Success Stories: February 5, 2025

Glencoe church of Christ, Alabama: Keith Ritchie (evangelist) reports, “Glencoe’s Team 1 went out yesterday afternoon to knock on doors and achieved the intended goal of setting up contacts. We still have two ongoing studies, over 50 visitors for the year so far, and four baptisms. Team 2 will go out next week to knock on doors. The Glencoe congregation is excited about the growth we are experiencing, the involvement in our work, and the ongoing activities. We appreciate all prayers. To God be the glory!”

Fayette church of Christ, Alabama: Josh Taylor (deacon) reports, “All things continue to go well with our program. Over the past month, we have been sending cards to our four specific contacts and to our additional five visitors. Next week, we will gather for Mission Sunday to assign benevolence to these contacts. We aim to visit these contacts and deliver gift baskets to them. We appreciate all prayers for the success of our program!”

Creekwood church of Christ, Mobile, Alabama: Tucker Presley (preacher) reports, “It was a great week! We had one baptism! My dad studied with a visitor named Rusty Ledbetter, and he was baptized on Thursday of last week. He was here at church both Sunday morning and Sunday night. Praise be to God! We started the preaching/training schedule yesterday. All members received bookmarks and were encouraged to fill in ten names. We should be getting a lot of contacts soon! David and I also met with our compassion card coordinators on Wednesday, and it was a great meeting. We are actually already sending out cards to a few families who have lost loved ones recently. We have momentum here!”

Central church of Christ, Saraland, Alabama: David Dixon (preacher) reports, “We had our second baptism of the year Sunday. Breleigh Rawlins obeyed the Gospel. She said she has been thinking about it since her boyfriend’s uncle received some negative news about his health. Young people think about serious issues, too. It’s an evangelistic avenue we don’t need to overlook. We have a Bible study set up for Wednesday, which I strongly suspect will lead to at least two conversions. People all around us want forgiveness. We have to be ready to help them find it.”

West Huntsville church of Christ, Alabama: Paul Owen (evangelist) reports, “I am thrilled to share some exciting updates regarding our number of studies. We have eight studies, and this number is expected to grow in the coming days. This is a wonderful testament to the collective effort and dedication each one has shown towards our One Mission. It is exciting to observe how the visitor program, new movers, prospect cards, and members hosting prospects in their homes are playing crucial roles in the increase of our study count. In addition, these roles build confidence among members so they feel more confident about their ability to practice evangelism! Our gratitude and glory, as always, belong to God for enabling us to serve the lost.”

Highland Park church of Christ, Muscle Shoals, Alabama: Andrew Myhan (deacon) reports, “We had one response Sunday that needs all of our prayers; this man has an unbelieving wife. Our visitors group, as well as the compassion cards group, are doing great work. We have had a few prospects that turned down Bible studies, which is discouraging, but we continue to pray and hope that we can help souls come to Christ.”

Hatton church of Christ, Alabama: Chris Miller (preacher) reports, “We had our meal Sunday, and we continue to have great support and participation. We made assignments for several people who are related to recent converts and recent restorations, hoping to continue to see more results from this effort. We still have Bible studies ongoing, and our attendance continues to increase with visitors coming regularly. I had a former employee who came to worship for the first time this Sunday, and I hope for a Bible study with him. He has had some trouble in life and is looking for help now. The One Mission continues to be what Hatton is about. To God be the glory!”

Petersville church of Christ, Florence, Alabama: Adam Richardson (preacher) reports, “Petersville sent 16 compassion cards to new contacts this week and began assembly of storage shelves for evangelism materials. New items for visitors and new movers continue to come in, and we designed a brochure about the church to distribute in many different ways. We are still talking with three contacts from our visits last week; we hope to set up studies.”

Malvern church of Christ, Arkansas (remote): David Burruss (preacher) reports, “Work is still ongoing. We are actually in the process of making adjustments to better align with our congregation. This past week, we started working on new visitor bags, and we also met to send compassion cards to our eight prospects. Currently, there are no active Bible studies, but I know someone who appears to be interested. I am in early conversations to develop that relationship and transition to a Bible study.”

Rison church of Christ, Arkansas: Keden Shrum (preacher) reports, “Care Team B met Sunday night to sign cards for three families. The elders met with the men of the congregation last night to discuss plans for this year, which will include door-knocking and other community outreach events in hopes of gaining more contacts. Next week, the elders will meet with the ladies to discuss the same issues. We appreciate the training and support of HTHSOE as we continue our efforts to spread the Gospel.”

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, but we have not fully captured the ability to work through the visitor process. We will keep working on it. We have made multiple compassion card transition visits over the last several weeks. Yesterday, one of our members had two very encouraging transition visits, and we believe that we will eventually get a Bible study from at least one of them. These results are all from compassion cards! We continue our weekly planning meeting with our coordinator, and we study, pray, and work towards getting better at the process of utilizing God‘s Word to save souls. We are working.”

Niceville church of Christ, Florida: Joe Palmer (preacher) reports, “Ministry is real. Ministry is meeting people where they are and walking with them down the road they are traveling. Ministry can be both exhausting and exhilarating. Ministry is connecting to people with love. I spent several hours last week working with a convert from last year who has an addiction problem. After we talked about his problem, Alex admitted he needed help. We were fortunate to have a relationship with Project Rescue, affiliated with the Beltline church of Christ in Decatur. I was able to get Alex into Project Rescue. The church sponsored his initial fee to get into the program, and two of our elders drove him to Alabama on Thursday. We request prayers for Alex. On Thursday night, we had a Bible study with Aaron and Ann, who had been attending church for the past few months. I met Aaron at a local Ruby Tuesday where he works. I had met his wife several years ago, but I did not know they were married. As we talked, Aaron and Ann shared their story with us. It was fascinating. They met while they were both homeless. They had invited us to their apartment because Aaron was under house arrest. They were so grateful that my wife and I were willing to come over and spend an evening with them. Their apartment was so small; they had one loveseat and one office chair, and Ann sat on the floor. When we left, the wife gave us a piece of paper rolled up and told me to open it after I left. It was a small donation to help somebody else in need. We have a second study set up for this Thursday. This week, we sent out 63 cards. We had three Bible studies. On Sunday, two ladies we met at Friend Day returned; we are actively trying to set up a study with them. Also, two Hispanic ladies visited us Sunday. They do not speak English; they want to return so they can learn English and also learn about Jesus. I communicated with them using Google Translate. I set up a study with them. I have recently bought a Spanish edition of the Jule Miller study, and one of our converts from last year speaks Spanish, so she will go with me to study with them. We had one other new visitor plus several returning visitors.”

Avalon church of Christ, Florida (remote): Preston Silcox (elder) reports, “The elders and deacons met yesterday to discuss our plan in the future. Our official start date will be March 9. Two of our deacons are building an app to enable us to easily track where we are with contacts, prospects, and Bible studies. We had one visitor yesterday.  We sent 12 cards last week, and we have two ongoing Bible studies.”

Margaret Street church of Christ, Milton, Florida: Troy Spradlin (preacher) reports, “We had one new visitor this past Sunday, bringing our total contacts to 49. We mailed out 41 cards last week (bringing our total cards sent to 441). We moved seven souls into our Visitation/Transition list. We plan to complete the visits this week. We discussed these decisions with the elders, and we suggested a new plan to contact visitors more promptly. We are praying for more Bible studies from the visits! Our one current Believe the Bible study met this past week and is going well. It is positively impacting a wayward brother, who is now attending services more regularly! We also have three possible Bible studies scheduled for this week. God is good! Our pew greeters and our compassion card teams are getting better each week! It apparently takes a few times to work out some of the details, but we are definitely seeing improvement. Our coordinators continue to grow and improve as well. It is also encouraging to see more and more brethren grasp the concept of outward focus of congregational evangelism. Growth has been slow, but we are steadily changing the culture and mindset. To God be the glory!”

Piedmont Road church of Christ, Georgia: Jake Sutton (preacher) reports, “Heaven bound! Dawn and Martin Vaughn are the parents of Jake (on the right in the picture). Jake and his wife were baptized 11 months ago, and by God’s grace, he added his parents into Christ tonight! They had studied Back to the Bible.”

Rabun County church of Christ, Tiger, Georgia (remote): McKinley Pate (preacher) reports, “What a great week in Rabun County! Today, the Lord added to the church those who were being saved! Linda Ivester obeyed the Gospel Sunday. Ms. Linda and I studied numerous times when we were in Rabun County before. Her daughter obeyed the Gospel several years back, but when Covid hit, both quit attending. They began coming back to services a couple of months ago. I sat down with Ms. Linda a few weeks ago and discussed her need to be baptized. She kept putting it off until today. Also, her daughter, Connie Farmer, responded to the invitation, stating that she had been away from home too long and wanted to return, asking God to forgive the wrongs in her life. Also, we had another visitor today. I met Brad while playing golf this week. After a lengthy Thursday conversation, Brad said he would come this morning. Brad was given a visitor bag and showered with many members’ attention. Since this Sunday was our monthly fellowship meal, Brad stayed and ate with us. He and I plan to play golf this week, and Lord willing, I will be able to talk to him about a possible study in the future. Our members filled out compassion cards Sunday after services for our two local visitors from last week. One of those visitors called and stated that she would not be there Sunday due to the death of her mother, but she would be back next week.  Our members also filled out extra sympathy and compassion cards for her and the normal “thanks for visiting” cards. The Lord is truly blessing our small corner of North Georgia and giving us an increase.  We are not sitting on our hands; we work for the Lord every day! We started with nine and are up to 30.  We are just realizing what we have learned from HTHSOE.”

Bremen church of Christ, Georgia: Scott Broughton (member) reports, “We have had a busy week this past week. On Friday, Christian K. obeyed the Gospel. Christian first started attending services after an invitation from one of our members, Ashley R., back in September. Christian has been studying Back to the Bible since October. We had an area-wide singing also on Friday and our annual Men’s Day on Saturday. On Sunday, there were six people who responded to the invitation asking for prayers.”

Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Matt Amos (preacher) reports, “The WCOC congregation attended the Sunabella of Towne Lake Assistant Living devotional on Sunday. Seven non-Christians attended. The Prison Ministry Group is finally cleared to enter the Supermax Youth Detention Center (YDC) for Bible Study sessions in Milledgeville, Georgia. This will begin the last part of February. The New Converts class had nine attendees. The attendees were people from the congregation who wanted to help the new converts. The Compassion Cards group created eleven cards this week. We had eight non-Christian visitors at our Sunday morning service. We also conducted two Bible studies.”

Cartersville church of Christ, Georgia (remote): Charles Harris (regional trainer) reports, “The work continues. We are currently making several visits to set up Bible Studies. Our theme for the year is the fruit of the spirit. This month, we are focusing on joy. We want all of the community to have the joy that comes from being in Christ.”

Honolulu church of Christ, Hawaii: Tagiilima Esene (preacher) reports, “Aloha from the Honolulu congregation. We continue our efforts to evangelize, edify, and be benevolent. Currently, we have five souls who are in Bible studies. We are gearing up for our upcoming Marriage Seminar with Barry Grider. We are excited about this opportunity to strengthen the marriages in the church. The highlight this week is having our first baptism of the year. Dorelis has been visiting our congregation for over six months. About three weeks ago, she completed the Back to the Bible books in a study led by our members/ soul winners, Iona and Bernice. This week, Dorelis made the most important decision in her life by putting on Christ in baptism. We are so encouraged by her example, and we are thankful to God for workers in the church. To God be the glory!”

Collinsville-Troy church of Christ, Illinois: Jason Wright (elder) reports, “We mailed out 193 compassion cards this week. Our coordinator and team do a great job of encouraging our prospects. This week, we will study Book 3 with Rhonda and Margaret. We request prayers for their acceptance of the word of God. Some of the others we studied with were sick. Hopefully, they will be better this week. We had six repeat visitors on Sunday. We made follow-up visits and delivered new movers baskets this past week, thankful for warmer weather. Our class for new Christians is well attended and very successful. We continue to prepare for our upcoming food giveaway, consistently producing contacts. We are thankful to the Lord for the many opportunities to serve!”

LaGrange church of Christ, Indiana: Wayne Poe (elder) reports, “We had no visitors yesterday, but we are refocusing on the training and looking forward to getting things going. I watched the video that came out last Friday, and it helps to get some hints on what to make as a focus.”

Judah church of Christ, Bedford, Indiana: Joe Moon (preacher) reports, “We continue to do the card ministry. We are getting supplies for visitor baskets and training on the transition visit this week.”

Highland Village church of Christ, Bloomington, Indiana: Mark Stauffer (elder) reports, “Totals for January are 145 compassion cards sent, 13 prospects and seven wayward members to visit, three visitors, three visits made, and one Bible study. We conducted training for visiting new movers and using invitation cards. We enrolled in the new movers program, and February is our kickoff month.”

Beloit church of Christ, Kansas (remote): Dustin Dougherty (regional trainer) reports, “Yesterday, we had a great worship service and a really good turnout. We had 43 in attendance, with one visitor present. There was a fellowship meal with good attendance, though we were unable to stay due to our son’s accident. The text-a-day Bible Readings are going great. There are several that respond to the questions each day, and we had a request to do the same with the Old Testament at some point. We will be having our first of many Men of Valor men’s Bible studies this Saturday; several invites have gone out to members of the surrounding community, and we are praying we have a good turnout with many new potential prospects. Visitor bags are in the process, with items on order. Several invitation cards have been either given directly to someone or left on tables at restaurants, and I have been starting to stick them on area bulletin boards. To God be the glory.”
Central church of Christ, Paducah, Kentucky: Adam Faughn (preacher) reports, “A couple of weeks ago, we put up a new Evangelism Board in the front of our auditorium. Since we have congregational goals for the year (and a five-year vision plan), we made the board reflect numbers for the year 2025. We included cards sent, Bible studies, and baptisms, plus our baptism goal for the year (20). We plan to add “visits made” to the board once we figure out a good way to communicate to the congregation that this is for evangelistic visits. Last week, two of our teenagers continued their studies with one of their friends, and we are praying that the study will bear fruit in the near future. We are excited to see our young people involved in the most important work!”

Madisonville church of Christ, Kentucky: Russell Kline (preacher) reports, “There were no baptisms this week and no restorations. There are no Bible studies in progress. The New Converts Class is ongoing and working to strengthen these babes in Christ. We sent about 100 cards out to seven prospects.”

Beltway church of Christ, Camp Springs, Maryland: LeAndre Johnson (preacher) reports, “We are having our first meeting with our leading men this week. I spoke to the congregation about the need for everyone to work together this past Sunday. We already have two Bible studies set up. I will have more to report next week. We are excited to get started.”

Aberdeen church of Christ, Maryland: Will Brown (preacher) reports, “Three encouraging things have occurred this past week. We have one soul place membership after attending worship. They moved to our area from Alabama. Second, we completed our second Bible study with a young man in his twenties who was searching. Lord willing, he will obey the Gospel following the third study next week. Third, a group led by an elder has sent several cards to strengthen new Christians. We have two other studies waiting to be scheduled. We appreciate all prayers for the ongoing efforts.”

La Plata church of Christ, Maryland (remote): Eric Sykes (regional trainer) reports, “The congregation has been rejuvenated by last week’s evangelism training seminar at the Beltway church of Christ. Thus, we are still making progress here in La Plata. We wrote ten compassion cards. We have five prospects on our visitation list, and we will visit them by the end of the week. Six people attended our New Converts training classes. We currently have five prospects and four open Bible studies. Six brothers are attending men’s leadership training class. We are training several area coordinators and their support groups. We had three returning visitors this past week. We hope to add one of them to our active Bible study list.  Thirteen members attended last week’s video of the week class to watch ‘The Age of Anxiety.’ This month, we had 13 new movers, so we are preparing baskets for them. We will visit them over the next couple of weeks. We appreciate all prayers as we continue to strive to implement the Evangelism Model.”

Southside church of Christ, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Doug Pell (former member/elder from Edmund, Oklahoma) reports, “In March, 2023, I started working by telephone calls with an executive in a multi-national manufacturing company 1,000 miles from my home. My company was Executive Consulting Services. My role was as a Life Coach, i.e., I helped people in high-stress positions to discover (or rediscover) fulfillment, life balance, and a sustainable process to achieve those outcomes. After a few meetings, the client admitted, “I am a good person, but something is missing.” That declaration was not new to me in my coaching practice, but this time we entered into a Bible study mixed with dealing with whatever challenges the client was facing at work that week. Ignorant of the Bible and not owning one, the client’s spiritual and moral compass was grounded primarily in life lessons learned from parents. My approach was this: ‘I will not tell you what to do, but I will help you learn how to learn Scripture.’ Eventually, we began and completed the Back to the Biblethree-lesson series by Bobby Bates. Long story short, I handed my client off to a family in a congregation near her residence in Michigan. Southside church of Christ in Grand Rapids had been through the HTHSOE program, and they enhanced the teaching. Jody was baptized into Christ on the morning of January 26, 2025, almost two years from when we began. There are many lessons here, not least of which are the power of God’s Word and her hunger to know the truth.”

East Main church of Christ, Tupelo, Mississippi: Barry Kennedy (preacher) reports, “I preached a sermon last Sunday to remind everyone of our evangelistic mission. I borrowed an idea from another preacher titled ‘The Fish Are Still Biting.’ As I have said before, we are not giving up, but we are struggling to get people truly committed. As Brother Robert Kingsley used to say, ‘We are going to be disappointed; we just cannot be discouraged.’ We appreciate all prayers.”

Samford church of Christ, Steele, Missouri: Kyle Imel (deacon) reports, “We have a teen, Thaxton, who is active in bringing others to Christ. He has been studying with one friend, Luke, and has started another study with his friend, Jackson. Both were there Wednesday, and we sat down with them and went through Book 1. We request prayers for both Luke and Jackson to be open to the plan of salvation and for Thaxton to keep his love of Christ for others. We continue to send cards to three individuals, and visits will be made in a couple of weeks.”

East Flushing church of Christ, New York (remote): Clarence Jenkins (preacher) reports, “After worship service, we did a reboot with the bookmarks, had training, and gave them out new ones for the new year. The brethren watched the video ‘Contacts: A Congregation Uses Bookmarks.’ We prepared 40 compassion cards to be mailed out incrementally this week. Our metrics thus far for February are three visitors, ten prospects, and two visits. We currently have four Bible studies ongoing and one person in the new converts class. We appreciate all prayers.”

New Concord church of Christ, Ohio: Terry Townsend (preacher) reports, “Three separate Bible studies continue (two studies are on Book 3 of Back to the Bible, and the other study is on Book 2). We continue to be encouraged by visitors from the community almost every service. These individuals receive compassion cards, and we make follow-up personal visits as well. Each new visitor also receives a welcome bag. We had our best crowd in several years on Sunday. Also, a family placed membership with us. We continue to struggle with the transitional step, but we are working at it and hoping to improve that area. Our contacts have diminished greatly. I plan to address this from the pulpit very soon. All in all, things are going well. Baptisms are harder here than in other places I have preached. We have several folks right now who have been attending for months and have told me personally that they are in a lost state, and they know what to do, but they have not obeyed yet. They continue to come and show interest. I continue to lay out the truth, praying and hoping the Seed will take root and the hearts will be pricked!”

Sullivan Village church of Christ, Lawton, Oklahoma: Steven Hill (preacher) reports, “We have a fantastic new converts class with multiple new converts growing and learning. We are continuing with an evangelistic focus and teaching all we get to teach! God is blessing us so much, and we are deeply in debt for His wonderful love! To God be the glory!”

Coweta church of Christ, Oklahoma: Keno Shrum (regional trainer) reports, “Yesterday we had two visitors. They are the parents of a recent convert. They do not have any religious affiliation. I knew that their daughter had been trying to get them to come for some time, so I had an encouraging sermon prepared for them if they ever visited. When I saw they had come, I pivoted from my intended sermon to the one I had prepared for them. They seemed to enjoy the service. We will mail compassion cards to them to till the soil. If we can secure a study based on their daughter’s situation, we will need to begin with Believe the BibleLesson B. The Bible studies we had scheduled for the past week had to be postponed due to the flu. As with much of the nation, there is a severe outbreak in this area, but we hope to follow up with those studies this week. Jamie and I look forward to joining the Whitacres in Smyrna, Tennessee, this Friday and Saturday for a Congregational Seminar. As new material continues to be released from HTHSOE, remember there are regional trainers ready to bring this information to your congregation, evaluate possible areas of struggles, and help you get back on track to reaching the lost! I pray God blesses you all in your labors.”

Union church of Christ, South Carolina (remote): Terry Hale (preacher) reports, “Yesterday was a great day. God brought us two prospects. We filled out cards for one; the other one stayed afterward to meet and requested a study. We had a very productive training session, with another training meeting scheduled for Thursday. We have six possible studies planned for this week.”

Hebron church of Christ, McMinnville, Tennessee: Derrick Stiles (preacher) reports, “The last two weeks have been very fruitful. We sent out approximately 100 cards in the compassion card program. We have had a few visitors and are working on a program for them. Also, last night I presented a lesson on the seven points of evangelism and the three conversion phases. We continue to ask for prayers as we work the mission field around us. May God bless us all!”

McKenzie church of Christ, Tennessee: Randy McAdams (elder) reports, “We began our first week of mail-outs yesterday (Sunday) for the month of February. We have five contacts; two are non-members. Right now, our main source of contact has been through our prayer requests in the classrooms and prayer requests from the church as a whole. Typically, as the weeks pass, we will have more contacts by the third week. We had a wonderful day of worship on Sunday, January 26, with two baptisms. One occurred after our morning worship during the invitation. Minutes after Robert’s baptism, Cooper, one of our 14-year-old youth, put on Christ in baptism. It was a blessed day with these events. Otherwise, we continue to march on with our cards of love to both members and non-members, spreading the love of Jesus Christ our Lord one by one.  May our Lord continue to bless our efforts.”

Blackman church of Christ, Murfreesboro, Tennessee (remote): Brian McCord reports, “The second of the suggested lessons was preached yesterday, and we continue to collect contacts on the bookmarks. We have sent around 20 cards in all and currently have four prospects. We have been a bit busy with placing elders, so we could not do as much last week. Two elders have been placed. We appreciate all prayers of our elders and for the Blackman congregation.”

McEwen church of Christ, Tennessee: Jonathan Jones (preacher) reports, “I preached the final lesson on John 4 Sunday morning. On Sunday night, I preached about compassion cards. A handful of folks took contact cards with them to fill out. I will meet with the elders this morning about finalizing coordinators.”

Cookeville church of Christ, Tennessee: Jonathan Medley (deacon) reports, “We implemented the new team structure for our compassion cards this week. It is the final piece we needed to get that system organized. We added a new prospect this month; we had a mutual connection because a member knew of a family moving to town from California. We took them a new movers basket on Saturday morning and started sending them cards this week. We plan to revisit them in the coming weeks.”

East Main church of Christ, Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Brad Rowley (elder) reports, “In January, our compassion card teams wrote a total of 57 cards. This year, we have started to include some members who need encouragement in our evangelism card ministry. We had two contact cards during the month. We delivered 19 new mover baskets in January, and we had a total of four Bible studies during the month. Since Vacation Bible School is our most effective tool to reach out to our community, we have been exploring new options to advertise it through social media. In March, we will have our first community outreach event, which is a health screening. Basically, we provide the facility to a medical group who performs the health screenings. We then can meet them, obtain contact information, provide refreshments, and share what East Main offers.”

New Union church of Christ, Manchester, Tennessee: Paul Fulks (elder) reports, “We had two contact cards submitted and two visitors. We wrote 47 compassion cards. We made three transition visits.”

Ocoee Street church of Christ, Copperhill, Tennessee: R.E. Vann (elder) reports, “First, we have an update on our first Bible study, which was interrupted for nine weeks due to familial matters. The contact and her son had moved from our local area shortly after completing Lesson 1 of BTTB, but now they are back. She is interested in resuming our study, and we ask for continued prayers. We have had a local visitor for the past two Sundays who is interested in ‘knowing more about the Ocoee Street church of Christ.’ She was already a warm contact whom we had assisted for years through our benevolence ministry. We just applied the model and are going to another Bible study. Last week, we added three wayward members to our Prospect List, but our compassion card writing struggled a bit. We will be looking at ways to encourage a more effective process for card writing.”

Rivergate church of Christ, Madison, Tennessee: Doug Tooley (preacher) reports, “We had four visitors on Sunday. One was met with a benevolence issue. He has visited several times. Church members made three visits last week. We are continuing our training for new converts. We have also been refreshing the congregation to keep up with their compassion card prospect list. One of our deacons and his wife started a new Bible study last week with a coworker who visited us several times. The person is eager, and we are prayerful.”

White Oak church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee (remote): John McGiffin (preacher) reports, “We knocked on new movers’ doors on Sunday afternoon. One contact was promising. If folks are not home, we leave a door hanger and plan to return in two days. I called some past visitors during the week as well. I have been working with a few men about planning to do back door Bible studies. We are discussing how to transition Bible correspondence students into face-to-face Bible studies. We continue to solicit names for the bookmarks. We hope to send two men to the general sessions of the HTH School of Evangelism Seminar being held the first week of May at the Soddy church of Christ.”

Hillcrest church of Christ, Springfield, Tennessee: Tim Taylor (associate preacher) reports, “Freddy, who has been visiting with us for several weeks, met with our elders and placed membership with us yesterday. Janifer, the daughter of one of our longtime members, expressed her desire for prayers on her behalf and restoration yesterday. We are excited to have them as part of our family at Hillcrest!”

Chapel Hill church of Christ, Tennessee: Matt Jones (deacon) reports, “Things are going well. We recently met as a coordinator team to discuss all areas. We are working towards getting more members involved, so we plan to send out the survey again soon to reassess where everyone is most interested in supporting. We continue to have new and returning visitors. New mover baskets were recently assembled and are going out for delivery.”

Rome church of Christ, Lebanon, Tennessee (remote): David Oxley (elder) reports, “We continued our study of Back to the Bible on Sunday Morning in Book 3. We will meet this week for our advanced class.  We are currently working on three prospects and continued one Bible study.”

West Fayetteville church of Christ, Tennessee: Steve Jefferson (elder) reports, “The West Fayetteville congregation continues sending compassion cards. We sent one group card last week. This week, we wrote to two people; one is a new contact. Thirty-two cards are going out this week, including two group cards. This coming Sunday evening, we will use the updated training tools for visitors by using the bookmark and the transition visit.”

Freewill church of Christ, Gainesboro, Tennessee: Andrew Scott (preacher) reports, “Our work continues to go very well. Our third study with Carolyn was postponed due to sickness. A family visited yesterday; they had been on our card list some time ago. They have a new baby. We sent them cards again and have lunch scheduled this coming weekend. We also have a study scheduled with another prospect and his mother. Hopefully, that will take place this weekend. We have gone through Books 1 and 2, but they had some family issues and have not been back to services. We are trying again, and they seem interested in returning to services. We will take them out to eat and have that third study as soon as they are back. There could be no better way to help them get through these difficulties than teaching them the cross and the way of salvation! We appreciate all prayers. To God be the glory.”

Mountain Creek church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee: Michael Tomshack (elder) reports, “We are pleased to announce the conversion of Tia. Several weeks ago, Danny and Jennifer Ellis invited Tia and her husband to worship. Yesterday, their simple invitation resulted in a profound spiritual transformation. This is a testament to the power of the Great Commission and the fulfillment of Jesus’ command to make disciples.”

Covington church of Christ, Tennessee: Wayne Dalrymple (elder) reports, “On Sunday morning, we had about 15 visitors from the community and surrounding areas who are either not Christians or have been unfaithful in their attendance. We hope to prospect these and possibly study with some of them soon. On Sunday evening, Chris visited for the third week in a row. He had agreed to study with me after the evening worship. The first thing he asked when we sat down to study was whether we believe members of the church of Christ are the only ones going to heaven. I deferred that question by saying, ‘I will answer your question, but first, I would like to go through this book in order to lay the foundation for the answer.’ He agreed, and we started Book 1 of BTTB. He had no issue at all with anything we covered. When I mentioned that we are no longer under the Ten Commandments and that is why we do not observe the Sabbath today, he wrote it down in the notebook he had brought. We have scheduled to study Book 2 this Sunday. Monday evening, about 30 of us met to stuff close to 2,000 Oreo balls into treat bags to give out at our town’s Chocolate Tour on the Square this Saturday. Each bag has our name and times of service. We hope to get a few visitors through this outreach.”

Southwest church of Christ, Austin, Texas: Bryce Mayfield (evangelist) reports, “We have three Bible studies planned for this week. One study was the result of contacting and then prospecting a visitor. The other two resulted from a contact made by one of the preaching students at a restaurant. We plan to start with Book 1 of BTTB with all three studies. I will lead one study, and others in the congregation will lead the other two. We are also prospecting a family that visited us last week. They left the Mormon church and are seeking a more ‘Bible-based’ church. I hope to set up a study with them very soon. Our card writing here at Southwest has slacked too much, so I am working to encourage members to continue to write cards to all our visitors and other prospects.”

Howe church of Christ, Texas: Aaron Alsbrook (preacher) reports, “As always, this Sunday was exceptional, as is every time we assemble to worship the Almighty God. There was much excitement as we looked at Book 1 of the three Back to the Bible series in our morning service. To date, we have around nine contact cards filled out by our members and are transitioning them to our prospect list to send compassion cards. We all know how impactful it is to receive cards in the mail during times of joy, and even more uplifting when we are discouraged. We look forward to placing a coordinator over our compassion cards groups and getting that work underway. On Sunday evening, we spent our time together discussing the ‘New Movers’ training card and are appointing coordinators and teams for that effort as well. Several of our members have been carrying out this model as individuals for quite some time, and we are thankful for their help and encouragement. My wife used the Back to the Biblestudy series with her sister, and I am thankful to say, her sister put the Lord on in baptism last Thursday, January 30, 2025. I know it is obvious to us, but it bears repeating: ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.’ ”

9^th and Main church of Christ, San Angelo, Texas: Leon Martinez (evangelist) reports, “We have had one conversion this year and currently have multiple contacts that we hope will lead to Bible studies. In addition, there are currently two prospects who have been visiting, so we will continue to work with them to have an opportunity to sit down and have open Bible studies.”

Northern Oaks church of Christ, San Antonio, Texas: Mel Hutzler (elder) reports, “I am going to watch the new video on how to treat visitors. We have three Bible studies going on at the building and a few outside of it. I believe we will have a few in a row, but right now, there is nothing new to report.”

Southside church of Christ, Lubbock, Texas (remote): Joshua Hubbard (associate minister) reports, “We have had a productive week here at Southside. We have passed out the bookmarks and will begin collecting prospects and writing compassion cards soon. There are already several potential prospects; we may make some visits this week or next week. We are also assembling a welcome table for visitors and selecting coordinators for welcome bags and greeters.”

Fruitvale church of Christ, Texas: Carl McCann (elder) reports, “We had another good turnout of visitors. We had five visitors from the community for morning services; three were Christians. We have several prospects; we hope to follow up with them this week. We have restarted our Facebook outreach titled, ‘Fruitvale Bible Study,’ and it is already bringing in several folks who are interested in Bible studies and requesting prayers. We are in the early stages of working these social media contacts. We conducted our first Bible study at Azalea Trails, a local nursing home in Grand Saline. We had 17 present;   13 were residents or their caregivers. We completed the first chapter of ‘Searching for Truth.’ One of our members will begin offering a weekly Bible study in their home this week for the people of their community. We still have seven ongoing Bible studies. The concern with these seven has been age. Most of these have been slow going because they have medical concerns that have hindered the progress. We have one study that is with a sister in Christ who had never done any continuing studies after her baptism nine years ago.”

Midtown church of Christ, Victoria, Texas: Cody McCoy (preacher) reports, “Our deacon/coordinator James Cammock has already jumped into action by matching members with vital tasks to support congregational evangelism. The members have actively prayed for and invited their contact card names to our services. We had many visitors for our ‘Welcome the New Minister’ potluck between services. Two of our ladies conducted their second study with a lady who requested a Bible study while attending our Ladies’ Day. That same lady brought a friend to services Sunday and stayed for the potluck. Teams are engaged in writing compassion cards, and we look forward to greeting them in the assembly.”

Wheeler church of Christ, Texas: Garrett English (preacher) reports, “We have our annual Ladies Love Supper this week, which partly serves as an outreach tool. Many ladies from the community have attended in the past and have been invited again this year. We hope this will foster more connections for us. I am working on scheduling study times for those contacts that are ready for studies.”

Bridgewater church of Christ, Katy, Texas: Doug Suggs (deacon) reports, “Last Saturday, we had our first study with Jonathan. He has been attending our services for a while and agreed to this study. We will be having the second study with him next Saturday. We went through the first Back to the Bible lesson with him. We are encouraging our brothers and sisters to look for contacts. Our Compassion Team number two will meet this coming Sunday evening.”

Granbury Street church of Christ, Cleburne, Texas: Ryan Cowan (deacon) reports, “Our weekly evangelism update via email continues to be a valuable tool in keeping the Body informed of our evangelism efforts. It is encouraging to see all the different efforts taking place! The best news I have to share is the recent baptism of Xavier Alvarez. Xavier is a family friend of the Ramirez’s. What started with a visit by the Ramirez family to Granbury Street two years ago has resulted in about seven baptisms!”

Abingdon church of Christ, Virginia: Freddie Klein (evangelist) reports, “We are thrilled to see the congregation’s enthusiasm for this exciting new outreach effort! Rob Whitacre’s inspiring lessons and the clear evangelism model have ignited a spark. This past Sunday, Nathan kicked things off with a thought-provoking sermon about the ‘politically incorrect Jesus.’ After the morning service, we shared information about the important survey and the contact list bookmark, explaining how everyone can participate. We have also created a convenient information table in the foyer with resources to help members get involved. That evening, Nathan’s message focused on practical ways to cultivate contacts, and one of our elders underscored the program’s significance. We are off to a great start, and we sincerely appreciate prayers as we embark on this important work together!”

West Side church of Christ, Salem, Virginia: Jeff Durham (elder) reports, “Our lesson yesterday was centered on Jeremiah 1:4-10. God called Jeremiah to be His spokesman to His people. Jeremiah was reluctant, feeling unprepared as a young man. But God explained His purpose for him, and assured Jeremiah he would provide the words for the message needing to be shared. Jesus told His disciples in Mark 1:35-38 that preaching the word was His purpose. In our evening Bible studies, we discussed the importance of teaching the Gospel (the words God has given us today) as our purpose, and we shared practical ways we can individually do so each day.”

Culpeper church of Christ, Virginia (remote): Dave Calvert (elder) reports, “This was a very exciting and uplifting week for our congregation. Our minister started presenting sermons about the Back to the Bible booklets this past Sunday. It was the perfect sermon for our visitors who were there to learn more about the Bible and what they need to do to be saved. We had nine visitors. Three of them were first-time visitors and were very happy that they were invited by one of our families to come; they are excited to return next Sunday. They are a good prospect. One of the young repeat visitors had been on our prayer and email lists due to some recent struggles the congregation had learned about. After receiving all the emails of love and encouragement from people he barely knew, he decided that maybe this was where he needed to be—another good prospect. We have not yet started our compassion card program, but this is an excellent example of how this program can reach people who are having difficulties in their lives. I have heard from multiple members that they are sharing the Back to the Bible study material with their contacts. Many other members are continuing to send cards, texts, and emails to non-members who have visited our services in the past. We are looking forward to getting this part of the program up and running so we can reach more lost souls.”

Williamsburg church of Christ, Virginia: Jim Bishop (elder) reports, “Williamsburg church of Christ was blessed on Sunday, February 2, 2025, with the Lord adding Chantel Footman to His church. This is the second baptism for 2025. Group 1 signed compassion cards today, and there are currently three Bible studies in progress.”

Peninsula church of Christ, Hampton, Virginia: Ben Phillips (preacher) reports, “We are blessed to see two of our more recent new converts being actively engaged in our services, joining us for lunch, and participating in the new converts class. They have been an encouragement to us. We are continuing to work to strengthen others in the faith. Our work to do follow-up has stalled with the holidays, illness, and snowstorms. But we are working to get back on track with that as I organize our new rounds of follow-up. One bright light of late is a continued visitor from the community. At this point, she is not interested in a study, but we are praying that soon changes. In a previous note, I mentioned the campaign work I was blessed to be part of in Costa Rica in January. Part of that effort was introducing the two congregations we labor with to the House-to-House School of Evangelism materials. The elders of the congregation at Jardine’s took the Evangelism Handbook and created a guide to equip their members better. They train their congregation, implement new strategies, and work weekly in their community. I included pictures of the work in Costa Rica below.”