Note: Shortly after our American Mission Campaign in Covington, Tennessee, Jason Wright of Collinsville-Troy Church of Christ in Illinois, sent this article regarding his observations of this effort. We submit it for you consideration. Do not forget to register at:
amc.housetohouse.com. It is not too late to come and help.
Regardless of your place of service within the Lord’s church, American Mission Campaign has something for you. Of course, I am writing through the eyes of an elder with a desire to get all members of my home congregation involved in the greatest work there is: saving souls. How to go about this has always been a challenge.
When some hear the word evangelism, they instantly think of door knocking and some story they heard or experienced that left a bad taste in their mouth. Until my time with AMC, I was one who was starting to lose confidence in the whole door knocking idea. After all, this is not the 1970s.
I was presented evidence about the church and her existence in the near future. In just a few short years from now, the church could cease to exist in the U.S. if we continue on the same path of dying churches and shrinking numbers. Something has to change; elders need to wake up and realize what is at stake and then direct congregations to get to work.
The American Mission Campaign in Covington, Tennessee, was attended by Christians from nine states. From Saturday-Friday, we learned new, proven strategies regarding evangelism; yes, even door knocking. Our training focused on door knocking and other methods we can use to make it successful, and it was. Door knocking was just part of the strategy.
Here are some questions for our consideration. These questions deserve honest answers. Answering them with “I don’t knows” and with no intention to change will keep things as they are.
Questions for my eldership and home congregation:
- What is our evangelism plan?
- Are we inwardly focused or outwardly focused?
- Are we activity based or outreach based?
- Do we have a contact list?
- Do our members know how to conduct a Bible study?
- Do our young people know how to conduct a Bible study?
- What is our strategy for saving souls?
- Do our programs/activities have any link to lost souls? They should.
Not only did I learn proven strategies, I also gained confidence in them. I saw them in action, and the results continue to come in. I also met brethren from all areas of the country who are having the same struggles regarding growth. But they want to change that. I walked away with new friendships and with a fresh outlook on evangelism. My definition of success changed. Now, with a new focus, growth is a real possibility. Jesus taught that and exemplified it within His own ministry. This campaign reminded me of a very simple concept: just do what Jesus did.
Congregational Reports
Sunrush church of Christ, Chilliclothe, Ohio: We welcome the Sunrush church of Christ to the House to House/Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. The congregation received the training with great joy and eagerness. We already have a report and pictures!
Jeryl Webb (deacon) reports, “The House to House School of Evangelism was held July 6-8 at the Sunrush Church of Christ in Chillicothe, Ohio. We are a small congregation located south of Columbus with around 50 members. We are excited to be working with Rob Whitaker and his family to evangelize Ohio. We are in a mission field. There are not many sound congregations in our area. The seminar has sparked a fire in the hearts of the Christians in our congregation. Our attendance on Sunday morning after they were here was at 68. Attendance on Sunday evening service is normally around 30, but it was 48 during the seminar. These are attendance records we have not seen in a long time, and it is encouraging. Our members are ready to seek and safe the lost.”
Carthage church of Christ, North Carolina: The Carthage congregation is utilizing HTHSOE digital enrollment. Clarence Jenkins (preacher) reports, “This (pictured below) is a table of our Compassion Cards. Our gifts bags are coming Friday. Sunday we will finish John 4, and we have had two non-Christians attending.”
Covington church of Christ, Tennessee: Wayne Dalrymple (elder) reports, “The church in Covington is continuing to work the plan we began during AMC last month. We restarted our new converts class last Sunday. On Monday, we met to write compassion cards to several visitors and those we are prospecting. Alan and Debbie Otts (members) are continuing a Bible study with Eric and Dale. Neil and Ashley Bringle (members) are studying with Cody and Brenda. They were scheduled to complete book 2 Tuesday as of the writing of this report. I am continuing to study with/mentor Charles, one of our new converts. Also, we are still providing rides to our services for several people. I will be following up on some of the contacts we made during AMC. There are so many that we have not been able to work through them all yet. God has truly blessed us as we work for Him. Please keep praying for the work here.”
Parkway church of Christ, Kentucky: Will Hester (preacher) reports, “We have officially begun the process. On Sunday, I preached the first part of the John 4 series, and we handed out the prospects bookmarks. Our project this week is to get the evangelism table fully up and running. We should have pictures of that by next report. Looking forward to seeing what the future holds for us!”
Greenfield church of Christ, Tennessee: Clint Monroe (elder) reports, “We have two ongoing studies. In our first exclusive evangelism meeting, the elders and preachers discussed tasks such as ongoing studies, contacts, visitor bags, new mover baskets, evangelism groups, and group leaders. Our evangelism table should be completely set up this week (pictures coming soon). Brent, our pulpit minister, focused his Sunday morning sermon on praying for our prospects. Glenn, one of our elders, is using Back to the Bible in our men’s leadership class. Eli, our youth minister, is working to implement Back to the Bible into the teen class he is teaching.”
Fayette church of Christ, Alabama: Kaleb Hall (preacher) reports, “We started Back to the Bible Book 1 Sunday. The congregation is encouraged. We are prospecting 20 souls. We are setting up for our new movers and bi-monthly mail outs with HTH/HTH!”
Honolulu church of Christ, Hawaii: Tagiilima Esene (preacher) reports, “Aloha from the Honolulu congregation! Our church continues to build momentum each week. Every Sunday morning during the worship service, our congregation is learning how to use the Back to the Bible method for personal evangelism. Our ladies’ Bible class meets every other Thursday, and the ladies are using part of their study time to write cards of encouragement. We are still working on making our card ministry work for our congregation. One of our elders (Ren) continues to lead the new converts class, and that class is growing as the Lord adds to the church. The highlight this past week was Li’s decision to put on Christ. We had a great team working together to encourage Li in his decision. Some prayed, some provided the meal, some encouraged him and make him feel welcome, and Lima did the studying of the Scriptures with him. To God be the glory!”
Aberdeen church of Christ, Maryland: Will Brown (preacher) reports, “Last week we updated our House to House Heart to Heart verbiage by intentionally focusing on the categories of what our church is able to do for the community. For two weeks in a row, the church received phone calls asking more about the Lord’s church in Aberdeen because of the mailer’s quality. Also, we have purchased a card carousel to house all the Compassion Cards. We got the idea from the picture from the Highway church of Christ in Arkansas in the previous week’s report. Finally, this year for Vacation Bible School, we are asking the kids to bring items to stock the evangelism baskets instead of the pantry. We are excited about the progress.”
New Hope church of Christ, Middleton, Tennessee: Cole Wade (preacher) reports, “We recently had a men’s meeting where we spoke about future plans for the church. We are building our methods to serve others and develop contacts and prospects. It was a great meeting! Our Wednesday night Bible class is studying through Believe the Bible, and it is going well! We are meeting people and building relationships with them! Pray for us to maintain our motivation and passion for God’s work!”
Northern Oaks church of Christ, San Antonio, Texas: Mel Hutzler (elder/preacher) reports, “Things continue to go well with our evangelism program. We have our groups running smoothly and they are a lot more organized. We have taken visitors out to eat to get to know them better. HTH is being mailed out, and we have several members in Bible studies. One of our teens has been in a study as well. We are looking forward to SYS and VBS at our congregation to prospect more people and to gain more contacts.”
Southwest church of Christ, Austin, Texas: Cody Westbrook (preacher) reports, “Soul-winning efforts are in full force in Austin. We have a few ongoing Bible studies and several good prospects, and many of them are young adults. Recently, Esme’ Navarro obeyed the gospel. Let me tell you a little about her. Esme works at a local Chick-fil-a which is owned and operated by one of our deacons. Chris Willcut, who is one of many Southwest members employed there, began studying with her a little over a month ago. They worked through Back to the Bible in three studies and then spent a couple of studies going over questions. Esme’ expressed her desire to be baptized during this time but felt that she wanted to wait. In their last Bible study, Christ emphasized to her the urgency of obeying the gospel and the importance of not putting off such an important decision if she was truly ready. In the middle of the study she said, ‘I want to be baptized right now!’ And she was. Chris and Esme’ are now studying through Growing in Christ by Bobby Bates. Please keep Esme’, Chris, and many other faithful Christians who all work together at Chick-fil-a in your prayers. They have worked hard through the years to build great friendships with co-workers and prepare the soil so the seed can be planted. That work is coming to fruition. Esme’ is a perfect example, and there is at least one more Bible study ongoing that I am aware of.”
Peninsula church of Christ, Hampton, Virginia: Ben Phillips (preacher) reports: “We are continuing to move forward with the evangelism plan. We have some contacts with whom we are doing follow up with the hopes of gaining studies soon. We are continuing with the compassion card ministry, the House-to-House New Movers, and our other efforts. We did make an extra push with the most recent House to House on baptism by sending it to a few thousand homes around the building with our VBS invitation on it. We are praying for fruit from this effort. We have also started what we hope will be an ongoing effort in our local area: an area-wide door knocking. We are partnering with the saints in our area to help a smaller congregation in Smithfield, Virginia, reach out to their community. This kind of thing used to be a regular effort in our area three decades ago, and we are trying to bring it back. We would love to have the prayers of the saints throughout the brotherhood for this effort in August.”
Cowetta church of Christ, Oklahoma: Keno Shrum (preacher/elder) reports, “Things are progressing here in Coweta with the rebuilding after our building flooded. In the meantime, we are still working hard on evangelism. We have a Bible study starting Tuesday evening with the husband of one of our members. It is our hope that he will join her in a life with Christ. He is a believer in God and has long worshipped at a denomination, but he has been attending with her some. We are praying he will be receptive.”
Chesapeake church of Christ, Virginia: Ernest Benjamin reports, “I completed lesson 1 of BTTB with William Buchanan last Thursday, and we are scheduled to meet again this coming Thursday. I preached the congregational plan to evangelize yesterday, and the congregation is buzzing. The elders are ready to start receiving the emails and coaching from the school of evangelism. I also received a list of five people who would like to enroll in a Bible correspondence course.”
Highway church of Christ, Benton, Arkansas: Steven Ford (preacher) reports, “We are sending cards and making follow-up contacts. We have two ‘hot’ contacts. One specifically requested a Bible study on baptism. We will meet this week and start the first booklet. The second prospect has been visiting for months and finally agreed to sit down and study.”
Skyway Hills church of Christ, Pearl, Mississippi: Andrew Rogers (preacher) reports, “Jamela and I had the last study, book 3, with Pamela Brown today at 2:30 p.m. We went into this study thinking it might be difficult for Pam to make the decision to obey the gospel. Pam stated on her survey that she was christened as a baby and then she was baptized when she was fifteen years old. She also stated that she was saved before baptism. We started the lesson and arrived at page 9. We looked up the Scriptures and read and she stopped me and stated, ‘I understand now that I must be baptized for the remission of my sins.’ On page 10, we read John 14:15, and I asked the question about being baptized; she was ready to go! She stated, ‘I want to do what’s right!’ We left for the building, and I had our tech guy send a mass text to all the members that we were headed to the building for a baptism! After Pam was baptized, she was emotional and happy that she put the Lord on in baptism. I immediately gave her the book, Growing in Christ by Bobby Bates, and stated we will be studying from that book on Wednesday nights.”
Oak Hill church of Christ, Covington, Georgia: Tate Sutton (preacher) reports, “I am sharing a success story with you. I was privileged to baptize one of my best friends on earth today. We have been friends since the second grade. Christian influence had a lot to do with his conversion. We studied, and he is now our brother in Christ. His name is Deven Broadaway. We just baptized Diane White. She had been coming to services with family. We encouraged her with our card group, so she kept attending with her family. She realized that she was not in a saved condition. We now have a new sister in Christ.”
Forestview church of Christ, Memphis, Tennessee: Tim Roland (preacher) reports, “We continue to work our contact cards, emphasizing on each Sunday the ten souls who need to obey the gospel. I have been preaching a series of sermons on The Restoration of Personal Evangelism! One of our elders, Bob Cooley, and I will conduct our second study in BTTB series on Tuesday morning with a Baptist lady. We continue to be blessed with a good number of visitors each week! We had 18 yesterday! We have given out five visitor bags, and our Encouragement Ministry Team sent out 68 compassion cards this past week! Two of our recent visitors indicated that they were looking for a church home! The Lord is good!”
Rogersville church of Christ, Tennessee: Ethan Tate (preacher) reports, “This week we have been contacting several of the visitors who have been with us the past few weeks. We have two couples who are interested in having Bible studies and have even invited some of the members into their home! We ask for prayers for these four souls, along with another study. We have a disabled man who is interested in talking about the Bible, and he wants to proceed into a Back to the Bible study. As we prepare for VBS, we are trying to utilize a way to invite people and evangelize at the same time. If anyone has any ideas regarding this, we would be most appreciative (rogersvillecofc@gmail.com). Besides these, we have a study with a wayward member this weekend, and we hope we can restore him into the fold. Please continue your prayers, and we thank you all dearly for everything you are doing in the kingdom!”
Schertz church of Christ, Texas: Jay Stewart (elder) reports, “This week we finalized preparation for our 1-Day VBS on July 16. We are partnering with two other local congregations who plan to bring friends of their children. As always, we are actively seeking those who are eager to hear the gospel and participate in Bible studies. Our Wednesday night BTTB classes continue as we start teaching the third booklet. The study has been informative both for members to evangelize and for them to strengthen their own understanding of some biblical topics.”
Paintsville church of Christ, Kentucky: Zach Collins (preacher) reports, “This week was another week of growth at Paintsville! We had one restoration from a member of our congregation and had a preliminary Bible study with a man asking about baptism. In addition, Austin Fowler visited with us Sunday evening and informed us about American Missions Campaign. He provided us with the growth of this wonderful work and how it will be coming to Paintsville in the future! These are exciting times at our family in Paintsville.”
East Ridge church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee: Charles Cochran (preacher) reports, “We are continuing our compassion card ministry. We have encouraged one of our ladies through this. She had been discouraged. I am taking a Bible and certificate to a Bible Correspondence Course student. We continue to have visitors. One man came a couple weeks ago. One of our men had reached out to him. We keep sowing seed.”
Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: “We had 72 congregation members participate in the evangelism efforts last night. Compassion Cards group signed 27 group cards for those individuals that we previously sent out single individual cards. This will give a final push to show that we are still thinking of them and have not forgotten them. The kids made five cards that will be included with the group cards, which is the highlight of the compassion cards. The new mover baskets effort went really well. We delivered 13 and made 11 new baskets. Most residents were very receptive. We made visits to two visitors this week. We are hopeful that we can get the first publication of House to House out by the end of this month or sooner. We are excited and anxious to see the impact of the publication. We have two people that have started Bible studies last week.”
Siwell Road church of Christ, Jackson, Mississippi: Derek Broome (preacher) reports, “This week we were blessed to have three baptisms. Kaitlyn Glass had been studying with my wife and me for the past couple of weeks. She was so receptive to the Word. She was baptized on Sunday afternoon. The other two baptisms were a young married couple, Josh and Amber Rivera. They had been studying for the past few weeks with Amber’s dad. They were baptized after Sunday evening services. Our deacon that is over new converts has them ready to begin in the new converts’ class. We are so excited about the decision they all made to obey the gospel. We also have several more ongoing studies. We continue to pray for open doors.”
Riverbend church of Christ, Georgia: Austin Fowler (member) reports, “We currently have three ongoing Bible studies. I am doing study number two with Christy on Wednesday night during Bible study. One of our elder’s wives, Valorie Sanders, has been studying with her sister for the last few weeks. They will do lesson three on Wednesday night, so she is near the cross. Our compassion card groups continue to do a great job. Group one sent over 100 cards this week! Great things are happening at Riverbend! This weekend, I was privileged to travel. On my way from Alkire Road in Ohio to discuss American Mission Campaigns with a congregation, I stopped in Paintsville to worship. We plan on hosting an AMC there in 2024. They allowed me ten minutes to talk about what we do and the success we have in our mission work. I thanked them for their willingness to listen. Last night, I met with the elders from Karns and West End in Knoxville, Tennessee. We are just making sure everything is coming together for our campaign on July 23-30. It was a good meeting. We currently have 93 registered. If you still want to be a part of this week, you can. Go to amc.housetohouse.com to register.”
Chase Park church of Christ, Huntsville, Alabama: “We have begun another study with a friend of a new convert. This man is struggling with addiction, and he is, as we all are, in desperate need of Christ. Please pray for this study and his resolve to get things on the right track, not just with his addiction, but most importantly with his spiritual life. We have several visitors coming to services now that we seem to be coming out of the pandemic, and we are busy with prospecting them and making them feel welcome. In addition, our members have identified three more new movers for us to prospect in their neighborhoods. It seems like things are picking up, so please keep our efforts in your prayers. We are excited to be signed up for the nationwide door knocking campaign in October as well.”
Canal Heights church of Christ, Demopolis, Alabama: Bryan Cook (preacher) reports, “I am sad to report the passing of one our dear sisters in Christ. Marie Collins was one of our most excited members concerning the evangelistic effort. In our planning stage, she was the support that underpinned our two teams. She prepared the lists of names so the teams would have an easy time in organizing their card program. She always encouraged everyone when things were not going as planned. She stated when we first started the program that we were in the crawling stage and not even walking yet. Her insight kept us encouraged and continuing in the work.
“This last Saturday, we did our monthly door knocking. It was extremely hot, so our normal distances of walking were cut short, but we still knocked 55 doors with an additional 25 contacts. We prayed and encouraged several individuals in our community. After the door knocking, cards were prepared and placed in our fellowship hall to have the congregation sign invitations to those we talked with the previous day. One lady we are studying with has started attending regularly, and this last Sunday she brought her daughter and grandkids. They took up almost a whole pew, which was encouraging to see new faces among our members. Please continue to pray for our efforts as we pray for you all.”
Coldwater church of Christ, Kentucky: Luke Puckett (preacher) reports, “We continue to send compassion cards. We are still working with one family from the tornado relief efforts who have agreed to a Bible study, but they have not agreed on a date to start yet. We will continue to stay in contact with them and try to get them to commit. We have had some visitors who have been with us a couple of weeks in a row. We have invited them to eat with us, but they go visit her mother after worship. We have been sending them cards each week.”
NOTE: These reports are from Christians and congregations enrolled in the House to House/Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. These emails are sent to teach and provoke one another to remain focused on the mission of Christ. Each week, we share several reports and highlight one with more details. We hope you enjoy reading them.
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