What a week! I honestly do not know where to begin to describe this week. While we conducted our door knocking using different strategies, we identified our hottest contacts. We called them “the few.” Our few grew more and more each day. It grew to so many contacts that we had to purchase another board!
On Friday, we had our community meal, and 89 visitors came from the community! The members at Granbury Street did an awesome job collecting contact information, greeting them, and getting to know them during the dinner. I have never been in such amazement. I just had to sit back in awe of how God blessed this campaign.
Today, I stayed to worship with the church. Wow! Twenty visitors from the community worshiped with us because of the door-knocking and community meal. Nearly every single visitor got an invitation to lunch. One elder said, “I invited two people to lunch and both of them had already been asked by other members.” Currently, we have two ongoing studies, two requests for studies, and two studies that will be scheduled soon.
For all those who say door-knocking is unproductive and a waste of time, please join us on an AMC campaign. We will be glad to train you so you can help your own congregation and see the results for yourself. What an awesome God we serve. It is time to go to work! To God be the Glory! – Austin Fowler
It has always been my desire to reproduce what mission workers experience in foreign lands during campaigns in our own country. During Covid, Austin and I met and discussed how the timing was ripe to begin the American Mission Campaigns as part of HTHSOE. – Rob Whitacre
Glencoe church of Christ, Alabama: Rob Whitacre (member) reports,“Building on the recent baptism of Kathryn, we had our third study with Jon Butler upon our return home from the American Mission Campaign. Jon delivers our printed materials from Birmingham. He worshipped with us on Sunday morning, and then we took him out to lunch with Brooks and Laura. We spent the afternoon at home conducting Back to the Bible Book 3. Jon grew up as a Catholic. We asked him to spend time reading the gospel of John in between studies. He showed us all the notes he had taken. He began to realize that many of the things taught by the Catholic church were just not in the Bible.
During the study, Jon had an open heart. Upon reading Acts 8 and the associated questions, Jon replied, “I do not think I was baptized.” Jon was sprinkled, and when he learned baptism was immersion, it was just a matter of time before he concluded that he was lost and needed to render obedience to the gospel. For the previous five years, I saw Jon as our printer rep, but it was not until recently I saw him as a soul (contact) whom we needed to teach.”
Fayette church of Christ, Alabama: Josh Taylor (deacon) reports, “We have two Bible studies scheduled for Sunday and next Monday with two different contacts. The Sunday study will be BTTB Book 2. The Monday study will be BTTB Book 3. We look forward to both studies.”
Hatton church of Christ, Alabama: Chris Miller (preacher) reports, “New Movers has been an additional focus recently as it has become very handy in locating new contacts. Several have visited in the past couple weeks, and we are very hopeful this part of our effort will take off with studies soon!”
Winfield church of Christ, Alabama: Jerry Fann (member) reports, “We started obtaining New Movers data from HTH/HTH for July, with ten families listed. We mailed VBS invitations to them and will follow up with a visit to deliver New Movers boxes. The door knocking for VBS was last Saturday. On the first night of VBS, we had an attendance of 257. Visitor greeters had several volunteers, with training next week. We had three baptisms from our youth group over the last two weeks.
Compassion Card Group #3 had 35 members filling out ten cards each to be mailed, which is our largest group ever to write cards. Contact cards are being turned in continuously, with several close to becoming prospects. We had one restoration this last Sunday. We received several thank you notes from those receiving Compassion Cards. God’s family at Winfield is busy with lots of enthusiasm. We praise God with all the honor and glory for that.”
Lake City church of Christ, Florida: Jim Flegert (elder) reports, “We completed a successful VBS this past week. Our Mission Monday teams are excited about the opportunity we have been given tomorrow night to deliver some the pictures taken of the children. Our congregational evangelism efforts continue with another weekly batch of compassion cards sent out.”
Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Greg Garner (deacon), “A gentleman and his two children visited on Sunday after receiving information from our work during the 4th of July parade. He also requested a Bible study, which Matt Amos will conduct.”
“The new mover’s group delivered ten welcome baskets. Door hangers with information were left at nine homes with no answer. Our compassion card group sent out 16 welcome cards and 26 compassion cards.”
Valdosta church of Christ, Georgia: Wes Hazel (preacher) reports, “I have baptized several over the last few weeks after using Back to the Bible for the studies. The first man was actually from Jamaica; we met him during door knocking a few years ago. The other was an MBA student at Valdosta State.”
LaFayette church of Christ, Georgia: Jesse Teague (deacon) reports, “Group 2 will defer writing compassion cards from July 16-23 because about half of the group will be out of town. Ken handed out five cards to Frank, Don, and JL (three of our elders) for follow-up visits from the compassion cards sent last month. Two visits were good and encouraging (warm contacts). On the ‘keeper’ front, Curry (our other elder) and his wife Lori had supper and a Bible study with our most recent convert, encouraging and teaching.”
Honolulu church of Christ, Hawaii: Lima Esene (preacher) reports, “Aloha from the Honolulu congregation! Some of our members have been very active in inviting friends and family to worship services. Our Sunday service is by far our main ground for evangelism.
“This past week, two of our members were instrumental in leading their landlord to Jesus. Creig and Robin Lake shared the faith with their landlord, Kate. She has been on our prayer list for her father (Mr. Cliff, age 98), who suffered a fall. After we had been praying for Mr. Cliff for a week, Kate visited our church services for the first time. That same Sunday, Creig and Robin visited with Mr. Cliff and attempted to share Christ with him.
“On the following Monday and Thursday, I was able to talk to Cliff about his soul with Kate helping in translating. Cliff believed Jesus is the Son of God and made it known to us that he wanted to be a Christian. The logistics for baptizing Cliff was challenging. Some of the people at the nursing home did not want him to be immersed and suggested praying for him or sprinkling him with water. While working out the details of Cliff’s situation, Kate and Nina (her stepmom) have been studying about obeying the gospel. After meeting with them and explaining again the will of God in obeying the gospel, Kate and Nina were baptized into Christ the following week. That same week, Mr. Cliff was discharged from the nursing home on Friday. By the end of the day, after many challenges, we immersed Cliff for the forgiveness of his sins at home in a pool we bought at Walmart. Yesterday, Cliff made it to church with Kate and Nina, and we all worshipped our great God together. Praise Him!”
Beloit church of Christ, Kansas (digital): Dustin Doughtery (regional trainer) reports, “Back to the Bible works again. Last night I had the privilege of baptizing Charles into Christ following services. He is 80, and he did not want to put it off any longer.”
Paintsville church of Christ, Kentucky: Zach Collins (preacher) reports, “This past Sunday, we had two more baptisms! Braxton and Haley are engaged to be married. Earlier in life, Braxton was baptized but felt as if he did not do it for the right reason. His fiancée, Haley, had been attending with us for a couple of years but had never decided to obey the gospel. This past Sunday, after talking with one another, they decided to start their life together on the right foot by building a strong spiritual foundation. We are thankful for their decision! Braxton was baptized by his grandfather, and then Braxton baptized Haley. What a wonderful memory!
“In 2023, we have had 18 baptisms at our family in Paintsville. In the last year and a half, we have had 24 baptisms. God will give the increase if we sow the seed! To God be the glory!”
LaPlata church of Christ, Maryland (digital): Eric Sykes (regional trainer) wrote, “God is still in the blessing business. We have been blessed with a new brother in Christ, Zach Wagner. Zach was baptized Wednesday night, July 23, 2023. Zach studied with one of our elders, Dave Bradshaw, and Dave’s daughter Kennedy, who is now Zach’s wife. Zach and Kennedy are newlyweds, married just last month. We thank the Lord for another great week here at the La Plata church of Christ.
“The sisters completed Lesson 2 of Back to the Bible with Gail and her caregiver Katrina. They have scheduled Lesson 3 of BTTB for this Wednesday. We are all praying that, with God’s help, we will have two more family members added to the body soon.
“We sent out 90 compassion cards this week, four of which were single cards with multiple signatures. We had three visitors this week and promptly added them to our compassion card mailing list. We received a “Thank You” text message from one of the prospects to whom we have been sending compassion cards. The message included a picture of all the compassion cards they have received from our congregation thus far and the note said, “You guys do not play; we will see you next Sunday.”
“We currently have two active Bible studies and three Bible studies that we are trying to restart. We have five new converts actively studying “Growing in Christ.” We are actively engaged in reaching out to six former members of the La Plata church of Christ using our compassion card program. We pray we will snatch a few souls back from the devil this week.”
Southside church of Christ, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Freddie Klein (preacher) reports, “This week, we had our second week of card writing. Sadly, the groups only have a few people write cards to the contacts, so we had far fewer cards to send out throughout the week. We are spending too much time sending cards to those who are not on the contact cards list and to wayward members or floating Christians. We corrected the return address issue. We had a contact from Bible Call, related to the recent parade. We visited the contact, and we will see what comes of it. The visitor greeters made bags for new visitors. I preached through the first part of the first booklet.”
Looxahoma church of Christ, Mississippi: Blake Hawkins (deacon) reports, “We are continuing to go through Back to the Bible as a congregation following our afternoon worship services to help all members have a working knowledge of the study and be better prepared to go and teach others. We added two categories from our bookmarks to our contacts this week to expand the number of compassion cards being written.”
“Additionally, members have enjoyed shopping for supplies for the New Movers Baskets and getting those assembled. We have created a good initial group of baskets and will begin visiting those new to the area soon. Whether through praying over bookmarks or working through the study materials, the shift of keeping evangelism at the top of everyone’s minds is an important one. We pray that our efforts are making a big impact on members as we emphasize the great commission.”
Iuka church of Christ, Mississippi: Robert Wimbish (elder) reports, “At the Iuka church of Christ today, several members met 30 minutes before afternoon service and wrote 48 cards to send out this week. A couple from our Mission Monday group will make our first visit tomorrow afternoon to a contact’s house to ask them the three questions. We prayed about this effort during service and asked God to give us strength and to bless this contact, Beth, with a new life.
“We are currently going through the SOE workbook and adapting it to comprise a series of lessons to be taught on Wednesday nights. These lessons will include videos from the SOE website. Our Sunday morning Bible class, Sunday morning sermons, Sunday afternoon sermons, and Wednesday evening class will consist of EVANGELISM for the indefinite future.
“Yesterday was our monthly food giveaway. We made a concerted effort to speak with and to ask the three questions of everyone receiving boxes. Each person was told we care for them and would love to get to know them. The prior food boxes they had received acted as compassion cards. Plans are being formulated to move as many of these recipients as possible to contacts resulting in visits. We are trying to show our God we love Him above all else.”
Foristell church of Christ, Missouri: Bruce Van Hook (elder) reports, “Greetings from the church of Christ at Foristell. We have been working on the compassion card ministry and have been sending cards every week. The evangelism table is set up with materials needed for our members to use.”
West Hwy 160 church of Christ, West Plains, Missouri (digital): Marvin Hatley (elder) reports, “Members of the congregation continue two active Bible studies. One study led by a recent convert, Ron, concluded with the baptism of his adult daughter Sherry. Sherry was honest and sincere in the study Back to the Bible, resulting in her obedience. The two studies that continue are challenging due to the strong denominational background of each prospect. Members are continuing to cultivate prospects through meals and congregational gatherings. Mentoring events and the new converts class continue to progress. Our Transition Thursday has been operating on a bi-weekly schedule that works well for our congregation. We are very blessed and encouraged by our recent converts; to God be the glory!”
Samford church of Christ, Steele, Missouri: Kyle Imel (deacon) reports, “Here in Samford, a gentleman has started attending with us on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights. He has gone through BTTB, and we continue to work with him. We have a Bible study scheduled for Tuesday with a young lady from our compassion card list. Plans continue to be made for our VBS/ Backpack giveaway on August 2. It has been advertised on Facebook, and flyers have been hung up in our community and surrounding communities.”
East Flushing church of Christ, New York (digital): Clarence Jenkins (preacher) reports, “We sent out 11 compassion cards. We had two visitors this past Sunday, one who has been coming consistently for five weeks now and is doing a Bible study in Spanish. The other visitor is on our prospecting list. Our new converts class currently has six participants. We have six mentorships currently occurring. We appreciate all prayers.”
Main Street church of Christ, Mocksville, North Carolina: Gary Dull (evangelist) reports, “Several months ago, we started planning this door-knocking campaign with our sister congregation (Broad Street church of Christ) in Statesville. On Saturday, July 1, the two congregations came together, and we stuffed 3000 packets of door hangers, which included information about both congregations and a copy of House-to-House.
“On Tuesday, July 4, the Abilene group and ten wonderful people from the Palm Beach Lakes church of Christ set out to knock on doors. The number of groups varied from three to five drivers and two or three door knockers in each group. We gave out all 3000 door hangers.
“The following Sunday, we started our gospel meetings. During the four days of the meetings, we had five visitors from the community. We had 51 contact cards. We have one Bible study that is continuing, and so far, today, we have mailed out 255 cards. This week we are sharing the contact cards with the sister congregation, and they plan to do the same things.”
Carthage church of Christ, North Carolina (digital): Randy Chambers (preacher) reports, “The Carthage church of Christ has mailed out 30 compassion cards to three different contacts this past week. This week the congregation conducted five Bible studies with prospects using BTTB 2; all the studies went well, and the next studies are scheduled. The new mover’s ministry delivered three baskets. We pray that much good will come from our efforts and that God will be glorified!”
Cary church of Christ, North Carolina: Larry Fife (preacher) reports, “We continue to have visitors from our door knocking efforts during AMC in June. I invited one of our visitors to lunch, but he already had other plans. We have two Bible studies currently and are seeing some results from those. We are in week 3 of writing compassion cards. Yesterday Connect Group 2 wrote 147 cards to be mailed this week. We also did some community outreach for a gentleman that we met during the week of AMC. We did several hours’ worth of yard work for him, and he was very grateful. We will follow up next week and see if we can get a Bible study with him. God continues to bless us.”
Coweta church of Christ, Oklahoma: Keno Shrum (elder) reports, “A large part of our focus on evangelism includes new convert studies and continuing to encourage and strengthen the whole congregation as we journey together in Christ. This week we were blessed to have two ladies come forward after Sunday AM Worship and rededicate their lives to God. Both ladies recognized they had been more self-centered and less God-centered and came asking for prayers to get back on track.
“Also, a member who had fallen away several years ago returned to the fold. It was such an encouragement to us all. We are starting a new class on Tuesday nights for new converts, focusing on Christian Living. We have several new converts who have already committed to attending. We give God the glory for our new members and those who have been restored!”
York church of Christ, Pennsylvania: Mark Raschke (deacon) reports, “This week we sent cards to the wife of a friend of Bob and Judy, who just passed away. We also sent cards to a neighbor of Dave and Carol, who worships with them via our Facebook Live stream on Sunday mornings and recently was discharged from the hospital. Both of these contacts are precious souls who are connected with some of our loving families.
“We discussed completing the last of our visitations for June, and we pulled together numbers for a report before our August visitation meeting. We have some long-time visitors who we believe are inching toward an actual study; we believe they already understand the need for baptism, yet they are still holding back. Finally, we were delighted to see a family return to us; they had been absent from the assembly for a few months. We have been sending compassion cards to them.”
East Main church of Christ, Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Brad Rowley (elder) reports, “We had another exciting Sunday; Travis Morris baptized his son Brooks Morris. To God be the glory! Brooks is 12; he has talked about baptism for two years. His goal is to be a preacher!
“Card Team 3 wrote 68 cards on Sunday. We had two new contacts. We appreciate prayers for three new Bible studies, which will involve five people. One of the new studies will start this Thursday.
“A young man named TJ stopped by the building a couple of weeks ago. Our pulpit minister, Jon Mitchell, spent some time with him in discussion and prayer. We are thankful to say that TJ has been to worship services a couple of times. We will continue to cultivate the soil.
“We have our backpack drive this month. We are praying for some solid contacts from the drive. Seth Ferguson, our college and missions minister, along with Steve and Cathy Arnold, attended AMC last week. Seth provided a great report with ideas to improve our efforts in evangelism. East Main has selected one new elder and five new deacons. All six are committed to evangelism and will bring new energy to our efforts.”
West End church of Christ, Knoxville, Tennessee: Adam Wilson (member) reports, “This was our first mailing to the two House to House, Heart to Heart routes near our congregation! We are prayerful that this will lead to finding those who are seeking the Lord and preparing the soil for our door-knocking campaigns. All contacts who have completed compassion cards also received this month’s issue to remind them that the church cares and we are here for them.”
Covington church of Christ, Tennessee: Wayne Dalrymple (elder) reports, “It has been an amazing week for the church in Covington! Five of us were able to participate in the American Mission Campaign in Cleburne, Texas, last week. We learned a lot that we would use in Covington.
“On Sunday, we had several visitors. A visiting teenager checked on her attendance card that she wants to learn more about the church. We are setting that up. Another young man who visited has just moved from Michigan for work and decided he needed to start going to church for the first time in his life. He just happened to visit us. We will be prospecting him and getting a study soon.
“I finished the third study with Thomas today on Monday. I believe he understands the truth, but he is hesitant to obey. His daughters are both Christians, and they are encouraging him. We are praying that God is patient with him. As this is being read, thirteen of us are in Honolulu to help the church conduct their VBS. Great things are happening in the Lord’s church at Covington!”
New Union church of Christ, Manchester, Tennessee: Paul Fulks (elder) reports, “We continue to review the Bookmarks at the close of Sunday morning worship services. We ask members to submit contact cards for those who need our compassion, including friends, families and neighbors. We have congregational prayer specifically for our prospects. Our members have been very consistent in completing and submitting new contact cards. This week we had four contact cards submitted.
“We also had two sets of visitors on Sunday morning and another set at evening service. The greeters wrote down their information, gave them a visitor bag, and added them to the card list. This week, the visitors will receive a visit from one of the elders or the preacher.
“Card Team 3 met after the Sunday evening services and wrote 89 cards. Nine follow-up visits and contacts were made last week. Several new mover basket assignments were made and delivered. Two Back to the Bible studies were completed. The studies were very well received, and good progress was made. Two of our elders and our preacher meet every Monday for Mission Mondays to review contact cards and visits and to make plans for follow-ups and visits during the coming week. We also contact specific members to include them in assigning visits and follow-ups.
“We continue to use a spreadsheet to track contact cards received, compassion cards written, follow-up visits, assignments, and other pertinent information such as phone calls and texts.”
Rogersville church of Christ, Tennessee: Ethan Tate (preacher) reports, “This past week, we had a Game Night for the families here to help build relationships with some of the newer people who have started attending. We are working toward setting up a Bible study with one family who are not Christians but greatly enjoyed the game night and getting to meet some in the congregation. We appreciate all prayers as we seek to reach them. We are also seeing an increase of visitors each week, building up our prospects and compassion card list. We hope to begin to turn these into Bible studies soon.”
Freewill church of Christ, Gainesboro, Tennessee (digital): Andrew Scott (preacher) reports, “We have some wonderful news to share–three baptisms! After studying God’s word using Does it Matter, Carlena Walker obeyed the gospel tonight. She had been visiting with us for some time, and my uncle, Tom Brown, is to be commended for preparing her heart for a Bible study. Also, my aunt, Beth Brown, was baptized for the right reasons tonight after studying Does it Matter as well. Carlena and Beth have been friends for several years and now are sisters in Christ! One of our members, Paulette Rainey, studied with her granddaughter using Back to the Bible a couple of weeks ago, and she was baptized into Christ! It is such a blessing to fulfill the greatest mission on earth, and the church at Freewill is an army of soul winners. To God be the glory!”
Granbury Street church of Christ, Cleburne,Texas: John Haffner (preacher) reports, “We had a great Lord’s day following AMC with almost 200 in attendance and about 20 visitors (many of whom also came to our BBQ dinner). One of my elders and his wife have a study tomorrow night at their house. Another elder is going to schedule what is now the third study with another precious soul. I have one visitor I will meet on Tuesday and as well as a Bible study with a different contact for Thursday. We have many more good things going on. We welcome all prayers for our continued efforts.”
Midtown church of Christ, Victoria, Texas: James Cammock (deacon) reports, “We had another baptism Sunday! Leonard Bates studied with our preacher and decided to obey the gospel. We are currently writing compassion cards to five different individuals.”
Hwy 95 church of Christ, Taylor, Texas: Benjamin Dossey (preacher) reports, “We are about to begin our VBS tonight, and we hope to make several contacts from the community. Additionally, our second study with Amy went well this past Thursday. She has been very receptive and quick to understand the Word. We will review Book 3 of Back to the Bible this Thursday.”
Fruitvale church of Christ, Texas: Carl McCann (preacher) reports: “Brethren have been working with Bill and Patty for several months, prospecting them in every way possible (a lot of compassion cards, yard work, and help on their home). Patty has terminal cancer and becomes fatigued very quickly; she has decided to forego any more treatments. Wayne and Faye began studying Back to the Bible with them (which took about a month), and they were baptized.”
Northern Oaks church of Christ, San Antonio, Texas: Mel Hutzler (elder) reports, “I will study with two individuals this Sunday. They have visited a few times and wanted me to do some marriage counseling, but I encouraged first things first—a Bible study. It will be on Book 1. We have a few others in Bible studies as well. We have three or four in our new converts’ class on Bible Foundations taught by one of our elders. We continue to have our Wednesday night Evangelism Training Class and send cards to visitors. We also have the HTH publication going out, and we make visits for our New Movers Program.”
Bridgewater church of Christ, Katy, Texas: Doug Suggs (member) reports, “We met last evening to write compassion cards for those with medical problems. Wade Webster has been following up with studies for Torie Laramie, whom he baptized a couple of weeks ago. We have also changed our church newsletter and dedicated a part to our evangelism news, announcements, and other related things. I have also included a picture of one of our card teams at work. We are making progress and are learning as we go.”
Southwest church of Christ, Austin, Texas: John Garza (regional trainer) reports, “Last week, I was blessed to be a part of the American Mission Campaign in Cleburne, Texas, for the Granbury Street congregation. Seeing evangelism in action by so many Christians was a huge boost to my soul, especially because God blessed the work; many contacts were made, and Bible studies were started. I am looking forward to utilizing the new tools and methods I learned to improve the evangelism program here at the Southwest church of Christ.
“Concerning our work, we have four Bible studies taking place right now. Three are in the Back to the Bible series, and one is using Does It Matter. Additionally, this Friday, I have a planned lunch with a local friend that is “Christian” (Baptist), and I plan to extend the invitation to study with him. Please pray for this opportunity as I spend more time with him. I hope I will be able to teach him and his fiancé the gospel of Christ.”
Graceton church of Christ, Diana, Texas: Johnny Willeford (elder) reports, “The Graceton congregation continues to send out the compassion cards each week. Last night our Group A signed 112 cards that will be mailed out this week to ten contacts. Our home visitation group will continue to make the home visits to our last group that received cards the past few weeks. Tonight, we host the Summer Youth Series and expect 130 to 150 people to attend.
“We had three new visitors on Sunday. We continue to have a couple of visitors attending from the results of our compassion cards. Scott, our preacher, started the congregational training for Back to the Bible Book 3 on Sunday morning. We secured a teacher for the new converts class, and it will start in two weeks.
“Our Family Day VBS is in a few weeks, and planning continues. We have invited our community with flyers passed out and advertised on social media. We hope to make several new contacts on that day. As always, our prayers are with all of God’s families around the world and especially those who are making special efforts to spread the gospel through the House-to-House Evangelism Model.”
Timberville church of Christ, Virginia: Mike Gantt (member) reports, “I know we both love to see people converted according to the Scriptures. We have had two baptisms in the past six weeks. Back to the Bible was taught before the conversions. Joshua has been added to the Lord’s church, and so has Elmer Mundo. We hope Josh’s girlfriend will study soon and also Sheena Elmer’s girlfriend.
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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