in evangelism with other Christians. Many have come to me with questions about the work that we are doing. It is very encouraging to know that when you are winning souls, it is motivating others to do the same. After PTP, I will continue to follow up with some prospects who have been visiting with our congregation. I have gained a wealth of knowledge from being at PTP that will certainly improve our work as a congregation. The highlight of this week is having the opportunity to refill our cups so that we can continue the work of the Lord.”

Blanchard church of Christ, Louisiana: Pat Cella (elder) reports, “We are at PTP this week, so we do not much to report. We are very encouraged that Erin, who was baptized into Christ earlier this year, made a five-hour drive to be at PTP. What an example she is to the rest of us.”

Aberdeen church of Christ, Maryland: Will Brown (preacher) reports, “We recently had Vacation Bible School and kept our eyes on finding contacts and Bible studies. We found three contacts by being intentional and asking questions such as, “Are you looking for a church home?” and “Would you like a Bible study?” This week, we have one Bible study that is ready for Lesson 3. We have one waiting to be scheduled and another contact that has been called and has received cards and a visit. We ask for prayers for a successful conclusion of the Bible study.”

Southside church of Christ, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Freddie Klein (preacher) reports, “We are continuing to reach out with the card-writing program, even though we ran into our first negative interaction. We have many prospective contacts from our VBS and school supply giveaway ready for  follow up. We sent out eight correspondence courses due to our school supply giveaway and many visits to follow. We sent 60 Compassion Cards. A family is currently engaged in a study with two lost souls. To God be the glory.”

Iuka church of Christ, Mississippi: Robert Wimbish (elder) reports, “We had two exciting “firsts” this week. Last Sunday morning, we had our first visitor at services as a result of our Food Giveaway Day.  We had two from that particular effort. Last Sunday, we also had our first visitor who attended as a result of receiving cards. Yesterday morning, we had three different visitors resulting from our Food Giveaway Day.  There are two ongoing Bible studies right now.  Both are the result of members loving their families.  “The congregation is gearing up for our upcoming Door Knocking campaign. Lance is giving at least one motivational weekly sermon focusing on door knocking for all of September. The Bible Study, Mission Monday, and New Movers groups have joined forces and are meeting every Wednesday at 5:00 to discuss strategies and encourage one another in our efforts. We plan to incorporate those who will be knocking doors into at least two Wednesday meetings. We appreciate all prayers.”

Looxahoma church of Christ, Mississippi: Blake Hawkins (deacon) reports, “Compassion Card teams are continuing to run smoothly. We find that staying after worship on Sunday afternoons to write cards works best for us; we write them promptly and have them ready for mailing. “We have made many visits to those who have received compassion cards for several weeks, and everyone we have met has really enjoyed the cards. We also received our New Movers list for the month and have been collecting baskets to deliver, so we will begin making those visits soon. The New Movers deliveries are a great way to get congregation members involved in the work, as it is a fun and easy way to approach a stranger’s door and make a good impression. We believe as more members get involved in evangelism through the New Movers initiative, participation will help increase in future door knocking. The more you do it, the more you want to do it! “The women of the congregation are planning a ladies’ day for next month and are emphasizing evangelism for the event. They are also collecting contact information from all visitors so follow-up thank-you cards can be sent to them.”

Foristell church of Christ, Missouri: Rod Jackson (elder) reports, “Each Sunday, we are using the bookmarks to pray for our prospect list and moving people to our contact list. We sent several cards to contacts, especially as there was a member who recently passed away and had several family members who are not part of the church. We plan to show the congregation training videos as we learn more about utilizing the evangelism table.”

Samford church of Christ, Steele, Missouri: Kyle Imel (deacon) reports, “We continue to send compassion cards to those who attended our backpack giveaway. We also have an individual to whom we sent cards and who has been through Books 1 and 2 who wants to thank the congregation Wednesday with pizza. We hope she will complete the third book after reviewing Books 1 and 2.”

East Flushing church of Christ, New York (digital): Clarence Jenkins (preacher) reports, “We had a picnic for the community, which generated eleven new contacts. We still consistently have visitors to worship services every Lord’s Day and ongoing bible studies, including one in Spanish. We appreciate all prayers.”

Carthage church of Christ, North Carolina (digital): Randy Chambers (preacher) reports, “This week the congregation conducted one Bible study using Back to the Bible, Lesson 3. The lessons are going well, and the prospect understands he/she is lost.  We hope to finish the study this week. After a recent study, the husband wanted to obey, but the wife did not. The person conducting the study is reviewing ways to continue by studying How to Closethe Study. We are on our third week of mailing compassion cards to a bereaved widow and a contact in the hospital. Training and putting coordinators in place continues. We are still conducting mock Bible studies with all who make themselves available. We completed Does It Matter training and watched “Tips for Telling Them about Him.” Training is going well; I am praying our members will be invested in the Lord’s work in Carthage.”

Cary church of Christ, North Carolina: Larry Fife (preacher) reports, “We continue to move forward with our AMC plan. Our coordinators are recruiting members to help in specific areas. We have several Bible studies. The picture is one of those studies with a young lady who came during our campaign. Last week we had a baptism. Ms. Billie Jo started worshipping with us around the time of our campaign and began to study on her own; she realized that her baptism was not scriptural. We thank God for the continued blessings and opportunities He gives us.”

Coweta church of Christ, Oklahoma: Keno Shrum (elder) reports, “We just arrived home late last night from PTP. We had a great time visiting with brothers and sisters from other congregations and met many new people. Our spiritual batteries are fully recharged! I spent much of the drive home visiting with Mike, our other elder, about where we go from here. We have had great success, doubling the size of our congregation in the past two years, but we have only scratched the surface. There are 10,000 people in the city of Coweta. So until we have 10,000 members in our congregation, we cannot slow down. We are going to use the new tools and strategies I learned at PTP, and we are going to kick our evangelistic efforts into high gear!”

York church of Christ, Pennsylvania: Mark Raschke (deacon) reports, “All summer long, attendance in York has been up and down. We have continued to have member families gone for vacation; meanwhile, we have continued to have visitors come our way. The congregation has remained steadfast with doing all of the things in the HTHSOE model, which have become second nature to us. This week, one area of focus was sending invitations to our upcoming church picnic.”

East Main church of Christ, Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Brad Rowley (elder) reports, “Last week the East Main compassion card team #3 wrote 122 cards.  We received three new contact cards. At Mission Day, we had a group of 20 folks deliver 27 baskets and perform seven follow-up visits. We are so thankful that this core group is willing to perform this critical step of our evangelism. We had two Bible studies last week, one of which was new. “One of our deacons, Chris Taylor, is helping us implement a new church software. We used the system to create an electronic record of the backpack drive. Chris has created an evangelism contact group with three categories: active, priority, and inactive. We can enter all their contact information and details. The administrator can email or text the next step of action, which can include all of our evangelism strategies. The folks that are electronic savvy can close out the task as complete and enter details directly into the software through their cell phone. For those of us who are technically challenged, the administrator can enter the information for them. We hope this will improve our efficiency in creating a contact, document, email, text, assigning tasks, closing out the task, and maintaining a record of what was done. To God give the glory!”

Covington church of Christ, Tennessee: Wayne Dalrymple (elder) reports, “We are continuing the process at Covington, and this week, we are tweaking the process. We know we have not followed all the steps the way we should, so we are going back and examining every step in the process to see where we need to improve. We have appointed a new program coordinator who will do a great job in this area. The biggest area that needs improvement is in creating contacts. We have reintroduced the bookmarks and contact cards in the past two weeks and stressed the need for more contacts. We are also revamping our compassion card ministry to focus more on prospects. “We had several visitors again on Sunday. We are following up with them to prospect and transition into Bible studies. I met with Thomas again last Thursday. He is still not convinced that his baptism was not valid. We are praying and continuing to encourage. Jeff will have a Bible study with two young adults who are grandchildren of one of our members next week. We appreciate prayers that these hearts will be open to the gospel.”

West End church of Christ, Knoxville, Tennessee: Adam Wilson (member) reports, “Two new souls were added to our membership last week! They are members of the youth group; Khloe was baptized on Wednesday and Silas was baptized on Sunday morning following Jeremy’s lesson on Galatians 3. Oleg, the visitor from last weekend, has not missed a service yet. We hope to set up a study! Fifty-eight cards were written to the families who came out to the Back To School Supply Drive as we continue to try to build connections with the community.”

Midtown church of Christ, Victoria, Texas: James Cammock (deacon) reports, “We had two baptisms last week! One was the adult son of a family that is part of Midtown. The other was the teenage daughter of another Midtown family. One of our compassion card contacts also came to the worship service this past Sunday! It is always exciting to see good fruit from our various endeavors.”

Canyon Lake church of Christ, Texas (digital): Jesse Stuart and Raoul Farris (evangelists) report, “During the week of August 13-19, a wonderful evangelism opportunity landed in our lap, and we made the most of that opportunity. On Thursday, Jesse Stuart was at the building preparing for a door-knocking training when he walked outside to find the parking lot full of cars. He learned that Startzville Elementary was having their meet-the-teacher night and was using our parking lot as overflow parking. Jesse quickly called me, and we assembled some brochures and business cards and went to work meeting folks. What a joyful opportunity! We will add this event to our calendar for next year to be better prepared.  We were able to meet and greet 39 families, and we made three contacts and gave away four Bibles. Our week was fruitful. “In the last report, I mentioned visiting ACE Hardware; from that encounter with one of the managers, we were blessed to have Luke Hancock visit us. The manager had told Luke about us as a congregation. This was a great thing to witness. The manager Julie, who we enrolled on our compassion cards, texted us the following message:  ‘I want to say thank you! Today I had 17 cards in my mailbox, and each one had a beautiful message. It made me feel that God was telling me He is right there with me, in a big way! I have never felt so loved by strangers. Please tell each of your prayer warriors that I thank you from the bottom of my heart.’ Then in another text, Julie said she wanted to visit us soon.
“This week we knocked 67 doors, spoke with 31 people, collected nine contact cards, visited nine businesses, and wrote 115 compassion cards. This coming Monday, we will begin our Mission Mondays, visiting those we have had on the compassion cards for a few weeks. We will continue to teach the HTH model to the congregation. We appreciate all prayers.”

Granbury Street church of Christ, Cleburne, Texas: Ryan Cowan (deacon) reports, “About 20 members met to write compassion cards on August 16 and August 20.  This past Wednesday night, I provided a congregational update on our evangelism efforts.  I reported on the success of our first Mission Monday, which was held on August 14. Mission Monday involved about 20 members, pizza, and training.  We prayed for our prospects, grabbed some cookies to deliver, divided up into teams, and put into practice our ‘three questions.’  The effort resulted in two Bible Studies being scheduled. When updating the congregation, I helped the Body see how our Compassion Cards opened the door to studies and how every person’s effort made a huge difference. Currently, we have around ten Bible studies taking place. The fruit is maturing!”

Northern Oaks church of Christ, San Antonio, Texas: Mel Hutzler (elder) reports, “On Monday several of us went to Canyon Lake to be a part of their door knocking and to learn what Jesse and Raoul learned from AMC. They also shared with us additional information and let us see how they did their card writing. We had several contacts and prospects from the community. “We have an increase of ongoing Bible studies, and individuals are being prospected. I am halfway through Book 3 with a couple in pre-marital counseling. I will perform their wedding in the near future and believe they will be baptized right after that. “We have scheduled our door knocking in the near future, right before our gospel meeting. We had a baptism, and a member placed membership. We will have more of these two things happen in the near future. Our new convert’s class is going well with several in attendance. We hope to keep all things evangelism moving forward.”

Graceton church of Christ, Diana, Texas: Johnny Willeford (elder) reports, “As the temperature in East Texas rises here in August, so must our efforts rise to reach the lost in our community. Group C signed 86 compassion cards Sunday evening. We are making a big push to add more contacts from our members. “Last Friday evening we resumed our monthly family game night. We had a family and an individual visit and participate in the fun and meal. The individual returned for Sunday morning services.

“We will use our video of the online conference meeting we had with you a few weeks ago for training with the congregation this Wednesday night. Our Mission Monday group will meet this next week and add two new members to it. Our ladies’ Bible class continues to grow on Tuesday morning with several women that had received compassion cards. We are taking one step at a time. Our prayers are with all attending Polishing the Pulpit.”

Central church of Christ, Martinsburg, West Virginia: Robert Veil (elder) reports, “We had a good meeting for compassion card group last evening after services. We had quite a few names, many of which are either in Bible studies or prospective studies. “Fundamental and evangelistic sermons continue on Sunday evenings. “What’s in a Name? was our lesson last night.  Evangelism includes reaching the lost as well as strengthening the saved.”

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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