Success Stories: February 12, 2025

Welcome Stewarts Creek church of Christ, Smyrna, Tennessee: “We welcome the Stewarts Creek church of Christ to the House to House Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. The attendance was excellent and the elders/preacher/deacons were very engaged in the leadership meeting. The ladies were equally motivated during Nicole’s organizational meeting. Just one day later, we have a report from Greg Vick (elder), ‘Just wanted you to know we had a baptism tonight because of your lessons yesterday. Thank you, brother. He was baptized in the assembly of God. His wife is a Christian who was restored a few months ago, and they have attended faithfully ever since. He said he had been thinking about being baptized into the church, but some of the things you said really touched his heart.’”

Welcome Birdwell Chapel church of Christ, Cottontown, Tennessee: “We welcome the Birdwell Chapel church of Christ to the House to House Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. The elders did an excellent job preparing for and participating in the training seminar. Their preacher Dale Sadler is a longtime family friend and committed to training the congregation how to work together to reaching the lost in their community. We look forward to our work together to save souls.

Glencoe church of Christ, Alabama: Keith Ritchie (evangelist) reports, “The Glencoe congregation is still blessed with workers, contacts, and studies. There is a lot of excitement, especially with our youth and young adults. Both groups are active and will be active in door knocking and evangelism efforts to bring souls to Christ. Other plans are in the works for evangelism. We request prayers as the work continues to yield souls for the Kingdom. Three ongoing studies presently need prayers for good soil. To God be the glory!”

Fayette church of Christ, Alabama: Josh Taylor (deacon) reports, “We had a great mission Sunday last evening. Our card writing has been successful; two of our contacts have been visiting us for some time. We look forward to providing them a gift basket soon, and we will continue to reach out to them, hoping to find an opportunity to have a Bible study. We appreciate all prayers.”

Creekwood church of Christ, Mobile, Alabama: Tucker Presley (preacher) reports, “We continued the preaching/training schedule yesterday in both AM and PM services. We used the bookmarks in the AM service and asked for contacts. Several members filled out contact cards, and we now are sending compassion cards to those who have recently lost loved ones and those who have illnesses. We had our second study today with a visitor named Viktoria. We went through the blue booklet, and it went very well. We also had a great meeting with the elders yesterday as we discussed the evangelism program. They will choose coordinators soon.”

Central church of Christ, Saraland, Alabama: David Dixon (preacher) reports, “I am running out of ways to describe how good God is. Every time we turn around, He presents another opportunity for us. After our baptism of one of our youth last Sunday, we baptized two more on Wednesday! A lady and her mother only needed to sit down for one study of Does It Matter? before they were ready to obey the Gospel. That makes four since the new year started. In addition to that, I was stopped on the street on Friday and called by name. I had no clue who was flagging me down, but he recognized me. It was one of my students from when I taught math over 15 years ago. We talked for a while, and he is now on my prospect list! We are hosting the Spiritual Enrichment Series starting this coming Sunday. If you are in the Mobile area, we would love to have you as our guest. We are trying to use this event as an evangelism opportunity. The congregation here is thinking souls! We are excited also because Charles Harris is going to be speaking on the lectureship, and then he will be staying to speak for us the following Sunday to rejuvenate our evangelism program. God be praised!”

West Huntsville church of Christ, Alabama: Paul Owen (evangelist) reports, “Daniel Keaton was baptized into Christ last night! He is a neighbor to one of our members and began to visit our services.  After a few studies with Glenn, he obeyed the Gospel.”

Highland Park church of Christ, Muscle Shoals, Alabama: Andrew Myhan (deacon) reports, “One of the main sources for contacts for us has been what we call our Samaritan House. We collect goods and clothing to be given away to people in need. The team that helps lead this provides each person with a contact card in order to get basic information. This effort has been going well for us, and we hope it will lead to more opportunities to send cards, conduct Bible studies, and bring souls to Christ.”

Hatton church of Christ, Alabama: Chris Miller (preacher) reports, “We have two studies ongoing, and we believe those who are studying with us will obey the Gospel soon. One of our recent converts has been bringing her grandmother who has not been to church in a very long time; she has been attending for a couple of weeks now. She has ties to family at the local Baptist church, and that family has shown interest in coming to our congregation, which would be an open door for further study.”

Malvern church of Christ, Arkansas (remote): David Burruss (preacher) reports, “Over the past few weeks, we have been refining our program and strategy to better align with the talents and resources of our congregation. While some changes are still in the development phase, we have already implemented a few updates. We recently revamped our visitor and visitation bags and adjusted the way we distribute our “You’re Invited” cards. Now we include these invitation cards in a packet featuring a small figurine with the message, ‘We all need a little Jesus.’ This addition has made it easier for people to start conversations, and even the kids have been more engaged in handing them out and inviting others to our services. For the upcoming changes, I am developing a training plan that will not only introduce these new strategies but also provide a refresher on other outreach methods. I plan to begin conducting these training sessions with the congregation on Wednesday nights in the coming weeks.”

Rison church of Christ, Arkansas: Keden Shrum (preacher) reports, “Care Team A met Sunday evening to sign cards for one family. I found out late last week about a community member who is currently undergoing dialysis. I will be working this week to get his address so we can begin sending cards. We have been working with one family, I believe, who will be open to a Bible study soon.”

Windsor church of Christ, Colorado: Lucas Stephens (member) reports, “We had a great day of worship yesterday at Windsor! We continue to engage with several visitors every Sunday. We continue our weekly planning meetings; however, last week’s focus was our monthly leadership meeting. This week we will resume our evangelism coordinators meeting. We are sending out 60 compassion cards this week to our six prospects.”

Niceville church of Christ, Florida: Joe Palmer (preacher) reports, “Can a card sent 12 years ago lead to the restoration of a soul? It did this week. We had a restoration of a dear sister who had fallen away 12 years ago. Sister Williams called me and said she was back. She was returning to the Lord. She had found a box of cards. They were from years ago when she had left the church. As she reread those words, they touched her heart and reminded her of a time when she was in the fellowship of the church. For me, this was also affirmation of what we are doing in our card ministry. She is also talking with others who, like her, had fallen away, encouraging them be restored. At lunch today, we had a great time. My wife and I took two ladies who were here for a second visit out to lunch. Yomary and Edel are here from Venezuela. They want to learn English, and they also want to learn about Jesus. One of our recent converts from last year is a native of Puerto Rico. She joined us for lunch to help translate. We set up a study for Wednesday this week. I have a Julie Miller video in Spanish, and I plan to teach them how to use it. It was so encouraging to see this new sister using her talents to translate and tell these ladies how wonderful and welcoming our church is. While we were there, one of the ladies cried with joy that she had found us. This week, we had 13 visitors. Most are prospects; some are not. We had one person place membership. We had three studies. We sent out 76 cards. Today we had a new movers meeting. We are pursuing other studies and have other transitions to make this week. On Monday, we started a Young Adult Bible study group at our house, and 11 attended. We are reaching out to new attendees; some have fallen away, and some are new Christians to want to strengthen the faith of these young people. The meeting is designed to develop bonds and faith as we study the book of Acts together. This ministry has been successful for me in the past, and after one week I am already seeing results.”

Avalon church of Christ, Florida (remote): Preston Silcox (elder) reports, “We are continuing with our two ongoing Bible studies, one small group study with a newly converted couple, and visitor follow-up.  Things were a little slow with a number of us being out of town.”

Margaret Street church of Christ, Milton, Florida: Troy Spradlin (preacher) reports, “We had a return visitor and a few new visitors on Sunday. We have also begun our transition visits. What we are hearing from everyone is, ‘I really love all the cards! They are so encouraging!’ We immediately shared this news with the congregation to encourage them that the method works and is having a positive impact!

I also presented a ‘State of the Evangelism Ministry’ report to the congregation on Sunday evening, and I included our new ‘evangelism funnel.’ My purpose was to (a) help all understand that everything we do must point to evangelism, (b) explain what parts of the model we have implemented so far, (c) identify all those who are currently involved, and (d) show what we have accomplished. It was also a plea asking for more volunteers to fill more roles. We now have 52 contacts total, 24 of which we are currently working as prospects. Eighty more cards will be sent this week, bringing our total to 521 cards. Two new BTTB studies were also set up this week. We will pray diligently for those studies, and more will come from the transition visits. In addition, one of our sisters in Christ has been encouraging more members to become card writers and helping to personally train pew greeters, helping us improve the process!”

Eatonton church of Christ, Georgia (remote): Roderick Coney (minister) reports, “Last week we sent out compassion cards to four people; one of the recipients said that she appreciated the cards, and she is willing to talk with one of the ladies from our congregation. We have another prospect that has agreed to do a Bible lesson with us. We also have another prospect who seems to be ready to possibly give God a try. One prospect attended a Bible debate with one of our members last Friday near Augusta. We have two prospects who are willing to study with us. One prospect seems to be thinking about church again, so we ask for prayers that this prospect will agree to a study. We continue to work, hoping some will obey the Gospel soon.”

Rabun County church of Christ, Tiger, Georgia (remote): McKinley Pate (preacher) reports, “What a wonderful day we had this past Sunday. We continue to see many local visitors. One repeat visitor commented on how much she appreciated all the cards she received from members here. She has been invited to our house numerous times but has not committed yet. She stated that she may drop by an open Bible Study that I have on Tuesday mornings at the local Chick-fil-A. If she does, I pray I will be able to begin Lesson 1 of Back to the Bible. This past Sunday, we presented Ms. Linda with her Bible and baptismal certificate after the morning services. She was excited, and all the members showered her with love following the presentation. This past Sunday, we had our largest crowd in several years with 45 in attendance. One of our newest families is on fire and is bringing family members to services. The Lord is blessing the congregation in Rabun County.”

Bremen church of Christ, Georgia: Scott Broughton (member) reports, “New converts are step 5 and very important to growth. Last Sunday we recognized four of our recent new converts and provided them their gifts and packets.”

Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Matt Amos (preacher) reports, “The WCOC congregation attended the Sunabella of Towne Lake Assistant Living devotional on Sunday. They had five non-Christians in attendance. Some individuals of the congregation are helping Waterloo church of Christ, Waterloo, Alabama, with their training for door-knocking. The Prison Ministry Group has set up some Bible studies at the adult Riverbend Correctional Facility in Milledgeville, Georgia. The New Converts class had ten attendees. The attendees were people from the congregation who want to help the new converts. The compassion cards group created fourteen cards this week. We had four non-Christian visitors at our Sunday morning service. “

Cartersville church of Christ, Georgia (remote): Charles Harris (regional trainer) reports, “Sally was restored. Through the process of reaching out to Sally, her daughter Madison became interested in the Gospel. After Sally’s return, an opportunity to study with Madison became available. We studied Does It Matter? with Sally and Madison, and it answered Madison’s questions. We then baptized her into Christ.”

Collinsville-Troy church of Christ, Illinois: Jason Wright (elder) reports, “We continue to have visitors to worship, even though the flu is spreading everywhere, and hospitals are full. This has slowed our Bible studies. This week we conducted two studies; one is studying Book 3. We studied part way through and will finish it on Saturday, Lord willing. Another study is scheduled this Wednesday with Rhonda. We are also in Book 3. She said she has been ‘baptized four times.’ We pray she will be willing to do it the Lord’s way. We mailed 109 compassion cards. We also continue to deliver new movers’ baskets. We have a snow/ice storm coming in on Wednesday. We are looking forward to warmer weather!”

LaGrange church of Christ, Indiana: Wayne Poe (elder) reports, “We had one visitor Sunday. We are sending out compassion cards each week. We are looking forward to making visits and transitioning these into Bible studies.”

Judah church of Christ, Bedford, Indiana: Joe Moon (preacher) reports, “This past week, we continued our congregational training by focusing on benevolence and how it works to create contacts and allows us to prospect. We also assembling our visitor bags as a tool to get contact information.”

Highland Village church of Christ, Bloomington, Indiana: Mark Stauffer (elder) reports, “We are eagerly waiting for our new Invitation Cards and have been training the members at Highland Village on how to use them. One of our married couples has asked to help with new movers. We have been training them in anticipation of our first list this month. I was helping a homeless person with benevolent assistance. The clerk in the store asked which church I am from. She recently returned to Bloomington, and she is looking for a place to worship. She knows another member from our congregation. We will follow up with her this week. Our second Mission Monday is today.”

Beloit church of Christ, Kansas (remote): Dustin Dougherty (regional trainer) reports, “We had a wonderful worship service yesterday. Of the 37 in attendance, two were members who have now returned to the fold. It was great to see them. On Saturday morning, we had a great ‘Men of Valor’ Bible study with eight men in attendance. It was our first men’s study, with many more to come. We have several evangelism tools and efforts currently in progress, with other efforts almost ready to implement.  Spreading the Word in this area is difficult but very rewarding. To God be the glory.”
Central church of Christ, Paducah, Kentucky: Adam Faughn (preacher) reports, “This week was slower, but we took some time through both a bulletin article and a spoken announcement to remind the congregation about the importance of turning in contacts. We know we have a lot on bookmark lists, but for some reason, turning in names has slowed a little, so we addressed it. We hope to address other ‘efficiency’ issues in the coming weeks because the Lord deserves our best! To God be the glory.”

Aberdeen church of Christ, Maryland: Will Brown (preacher) reports, “We are in our third Bible study with a young man in his twenties. We continue to review what we discussed in the earlier lessons. We pray he chooses to obey the Gospel. We have been working around a series of bad weather events, which is typical for this time of year. We are refining our follow-up with visitors, and we are still maintaining the accountability board. Our card team sent out cards last week. We continue to think of ways to align all efforts with evangelism and encourage everyone to commit to serving the Lord fully. We are planning a new member class, which will begin next month on a weekday. We remind everyone to invite people to church and ask if they want to study the Bible. We now have a large eldership working on strengthening the Lord’s church. We appreciate all prayers for our efforts.”

La Plata church of Christ, Maryland (remote): Eric Sykes (regional trainer) reports, “This week, we sent out nine compassion cards. We are prospecting one contact. We have four open Bible studies, and we are working to add two more. Six members attend our advanced teacher training class. We are currently training the ‘How to Close the Study’ class. Our new convert class has six members. Six young men are attending our men’s leadership training class to focus on ‘Fundamentals of the Faith.’ Eighteen folks attended our video of the week class last week and watched, ‘The Truth about the Apocrypha and the Lost Books of the Bible.’ We are training several and expect to have complete their training in a couple of weeks. Please keep us lifted up in prayer as we strive to implement the Evangelism Model, train the saints, and spread the Gospel here in La Plata and the surrounding southern Maryland community.”

Marshall church of Christ, Missouri (remote): Charles Reid (preacher) reports, “We are focused on a recently restored prodigal and one new convert.”

Mountain Grove church of Christ, Missouri (remote): Brent Lebaron (member) reports, “On Sunday, the last lesson on John 4 was preached. For the second service, a training lesson on compassion cards was presented. After the second service, compassion cards were filled out for three new prospects.”

East Flushing church of Christ, New York (remote): Clarence Jenkins (preacher) reports, “After worship service, we retrieved contacts from our phones, placed them on our bookmarks, and prayed for them. We also watched the video ‘Contacts: The Most Important Contact: Visitors.’ We prepared 40 compassion cards to be mailed out incrementally this week, bringing our total for February to 80 cards. Our metrics thus far for February are four visitors, twelve prospects, ten visits, and five Bible studies. We appreciate all prayers.”

New Concord church of Christ, Ohio: Terry Townsend (preacher) reports, “Of the three Bible studies we had this past week, two are currently on Book 3 of Back to the Bible. The other study is now on Book 2.  All three studies will continue this week. Our New Mover teams will make visits and drop off baskets. We have about 10 visits to make this month. We did have a baptism this week! One of our recent visitors has been coming with her husband to services the past few months, and she decided to put the Lord on in baptism. Her husband has not yet decided, but we hope he will do so soon. We have been unsuccessful in setting up an in-home study with them, but the last few weeks’ sermons have concentrated on Christ and the church and what one must do to be a citizen of His Kingdom. She has been studying and asking many questions the last few months and came to the conclusion she needed to obey! She will immediately begin attending our Sunday morning new converts class where we hope she can start to really grow. We welcome Michelle Holland to the family here at New Concord. She was baptized on Monday, February 10, 2025. Lastly, one of our sweet dear sisters (a schoolteacher) has recently started an exercise and meditation group with a couple of ladies she works with (including one of our newer converts). One of the ladies in this group suggested that they spend a certain amount of time exercising and then also spend time ‘reading.’ Our sweet, dear sister suggested they spend their reading time with the Bible, and she is using the Back to the Bible series with them! She made it through Book 1 last week and will be going through Book 2 this week. Two of the ladies in the group are non-members and are thoroughly enjoying the study. She is praying that conversions will result!”

Sullivan Village church of Christ, Lawton, Oklahoma: Steven Hill (preacher) reports, “We are doing good at Sullivan Village and striving to reach more lost souls for Christ. Our new converts class is going strong. We have had several visitors and are working on building a relationship and establishing some studies. One of our new converts has already established and set up his first study with a man he met at Walmart from a different denomination. He and one of the mature men from Sullivan Village will be studying tonight with that man. We are always on the lookout for prospects and trying to maximize our opportunities as they come. We recently baptized a young lady named Isabella, and she has already started studying with our new converts class. Her dad was in church this past Sunday with her and her mom. A young family with two children visited on Sunday, and we made a big impact on them. God is good, and we are continuing to trust Him as we try with His help to seek and save the lost.”

Coweta church of Christ, Oklahoma: Keno Shrum (regional trainer) reports, “On Tuesday, Jamie and I went through Lesson 2 with Cardell, Marissa, and Jaiden. The study went well. Marissa had some questions on Revelation. I practiced Principle Number One: Defer; Don’t Debate. I will answer those questions eventually when the time is right after salvation. Lesson 3 is scheduled for this week. I am encouraged by the RTL reports. After decades of a downward trajectory, I believe from the numbers coming out of HTHSOE, that the next decade will prove to be a different story for the church in America. Congregations are growing by leaps and bounds when they follow the model. If your congregation struggles with any part of the model, a Regional Trainer can be sent to help you get back on track. May God bless you all in your efforts to grow the Kingdom!”

Union church of Christ, South Carolina (remote): Terry Hale (preacher) reports, “Five Bible studies are in progress with two of our soldiers working together. Training went really well with our teacher’s learning presentation of Back to the Bible. We have three more contacts; we will reach out to them this week. Wanda is an example of a good result within the visitor part of the program. Her deceased father was a Baptist preacher, and so is her brother. The compassion she received led her to the study. Her desire to be obedient to God was great to see. In addition, there are three studies going on in Newberry. There are 40-plus cards being sent out in Prosperity, South Carolina, as well.”

Blackman church of Christ, Murfreesboro, Tennessee (remote): Brian McCord (elder) reports, “The third sermon in the series was delivered yesterday. We also had the first compassion card meeting, and 20 or so cards will go out this week. We have requested people to pray for their bookmark contacts, and they will start narrowing those into prospects either next week or the one after. Several of our members attended Rob’s kick off for the Stewarts Creek congregation this past weekend.”

McEwen church of Christ, Tennessee: Jonathan Jones (preacher) reports, “We have been busy this week. We set up our compassion card room, accountability board, and contact card box for the Evangelism Table. We also received our first batch of contact cards back from our members and have six prospects who will be receiving cards soon. After a visit to a member’s son on hospice, we were able to set a Bible study with the man on hospice and his brother, and the first study went well. Please pray he can hold on long enough for us to study baptism.”

Cookeville church of Christ, Tennessee: Jonathan Medley (deacon) reports, “We had another great week. Several members have started bringing supplies to build the New Movers baskets. We are supposed to start receiving addresses for new movers later this month. We are continuing to send cards to the Williams family who moved to town from California. We have not heard back from them yet. We plan to visit them in the next week or so. We had a contact card submitted this week for a lady that is dealing with cancer. We will begin reaching out to her this coming week. On a surprise note, Keno Shrum came to Cookeville this past Sunday to preach the morning service and teach our Bible class. He was not visiting as a refresher on the seminar training, but it was great to meet Keno and his family and pick his brain on some of our new evangelism processes.”

New Union church of Christ, Manchester, Tennessee: Paul Fulks (elder) reports, “We had two visitors this past week and sent out 28 compassion cards. We made three visits and continue to work with two new converts in our congregational class.”

Ocoee Street church of Christ, Copperhill, Tennessee: R.E. Vann (elder) reports, “The elders presented 28 prospects to the congregation after closing Sunday morning worship. These were 28 unfaithful brothers and sisters who are in our directory but no longer in our pews. We plan to add three prodigals every other week to our compassion card list. The elders will start transition visits beginning next week. We had another local family visit this week, and we added them to our prospect list. This brings our total to 12 with one Bible study being delayed because of an emergency surgery. A family placed membership with us and ‘liked how we are reaching out to the lost.’ We continue to pray for all the good work for His Kingdom. All glory to God.”

Rivergate church of Christ, Madison, Tennessee: Doug Tooley (preacher) reports, “We had four visitors on Sunday. Three visits were made last week. We have two people in Bible studies. For the past two weeks, we have been revitalizing our congregation’s understanding of the importance of the Bible bookmark and the compassion cards.”

White Oak church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee (remote): John McGiffin (preacher) reports, “We have made a few adjustments to our prospect step. I asked the congregation to find one or two people on their bookmark list who need prayers. I asked THEM to reach out to their contacts and ask if they could pray for them. If they agree, ask if we can add them to the congregation’s prayer list. Then ask if the congregation could send cards. This will ensure those on our prospect list know they will be getting cards. I already have several people who have told me about contacts they will approach this week. We delivered two more new movers baskets. It can be discouraging when those do not go well, but overall we will follow up with a few. We are completing postcards for our upcoming community outreach events; we plan to put them in door hangers to distribute in the coming weeks. We are also using House to House publications to advertise these events along with outside banners. We had two new visitors this week. They were very friendly, and our congregation did a great job implementing the visitor program. I called two prodigals this past week and will continue to contact two each week by phone to encourage their return. We are trying to plan some way to convert our Bible correspondence course participants into transitional visits for us to have face-to-face Bible studies. We are pushing along as things are slowly getting on track.”

Hillcrest church of Christ, Springfield, Tennessee: Tim Taylor (associate preacher) reports, “We continue to be blessed with multiple visitors weekly. Our visitor welcome bag team and greeters do an excellent job of showing hospitality, tracking our visitors, and then forwarding contact cards to our compassion card group leader for follow-up. It is great to see each group working together to ensure all our visitors feel welcomed and appreciated through these programs!”

Chapel Hill church of Christ, Tennessee: Matt Jones (deacon) reports, “Our Wednesday night community table is going well. This past Wednesday, we had two new visitors. We will follow up with cards from our compassion card team. Isaac continues to do a great job from the pulpit with lessons that make those listening think about their souls. Each week our service is being live streamed and this lesson is also being posted on our social media accounts with good interest. Our YouTube channel recently surpassed 1,000 subscribers, so we know people are watching regularly. We continue to push to seek the lost in this community.”

Rome church of Christ, Lebanon, Tennessee (remote): David Oxley (elder) reports, “We finished our study of the Back to the Bible on Sunday Morning in Book 3. We will meet this week for our advanced class. We are currently working on five prospects and continuing one Bible study. Two of our prospects visited with us on Sunday morning, and they are interested in a Bible study.”

West Fayetteville church of Christ, Tennessee: Steve Jefferson (elder) reports, “Good afternoon from the West Fayetteville congregation. Sunday evening worship time was used for refresher training on our bookmarks and also for the transition visits. We are encouraging more families to be involved in these visits to help with the growing number of prospects. We are encouraging all who are able to be involved and reaching out to our community. We discussed our strengths, but we also talked about our weaknesses. Several people said they would like to be part of the visitation team. As of this year (2025) we have sent out a total of 453 cards and have added five contacts. Since starting in November, we have written to 21 contacts and sent out 889 cards. We are currently working with two prospects in Bible studies.”

Hillsboro church of Christ, Tennessee: Roy Carroll (elder) reports, “We have some good news right now. Several of my coworkers have been attending, and we are praying about them. We are helping one contact move into his new house at the end of the month. I have great hope for him and his wife. We have several prospects that have come out of the new movers program as well.”

Freewill church of Christ, Gainesboro, Tennessee (remote): Andrew Scott (preacher) reports, “We continue to be diligent with our soul saving efforts. Last Thursday evening, an EF 1 tornado touched down in the Freewill/Seven Knobs community. Thankfully no injuries were reported. We are using this opportunity to reach out to those that have been affected. In particular, one family who has fallen away from the church had major damage on their property. We are going to flood them with cards this week and offer to help them in any way. We have several ongoing Bible studies and prospects that are close to the transition. We give God the glory!”

Mountain Creek church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee: Michael Tomshack (elder) reports, “Gary Massey, elder and minister, is continuing studies with the spouse of one of our members. Another study by another member is progressing slowly due to work and flu-related conflicts. A study continues with our new sister in Christ to further develop the foundational principles established by Back to the Bible.”

Covington church of Christ, Tennessee: Wayne Dalrymple (elder) reports, “We have had a good week at Covington. On Saturday, we participated in our community ‘Chocolate Tour’ by handing out Oreo balls to 700 plus people and inviting them to our services. On Sunday, we had several visitors again. One of our visitors was Noah, a young adult who has been visiting for a few weeks now. We started sending him cards on Monday night. I asked him what made him decide to visit with us. He said he is looking for a new church. He used to attend a Baptist church in a neighboring town. He is prime for a study. I have encouraged some of our young adult members to take the lead in befriending him and getting him to study. Chris postponed our second study until this coming Sunday.”

Buda/Kyle church of Christ, Texas: Deric Merz (member) reports, “We are presently working to develop Bible studies with three visitors and a friend of one of our members. We are making positive progress, but that progress is slow. We appreciate all prayers for our labors.”

Southwest church of Christ, Austin, Texas: Bryce Mayfield (evangelist) reports, “Two of the three planned studies did take place this week. Due to the situation, we used Does It Matter with two people. After the studies, both saw the need for baptism and had a desire to do so. However, they were living together and not married. After studying with them further on that topic, the study ended with the couple deciding they needed to count the cost some more before committing to baptism. It was an unfortunate conclusion, but we are hopeful and plan to study with them again soon. More cards are being sent and we are becoming more organized as a congregation. Southwest has at least ten visitors each week, and we are beginning to implement more of the HTH School of Evangelism methods to make sure we turn these contacts into prospects and candidates for Bible studies.”

Howe church of Christ, Texas: Aaron Alsbrook (preacher) reports, “We are continuing to build momentum from the seminar in November of last year. This Sunday, we looked at the first half of Back to the Bible, Book 2. Next week we will have our annual Gospel Meeting, and many members have been preparing to make it successful. After the meeting, we will look at the last half of Book 2, and begin the greeters training.”

Roanoke church of Christ, Texas: Caleb Rutherford (preacher) reports, “We are still rolling right along. Joey finished teaching through Book 2 of Back to the Bible on Sunday morning. I will start Book 3 this coming Sunday. Group 1 met again last night to write to our ten prospects. Our elders are in the process of following up/making transition visits to our first group of prospects, which were all unfaithful members. We also did a ‘Study Team’ training on Sunday afternoon. We are currently engaged in four Bible studies, with two more being set up. We appreciate all prayers for our efforts!”

Hondo church of Christ, Texas (remote): Andrew Patterson (preacher) reports, “We reviewed the evangelism principles yesterday and explained how to use Book 3 of BTTB. We have almost finished going through it.”

Southside church of Christ, Lubbock, Texas (remote): Joshua Hubbard (associate minister) reports,
“Things are going great! We have two videos left to watch, and we have been using the sermon outlines. Right now, we are just trying to put together coordinators for some things, so that we can get the compassion cards rolling. It’s been a slow week, but hopefully things will pick up soon.”

Fruitvale church of Christ, Texas: Carl McCann (elder) reports, “We continue to work the evangelism model. This Sunday, two people placed membership after visiting for nearly two months. They met when one of our members changed a flat tire for them, and we all wrote cards to them. We soon learned that they were Christians. We had eight visitors from the community for morning services. We had six for the evening service. In the coming weeks, we need to follow-up with eleven prospects. Our Facebook outreach titled ‘Fruitvale Bible Study’ continues to be an element of interest for many in this area. We are in our second Bible study at Azalea Trails, a local nursing home in Grand Saline, with seventeen residents or their caregivers. The community Bible study hosted in a member’s home had three community members present, a young couple and a seventh grade boy. We still have seven ongoing Bible studies. We have one new converts study that is still in progress.”

Midtown church of Christ, Victoria, Texas: Cody McCoy (preacher) reports, “This week, we re-enforced the purpose and effectiveness of the compassion cards. We updated our four teams and had a solid turn out on Sunday. We have had contacts turned in both weeks since our refresh. The mindset is shifting as the after-service conversations now include what members are trying to do to reach their family, friends, and co-workers. I am able to suggest different approaches and materials to get Bible studies. Just a little success will fuel the efforts. We pray God gives the increase.”

Wheeler church of Christ, Texas: Garrett English (preacher) reports, “We had our annual Ladies Love Supper, which had around 10 visitors from the community, so we are actively collecting names and addressing cards to them. Soon we will have church members reach out to each one for follow up. I visited with a lady who has received our cards about her husband’s cancer treatments. I plan to visit her again this week and try to transition to a Bible study.”

Bridgewater church of Christ, Katy, Texas: Doug Suggs (deacon) reports, “We had a second lesson with Jonathan using the Back to the Bible material. It was a good lesson, and our third meeting will continue on Saturday. On Sunday morning, we set up a time to study with Dana. She has visited with our Ladies Bible class and our services here lately, and on Monday, which was today, we had our first study with her. We also set up the second study with her for next Monday. We also had a visitor who had received cards from us. We will try to study with her when she returns from Florida in a couple of weeks. Sunday evening after services were over, one of the Spanish visitors who has been coming to our services and Spanish class on Wednesday made her decision to be baptized into Christ. Those of us remaining at the building witnessed this and had a prayer with her. Her husband also has been studying and will be baptized soon. Our card team number one met Sunday evening to send cards to our visitors. Our brother David, who was baptized after we studied with him, had to return to China. He had been accepted to the Brown Trail School of Preaching, and now he is trying to renew his visa so he can return and study God’s Word in June. We appreciate all prayers for us. We are sowing the seed, and the Lord is adding the increase.”

Eisenhower church of Christ, Odessa, Texas: Allen Weakland (elder) reports, “Our evangelistic efforts are being blessed by our Creator. He continues to provide prospects and hearts that are open to God’s will. Our study with Melissa is off to a great start. We are presently working our way through the Back to the Bible books, emphasizing that the Bible is God’s revealed message. She continues to amaze me with her focus. On another front, Caesar has attended with his wife and kids for some time now, and this past week, he contacted me for a Bible study. Lord willing, we will begin that study this Wednesday morning. The Eisenhower congregation will be ordering more compassion cards as we ramp up that effort shortly.  We realized that we have let that slip a bit, but with renewed zeal, we know God will help us with more contacts and prospects. May the church return to its mission by reaching out to a lost and dying world.”

Granbury Street church of Christ, Cleburne, Texas: Ryan Cowan (deacon) reports, “Three of our members are either actively involved in a Bible study with a prospect or are attempting to enter into a study. We are sending cards to five contacts at this time. One of these contacts was recently baptized. Clark and Deborah Lehtinen attempted to visit a compassion card recipient, but they could not make in-person contact. A DVD was left for the contact. Our next considerable effort will involve new movers baskets, scheduled for delivery on February 23.”

Abingdon church of Christ, Virginia: Freddie Klein (evangelist) reports, “Our training is progressing well. We are currently working through the lessons on Sunday mornings and the training sessions on Sunday evenings. We have set up information tables throughout the building featuring the evangelistic model. After the morning sermon, I spoke to the congregation about the contact cards and explained their purpose. Additionally, we have completed the collection of member surveys and will use this information to determine our next steps.”

West Side church of Christ, Salem, Virginia: Jeff Durham (elder) reports, “We had two local visitors yesterday evening. Both stayed for a good while talking with members. One of our ministers has reached out to one of the visitors today. We will continue our contacts with both and will hope and pray they accept our offer to study together. Card writing efforts are strong with members remaining committed to participate.”

Culpeper church of Christ, Virginia (remote): Dave Calvert (elder) reports, “Things are moving steadily along with our evangelism efforts. We were blessed to have some repeat visitors as well as one new visitor this past Sunday. The husband and father of one of the visiting families came for the first time this Sunday. When I told him we were very happy to have him, he replied that he is looking forward to learning more about the Bible. One of our families has already started discussing the Bible with them and invited them to lunch after the service, and they accepted. They seem to be very interested and seem to be very good prospects. We will continue to pray that they will remain receptive to knowing more about God and the church. We had a meeting with several of our couples to ask them if they would be willing to be part of our visitor greeting team. They were all agreeable. We showed them an example of our visitor gift bags that are being prepared to give to our new visitors. We should be ready to start this part of our evangelism program in a couple of weeks. Things are moving steadily along with our evangelism efforts.”

Williamsburg church of Christ, Virginia: Jim Bishop (elder) reports, “This week, we continue to prepare and send out compassion cards. Each Wednesday night, we also continue to review the HTH short videos prior to the mid-week Bible study. Additional emphasis is being placed on the importance of contacts. We must take time to find out more about those with whom we are studying so we can understand what they are searching for and what they need. The new converts class is doing well. We have one brother teaching and an elder assisting with those efforts. Our next door-knocking event is scheduled for next Saturday.”

Peninsula church of Christ, Hampton, Virginia: Ben Phillips (preacher) reports, “Our recent converts continue to be engaged, which is an encouragement to all of us. We have a consistent visitor from the community, and we pray we will be able to engage this person for a study. We have been struggling of late to get contacts from our members. We plan to reemphasize this in our coming services together. We appreciate all prayers as we do follow-up and work to keep the momentum going.”