Success Stories: February 21, 2024

Welcome Rison church of Christ, Arkansas: We welcome the Rison church of Christ to the House to House/Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. The preacher is Keden Shrum, who was one of our Brown Trail School of Preaching students. He has already had eight baptisms in just over a year. This congregation will do great work for the kingdom.

Welcome Shenandoah church of Christ, San Antonio, Texas (remote): We welcome the Shenandoah church of Christ to the House to House/Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. As a teenager, I often preached at this fine congregation. They hosted the annual Shenandoah Lectures each year. They were once a mighty congregation. Now, they need help to rebuild. We are thankful to enroll them in HTHSOE. Their elders and preacher are dedicated to leading this congregation to reach the lost in their community.

Glencoe church of Christ, Alabama: David Marker (elder) reports, “We have recently had two baptisms and continue to study with others who are close to making a decision. Several contacts were in attendance Sunday, and we pray that will lead to a Bible study. We are presently delivering New Mover baskets, and since we have been using the new metrics on our Progress board, we have noticed that our participation is up. It is a great way to keep us focused and accountable. It has been encouraging to see that our ongoing work is producing progress.”

Hatton church of Christ, Alabama: Chris Miller (preacher) reports, “We are having visitors for worship regularly now. Families are inviting them to lunch, and relationships are being built. This upcoming weekend is CYC, which in the past has been our biggest evangelism weekend because our group invites lots of visitors and focuses on studying with these teens. We are praying for God to increase this effort. Studies continue with Back to the Bible.”

Fayette church of Christ, Alabama: Josh Taylor (deacon) reports, “We are developing relationships with two strong prospects who received cards. Two individuals have been attending for a couple of months. We hope our conversations with them go well, and they can recognize the repentance they need. We appreciate all prayers.”

Monticello church of Christ, Arkansas:  Josh Walker (preacher) reports, “Members have started going out regularly to visit those who have received cards. We have seen an influx of visitors. We had a ladies’ day last weekend. The majority of those who attended were visitors, and many of them were from the community. Our evangelism room has been organized, which has helped us become more efficient in writing cards and visiting. We appreciate all prayers for our efforts and especially for our current Bible studies.”

Lake City church of Christ, Florida: Jim Flegert (elder) reports, “Our Monday Mission/Sunday has allowed our team to carry gift bags to eight families. Six of them had received new mover baskets a few weeks ago and were designated to receive compassion cards. Our visitor team welcomed two families to our worship service today. We are excited about the future possibilities of our congregational evangelism due to today’s news.”

Niceville church of Christ, Florida: Joe Palmer (preacher) reports, “This week we sent out 45 cards. We have two ongoing Bible studies, and we are working several prospects. We are planning two upcoming outreach events. I have been using Sunday night as a mix of evangelism training or teaching fundamentals because we have new converts attend. This week, I had two responses from prospects who appreciate the cards, encouragement, and Bible training they have received.”

Lithia Springs church of Christ, Georgia: Larry Acuff (preacher) reports, “We are trying to rebuild and the place to do it is in the baptistery. Recently, I used Back to the Bible to study with a college student and her brother who is in high school, and I baptized them. I have continued to study with them. Last week, they brought their cousin, and we will begin that study this week.”

Lafayette church of Christ, Georgia: Jesse Teague (elder) reports, “Eleven saints wrote compassion cards last night. A couple of families were out of town with a youth event, but they filled out their cards ahead of time to ensure the work gets done. God bless them—would that all members had their zeal.”

Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Greg Garner (deacon) reports, “We had one new contact card. The Compassion Card Group sent seven cards last week. The Prison Ministry Group has submitted a package for two volunteers to assist with Bible studies with the students in DeKalb RYDC. The New Mover Group delivered five New Mover baskets. We had 17 in our New Convert class. The Greeter Group reported that we had three visitors this week.”

Carrollton church of Christ, Georgia: Danny Spain (member) reports, “I am sending some pictures of the resource room. We have all the panels up now and will continue to place shelves and bins on the wall. This will allow us to organize our supplies.”

Honolulu church of Christ, Hawaii: Tagiilima Esene (preacher) reports, “Aloha from the Honolulu congregation! We now have four ongoing Bible studies. Our new Bible study with two souls is in connection to our podcast, Converted. After watching the first episode, Paul and Ave contacted us to study the Bible with us. Our Converted podcast is doing what it is supposed to: to build a bridge connecting souls to the soul winners for Bible studies. This past week, one sister in Christ was restored to the body. We also had two baptisms reported by one of our members. Jewel, one of our new converts, baptized two more softball teammates. Praise God for his Word and for workers. The highlight of this past weekend was our Ladies’ Day event. Tyrene Benjamin and Veronica Wine, from the Chesapeake Church of Christ in Virginia, were our speakers. They did a wonderful job sharing the Word with our ladies. Several prospects attended our event. Please continue to remember us in your prayers. To God be the glory!

Pat Cowden (missionary) reports, “Our team of three families (Ron and Zita McCall, Lloyd and Genevieve Ormon, and Maria and I) went to Kailua, Hawaii, to evangelize and support the church there. We worked with the Solis and Esenes and other brethren from Kailua, Honolulu, and Wahiawa churches of Christ. While there, Chris (pictured) was baptized into Christ, and we made several good contacts for follow-up studies.”

Beloit church of Christ, Kansas (remote): Dustin Dougherty (regional trainer) reports, “We had a very good service and fellowship with the good brethren at the Ransom, Kansas, congregation on Sunday morning.  Membership for them tops out around 25 on average. They want me to return later this year and teach an evangelism course; I look forward to making that happen. I was sad yesterday when I learned that several western Kansas congregations have either shrunk substantially (to single or low double-digit numbers) or have closed their doors completely. Lord willing, I want to do my part through evangelism in helping to correct and recover from that decline in this area and see growth once again.  The fields are white, the laborers are few, and the work is hard.  I recently began a Bible study correspondence course with a contact in Great Bend, Kansas, that came through Joey Ferrell at The Gospel of Christ program. I reached out to her to fill the request for a study she made via the program. We decided on the main course to begin and work from there.  Things are going well in Beloit; we have been going over the HTHSOE curriculum during mid-week studies and made it through the contact portion last night. We had good discussions about how we can do more to increase our exposure and overall contact with people in our communities. We are thankful to the Lord for the opportunities we have going forward, and give Him all honor and glory.”

Paintsville church of Christ, Kentucky: Zach Collins (preacher) reports, “Lord willing, we will have two Bible studies this week. Both will come to my house for dinner with a Bible study. A few moments ago, I finished having lunch with a denominational church member who is searching for truth. He has been listening to GBN and The Authentic Christian podcast, which caused him to seek more knowledge about the churches of Christ. He understands the error in his religion and sees that the church of Christ follows the pattern of the New Testament, which appeals to him. We request prayers for a profitable study! We have a gospel meeting with BJ Clarke approaching. We will be doing an advertisement and door-knocking campaign, with a Friends & Neighbors Day to begin the meeting on March 10. We ask for prayers that God gives the increase to our seed sowing!”

Central church of Christ, Paducah, Kentucky: Adam Faughn (preacher) reports, “Our card-writing teams sent more than 100 cards. One Bible study continued and started Book 2. On Friday, we started a Bible study that had been postponed, and we started another Bible study on Saturday with a recent visitor. Both studies are using BTTB Book 1. One of our card recipients who lives in a nursing home agreed to begin a study with one of our elders and another of our men. We heard from two others who have been receiving cards and are just amazed. Follow-ups are being scheduled for several who have been receiving cards. A member who had fallen away contacted an elder and said he would be returning to Central next Sunday. We reached this person through compassion cards. Sunday night following services, we had our Evangelism Fair. Coordinators met with members to find leaders and workers to sign up for 12 specific areas of evangelistic efforts. This is the next step for us in making the model more efficient as we seek to give more responsibility to coordinators who are passionate about their areas. We were blessed to have about 75 members stay for the fair, and all 12 areas now have coordinators and plenty of volunteers. Some areas may have more than enough! It was truly an encouraging evening, and we are praying that it is a valuable step in the congregational model here at Central.”

La Plata church of Christ, Maryland (remote): Eric Sykes (regional trainer) reports, “We sent out 34 compassion cards this week. A family of five visited with us this week. The husband is the co-worker of one of our elders. We had been sending him compassion cards due to his recent bout with cancer. He said that though he is the pastor of one of the nearby denominations, he had to come by and meet the congregation who showed a fellow they do not even know so much love and compassion.

“He said our compassion card ministry was powerful. The cards helped uplift his spirit on those days when he needed uplifting. He said thanks to our mail system, the cards did not come all at one time, but two or three cards daily for several weeks, all from different folks with different words of encouragement. He said that the cards really helped him get through the treatments and therapy sessions, so he wanted to come by and thank us in person and let us know that his last scan showed that, as of today, he is cancer-free.
“He certainly encouraged the family at the La Plata church of Christ. To God be all praise, glory, and honor. We currently have five open Bible studies. One couple finished BTTB and is now going through Does It Matter? Three people are ready for Lesson 2 of BTTB. Six people are in our New Converts classes. We finished training the congregation on Does It Matter?

“The congregation just finished filling out the Post Evangelism Seminar Survey, and we are on training and assigning our area coordinators. We have nine people on our compassion card list to visit this week. Again, we had a great week. We appreciate all prayers as we strive to evangelize our community here in La Plata.”

Southside church of Christ, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Freddie Klein (preacher) reports, “We had further training with our new converts. Our card group sent messages to new movers. Our door-knocking members created bags for next week. We showed an HTHSOE video on the three transition questions. One of our youth is having a Bible study with another friend.”

Samford church of Christ, Steele, Missouri: Kyle Imel (deacon) reports, “Bo and his daughter, Sarah, were baptized into Christ Wednesday night. Sarah, a teenager, had attended with her mother since she was young and was faithful in attendance. Bo was a hard contact. He had visited a few times throughout the years with his wife. He started coming regularly with his wife a month or so ago. Too often, people may think, ‘He is hearing it from the pulpit; that is good enough,’ but obviously, that does not usually work. He was eager for the gospel. All it took was asking if he wanted to learn more about the church. The rest is history.”

Foristell church of Christ, Missouri: Rod Jackson (elder) reports, “We have a new brother in Christ! When I first began studying with him, I used the supplemental lessons to preconceived religious notions. We studied through all three of these lessons, which helped prepare him to study the BTTB lessons objectively and sincerely.  He even mentioned while we were going through BTTB Lesson 2 that the Bible clearly defines how often we are to partake of the Lord’s supper and that according to Ephesians 5:19, we are commanded to sing and not use mechanical instruments in worship. This was enlightening to him; he could not fathom how the other religions he had followed chose to overlook what the Scriptures commanded regarding worship. We studied Lesson 3 of BTTB today between worship services. I am thankful that the power of the gospel pierced this dear brother’s heart, and before the afternoon worship, he made that great confession and was baptized. The Lord added his name to the book of life, a citizen of the kingdom; to God be the glory. We appreciate and are thankful for all the prayers on behalf of our new brother as he studies to find his way.”

Highway West 160 church of Christ, Missouri (remote): Marvin Hatley (elder) reports, “Three active Bible studies continued last week and will, Lord willing, continue this week as planned. One member is studying in two separate studies with former and current co-workers. Another study is moving to Book 2 of Back to the Bible. It is encouraging to watch minds open to God’s Word as prospects find verses from the Bible that answer questions from what they read with their own eyes. Compassion card group one prepared fifty cards to be mailed this week to four prospects. Members in their Compassion Card group have been encouraged/challenged to invite those of the congregation who have not been writing cards to attend a card-writing session with them. Mentoring continues with three new converts using Brother Bobby Bates’ Acts Workbook. Thank you, HTHSOE, for your many efforts!”

East Flushing church of Christ, New York (remote): Clarence Jenkins (preacher) reports, “When we ordered the inserts for the accountability board, we received them promptly. To God be the glory! Yet when we ordered the board itself from a company, it was another story. We finally received it and eagerly put it up Wednesday night. Sunday after worship service, we watched the training video, Introduction: Accountability Board and discussed it. The excitement has been kindled again for evangelism. We appreciate all prayers.”

Cary church of Christ, North Carolina:  Larry Fife (preacher) reports, “This Wednesday marked the second engaging session of our Back to the Bibleseries with a wonderful young man who has been joining us. His enthusiasm and openness have been truly heartwarming. We are eagerly anticipating our third session together this coming Wednesday, as his eagerness to learn and grow is encouraging. Our members are engaged in four other Bible studies. This past Sunday, our Connect Group dedicated time to write 38 compassion cards, extending our warmth and thoughts to those in need, alongside invitations to our eagerly awaited Friends and Family Day on March 10. To date, we have reached out with 140 compassion cards. As we move into another week, we are filled with anticipation for the impactful and fulfilling activities ahead, all in the spirit of serving in the Lord’s Kingdom.”

Lake Milton church of Christ, Ohio (remote): Mike Bisson (preacher) reports, “We have been talking with a lot of people the last two weeks. We are handing out the invitation cards. We have had eight visitors so far. The invitation cards work!”

Streetsboro church of Christ, Ohio: Ralph Price (preacher) reports, “We are sending out compassion cards every week. We have made 12 transitional visits, with many more to come. We passed out our second round of new mover baskets to be delivered yesterday. We received our accountability board markers this past week and plan on installing the board soon.”

Greenville church of Christ, Ohio: John McGiffin (preacher) reports, “We continue to go through our training. We completed Book 3 of Back to the Bible, but it took four weeks as we expanded the study to show different scenarios. We completed training on mentoring. We continue to have repeat visitors, and another new visitor visited recently. He was converted and baptized during COVID-19; one of our members who has a pond baptized him. He attended worship for the first time. Our lesson was timely, concluding with “Counting the Cost” and attendance. We just assigned a coordinator for the new movers’ program. They have been given information for the new movers in the area. Our new coordinator for the visitor program has recruited help with getting bags ready. One of our visitation teams realized that they knew someone connected with a prospect and planned to return for another visit. We completed the training for invitation cards two weeks ago and ordered the cards from HTH. They are complete and being shipped. We plan to distribute ten per person the first week and at least one per person every week afterward. We have had five visitors and 12 prospects, and we have sent 450 compassion cards. We have eight ongoing Bible studies. One of our teenagers is studying with another teenager, using Back to the Bible. This 14-year-old has indicated to her mother that she wants to be saved. We will be meeting with her soon. The teenage teacher wants to conduct the baptism when that occurs. The system is easy and has given many the confidence to conduct Bible studies and labor in ways they never knew they could do.”

New Concord church of Christ, Ohio: Terry Townsend (preacher) reports, “We are sending 56 compassion cards this week. We had three visitors this past Sunday (all of whom have visited in the past few weeks). We conducted one Bible study, finishing with Book 3 of Back to the Bible. The study includes three ladies who understand what they must do; they even cried a little today but are hesitant to obey. We are praying that they make that decision in the coming hours. We implemented the mentoring part of this work, and we hope the families coordinating this part get started right away, as we have several new converts to mentor. We will begin our Mission Monday next week. We hope to have enough involvement so we can catch up by implementing this work and making transition visits.

Sullivan Village church of Christ, Lawton, Oklahoma: Steven Hill (preacher) reports, “Sullivan Village is about to double down on our new movers’ program! We have been seeing 60 to 70 new movers per month entering our area or moving to a new location within the area. We will involve more of our members to make contact, give a new movers basket, make an impression, and leave an invite to our new neighbors. We request prayers for this effort. We will also send cards and make follow up visits. This work is ongoing and used to develop prospects and turn them into studies. We have started seeing multiple visitors each week and are trying to capitalize on each one of them. One of my recent topics for preaching is about how the devil seeks to stop people from doing God’s work. We have looked at Nehemiah building the walls and the opposition that he faced the situation and dealt with it. We have looked at how Jesus faced more opposition as He spread more and more light in this world and how He overcame it. We encourage the members to continue these good efforts, no matter what we face. We must remember that God is working, but fruit takes time to produce and grow.”

Coweta church of Christ, Oklahoma: Keno Shrum (regional trainer) reports, “Last Tuesday, Jamie and I went through Lesson 1 with Jessica. Jessica has no religious experience other than attending a denomination a few weeks several years ago. She received Lesson 1 well, and we will go through Lesson 2 this week. We went through Lesson 1 with Doug and his mother. They have had a lot of denominational influence, yet were very receptive to Lesson 1. Doug could use a lot of prayers from RTL readers. Less than two years ago, his wife passed away. Fourteen months later, his son murdered his daughter and then shot Doug twice, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. His son then committed suicide in front of Doug. While Doug was in rehab, suspected squatters burned his house to the ground. He has been through more adversity than most of us can imagine, but he has stayed strong due to his faith in God. We will be going through Lesson 2 soon. We ask for prayers for these studies as we continue to pray for all who read these reports!”

York church of Christ, Pennsylvania:  Mark Racshke (deacon) reports, “In the past two weeks, we have had some of the largest attendance numbers in our building since COVID. We have also had some great lessons delivered by our brother Fred, which always include a plea for some repeat visitors to ask if they have any questions about the church of Christ or are interested in a study. Alas, we still have not had any responses to the call. Despite recent reminders at the start of services and handing out contact cards afterward, we have also been waiting to receive new contacts for the past few weeks. We will likely choose some long-absent members to send cards to this week. We have continued to visit those who have already received cards, and we follow up with others through conversations in person, on the phone, and by email and text. We hope these efforts will soon yield fruit in the form of Bible studies.”

Union church of Christ, South Carolina (remote): Terry Hale (preacher) reports, “We had two studies last week, one in Book 3 and the other in Book 1. We hope to make contact this week with four who have received compassion cards.”

New Hope church of Christ, New Hope, Tennessee: Cole Wade (preacher) reports, “I have started a men’s Bible class twice a month where we invite friends and guests. We recently had the first one at my house; the next one will be at another member’s house this month. We already have a guest attending, and we are getting to know him and his spiritual background. These meetings will bring people into our homes and get them acquainted with us and our Lord!”

West End church of Christ, Knoxville, Tennessee: Hector Cortez (evangelist) reports, “We are excited to announce that our Bible classes for the spring quarter will start in March. During this time, we will use the classes to prepare the congregation to utilize the book Does It Matter? This action will unify us and help us to reach out to the lost in our community. In addition to these efforts, we are also considering running a gospel campaign in mid-May. This campaign will allow us to reach out to the community we have been contacting for months, and we hope to share the gospel with them. We are pleased to announce that we are adding a coordinator to our benevolence ministry. This coordinator, Larry Horton, will help us to follow up with the families we assist with food. We kindly ask for your prayers for Larry. Furthermore, we have made several updates to the compassion card ministry, our evangelistic material space, and new movers. These upgrades have added more space, organization, and new technology to our system for reaching out to the lost.”

Madison County church of Christ, Jackson, Tennessee: Steven Sprouse (preacher) reports, “The past few weeks, during Sunday morning Bible class, we have been studying conversational evangelism, i.e., asking questions, deferring without debating, showing without telling, developing interest, and assessing heart conditions. Once a month on a Saturday, we have a congregational workshop to practice talking to people and doing Back to the Bible studies with each other. We have some new prospects and are sending out compassion cards. Yesterday, we had a couple of visitors. They had received a new movers’ basket. This basket was left at their door in September because they were not home or did not answer the door. Since then, they have been watching our online services. We provide a QR code and a web address for our Facebook group in our baskets. They had planned on visiting us, and yesterday was the day. A couple from our congregation took them to lunch after worship. We were happy to see them return for our evening service. They plan to be with us again Wednesday. We ask for prayers that they will allow us to study with them.”

McKenzie church of Christ, Tennessee: Randy McAdams (elder) reports, “McKenzie initiated their new monthly mail out yesterday. This month, we will send cases of love to nine people. We are continually encouraging our members to be as personal as they can to express genuine Christian love. May God bless our efforts.”

Brushy church of Christ, Centerville, Tennessee: Kevin Johnston (preacher) reports, “Our evangelism table is set up and filled with tools for evangelizing. Several members picked up materials, and we began our first lesson from Back to the Bible. We are learning and growing together as a congregation to be even more evangelistic. We have around four prospects. The elders are working on our prospect list.”

Hillsboro church of Christ, Tennessee: Chris Sliger (member) reports, “Our highlights include having a Pakistani father/daughter visit for the past few weeks; we will ramp up our outreach/benevolence for them over the coming days. We sent 110 cards to 13 contacts. Over the next week, we intend to visit five contacts who have been receiving cards for the past three weeks. The coordinators continue to meet every week to discuss the program’s execution, and we continue to show SOE training videos to the members every Sunday AM class. We are very encouraged by the Pakistani father/daughter attending and feel so blessed to be able to share Jesus’ love with them. God is good!”

Mountain Creek church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee: Michael Tomshack (elder) reports, “Gary Massey (Elder, Minister) continues the lesson plans recommended by the process. Our compassion card organizer, Wendy Mitchell, divided the congregation into four teams, with Team One, led by Kim Tomshack, meeting Sunday after worship to sign cards for distribution throughout the week. We received our first list of 55 new movers.  The New Movers Team, led by Seth and Lydia Harris, will now develop a distribution plan, as many of these are in apartments, not individual houses. Danny and Jennifer Ellis lead the Keepers portion and assign mentors for new Christians from 2023 and the three this year. Our social media team includes Lydia Harris, Ali Hagemann, and Lauren Massey. They are reviewing each of our social media platforms and have already identified weak points in our coverage and response time.”

New Union church of Christ, Manchester, Tennessee: Paul Fulks (elder) reports, “Four Contact Cards were submitted after reviewing our bookmarks. We have congregational prayer specifically for those we are prospecting. Our members have been consistent in completing and submitting new contact cards. We have recorded information for five visitors, given them visitor bags, and recorded their addresses so we can send cards to them . . .  Card Team 3 wrote 55 compassion cards. We assigned new mover bags. We made three follow-up visits with prospects. We conducted one Bible study. We have one new convert in our special class. Lastly, we had our Mission Monday meeting at 8:00 a.m., led by two elders and our preacher. We reviewed all evangelism activities completed during the past week.”

Chapel Hill church of Christ, Tennessee: Matt Jones (deacon) reports, “Things are progressing. Isaac continues to deliver quality sermons, with this past week covering differences under the old/new covenant and the church’s role in benevolence. We received our new mover list, have supplies for baskets, and will begin making those visits soon. We also have been making our follow-up visits from our compassion cards. We continue to have many visitors in our worship assembly, and we greet and engage each one of them. This past Sunday, we kicked off our new converts class with several of our new converts in attendance, so this has started well and was much needed. We continue to keep our focus on reaching the lost!”

East Main church of Christ, Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Brad Rowley (elder) reports, “East Main’s compassion card team wrote 44 cards last week. We did not receive any new contact cards. We have nine people involved in ongoing Bible studies. We had three follow-up visits and attempted six new mover baskets. We are encouraging members to use the invitation cards.”

Covington church of Christ, Tennessee: Wayne Dalrymple (elder) reports, “We are continuing to plant and water the seed at Covington. We still have five studies; another prospect may be close to a Bible study. We wrote and sent dozens of cards this week to prospects. We will be attempting to engage more members in the evangelism process. Two of our deacons, Brad Evins and Benny Collins, are recruiting and organizing greeters for our visitors to identify those visitors who are non-Christians and to make sure we contact them in a productive way. My daughter, Anna Kate, contacted a teenager she knows today (Monday). After they spent a few hours together with a few other kids, Anna Kate invited her to our services. The girl said she would like to visit; she may come with us this Sunday. God is providing plenty of opportunities. We need to continue to take advantage of them.”

Highway 95 church of Christ, Taylor, Texas:  Benjamin Dossey (preacher) reports, “We delivered 20+ new movers’ baskets last Saturday, we sent compassion cards to four souls in our area, and we had a young man, Houston, obey the gospel last night after going through Bible studies over the past several weeks.”

Crosby church of Christ, Houston, Texas (remote): Jon Wheeler (elder) reports, “This Sunday we had seven visitors, four of which were returning. Follow-up contacts will be made to all visitors. Twenty-four compassion cards will be sent this week. In our new converts class, a lady asked us to contact a church in Garland, Texas, to study with another daughter who wants to be baptized. So, we are reaching out to a church five miles from her residence to study with her! Fifteen new mover baskets were delivered. One couple reported that a lady asked for prayers for her granddaughter in the hospital. More follow-ups will be made tomorrow with her. Two personal Bible studies will be continued this week, and a new one will start. God continues to bless us!”

9^th and Main church of Christ, San Angelo, Texas: Bryan Braswell (elder) reports, “The second sermon on John 4 was delivered. We had five responses and restorations yesterday morning. We are working on placing our coordinators. I am still the point of contact for now. I am busy. We are meeting every week and discussing our continual plan of action. Momentum is not lost at all. We are narrowing the prospect cards and identifying the targets we know we can meet next week. We send cards every Sunday after evening services to selected targets now more local. We are busy, and we are moving forward. We also had one baptism last night due to the ongoing efforts.”

Buda-Kyle church of Christ, Texas: Ronnie Scherffius (preacher) reports, “Things are going well at Buda-Kyle. We had our second training class last night; Curtis Scherffius introduced and explained the Evangelism Table to those attending our evening classes. Our evangelism team met briefly and determined that to effectively get our congregational evangelism program put into place, we would need to increase our planning meetings. We will meet this week to select coordinators and teams for our Visitors and Compassion Card programs. We feel that these are two critical areas in the program and must have diligent workers in place for us to be successful! One of our sisters, Cindy Patterson, volunteered to take care of our prospect list. She will do an excellent job in this critical part of the program. Curtis has done an excellent job of setting up our Evangelism Table, and it is ready for use.”

Southwest church of Christ, Austin Texas: John Garza (regional trainer) reports, “Today, we rejoice with James Elliot, as he has decided to obey the gospel of Christ by being baptized for the forgiveness of his sins and added to the Lord’s church. Initially, he visited because he moved down the road and sought a “church to join.” When he heard the great lesson given by Trent Kennedy, as it related to worship, he had a lot of questions, and when I found out he was not a Christian (Presbyterian) and searching, I asked, “Would you like to know more about the Southwest Church of Christ?” He happily agreed to a Bible study, and some of our young adult Christians invited him to lunch.

“Jake Harris and I did the personal Bible study with him. To my surprise, as we began, I quickly learned that he knew and believed almost everything the Bible teaches about Christ and His church, so we had to call an audible and take the Does It Matter approach. As we ended that study, he learned what the Bible taught concerning baptism and salvation. He was teary-eyed and battling an important question: ‘How devoted Christians spent their life following Christ and have passed away but were only baptized as babies; what does the Word say about this?’

“As the Scriptures teach, he wanted to be baptized for the right reasons, but he had a little more to work through. After a week or so of studying, he decided to be baptized into Christ, but he needed a little more understanding of the subject of the church. So, this morning, we studied more about the church’s unity and how the Lord adds to the church those who are saved through baptism. He understood everything, and after hearing a great sermon on ‘Words of Truth and Reason’ by Cody Westbrook, it solidified his decision to obey the gospel of Christ for the forgiveness of his sins and be added to the kingdom. To God be the glory!”
                                                                                          
Graceton church of Christ, Diana, Texas: Johnny Williford (elder) reports, “The Graceton family had a bittersweet Lord’s Day. We celebrated the short life of little Ivy Hendricks on Sunday afternoon. Because of her funeral service, we had many visitors for the morning worship service. Two families that we have been working with through our evangelistic efforts came back to be with us again. One family came to the evening service also. Our Group B signed 70 compassion cards for seven contacts. Our Mission Monday group will meet next Monday to report on our home visits. We will be announcing a member to our church family this next Sunday. Laura lost her husband in an auto accident about a year ago. She was one of the first ones to receive compassion cards from us. We appreciate all prayers as we also pray for all who read these reports.”

Canyon Lake church of Christ, Texas (remote): Jesse Stuart and Raoul Ferris (evangelists) reports, “We are excited to announce that the elders have hired Bryce Mayfield as the new evangelist for the congregation. Brother Mayfield will finish his school at Southwest School of Bible Studies in July. Until then, he will preach on Sundays and work with evangelists Jesse Stuart and Raoul Ferris when time allows him to do so. We assisted the Itasca church of Christ in Itasca, Texas, with follow-up work and a gospel meeting, resulting in several visitors and two visitors desiring Bible studies. Upon returning, we were able to make some follow-up visits of our own here at Canyon Lake and to assist with some free community service. These visits have produced two good contacts. The first was a family member of a Christian who contacted us and asked if we would check on them because they were going through a difficult time. We visited them and invited them to a class we host at the local library called ‘Coping.’ We are using Brother Steven Lloyd’s book Coping to teach a thirteen-week class to assist those going through difficult times. We hope to use this opportunity to make more contacts. The second contact came from a lady we assisted with community service many months ago. We helped this contact with a much-needed deep cleaning of her home. Work around the house was still needed, and we were happy that this led to their visit last Sunday.”

Wheeler church of Christ, Texas: Garrett English (preacher) reports, “We remain diligent in sending cards, but it is time to visit many of those who have received the cards. I plan to meet with two this week. I could not study as planned with two people last week, but I hope to study this week through BTTB Book 2. Our new converts’ class is still teaching a few visitors as well.”

Bridgewater church of Christ, Katy, Texas: Doug Suggs (deacon) reports, “We had a baptism last week. Alaina, the daughter of one of our deacons, was baptized by one of our elders, Bob Lanham. This was an exciting time. I am sharing a picture of the baptism here. One of our groups met last Sunday evening to address cards to our visitors, and some encouragement cards were sent to some members who have not been attending. We continue to have visitors at our services. Some of these are new to the area and already members of the Lord’s church. We pray that they choose to place their membership with us and join in the work of saving souls.”

Granbury Street church of Christ, Cleburne, Texas: Ryan Cowan (deacon) reports, “To align with the best practices outlined on the School of Evangelism website, I have taken steps to ensure that every congregation member is aware of our prospect list. We provide monthly updated physical copies of the current compassion card lists so members can include them in their daily prayers. After the list is distributed, we take a moment during our service to silently pray for those we are trying to reach. Another strategy I have implemented is using an ‘index card of accountability’ to track our follow-up visits. Instead of just sending a text with an address, I create physical index cards that include the contact’s name, address, and other pertinent background information that I hand directly to members who have volunteered to assist in this aspect of our efforts. I hope these strategies will help the church maintain its focus on reaching out to the lost in our community.”

Itasca church of Christ, Texas (remote): Justin Hopkins (preacher) reports, “Our meeting went great this week. We had six visitors from the community; one of our members invited her sister, who came and brought her husband. They have not found a church since leaving a community church several months ago. Another member brought her neighbor, who goes walking with her. She, in turn, invited a gentleman that she met at the laundromat. Also, from our door knocking, the preacher for the Missionary Baptist Church came on Tuesday. He came back on Wednesday and brought his wife. This week, we sent out 187 compassion cards, made 17 visits, and had one Bible study.”

Charles Harris (regional trainer): “There has been an emphasis on reaching out to the wayward here at New Hope Road. Yesterday, we rejoiced that Michael was restored. Also, I asked two occasional visitors, Tim and his wife, what their thoughts were about the New Hope Road church of Christ. Tim said he is a member the church of Christ, but he is not sure where to go. Based on previous conversations, I am unsure if he is a member of the Lord’s church, but we are setting up a Bible study with him and his wife. During the studies, they will either be restored or baptized into Christ. Either way, souls will be saved!”