Success Stories: May 21, 2025

Welcome Grundy Street church of Christ, Tullahoma, Tennessee: We want to welcome the Grundy Street church of Christ to the House to House/Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. The congregation has a rich history of faithfulness to God.  Their elders are committed to turning the tide of decline.  They are served by two men, John Summers and Anderson Judd, both of whom are dedicated to soul-winning. There was good attendance and energy, and we look forward to working with them as they seek the lost in Tullahoma.

Central church of Christ, Saraland, Alabama: David Dixon (preacher) reports, “My wife and daughter are preparing for a mission trip to Peru in a few weeks. This has opened some doors of evangelism that we were not expecting. Some of my wife’s coworkers have shown interest in helping or even participating in future trips. We intend to develop those interests. The congregation continues to emphasize evangelism, but results have slowed from our initial work. Enthusiasm has not diminished, however. We pray for fertile soil!”

Chase Park church of Christ, Huntsville, Alabama: Pat Cowden (preacher) reports, “Recently, several of our members finished a study with a young man named Chris Smith, and he decided to put on Christ in baptism. This was a wonderful example of a member of the church sharing faith with a coworker and asking them to go out to eat and then have a Bible study. We are excited about Chris’s decision and look forward to helping his growth as he begins his walk with Christ. We are blessed with many people who are actively involved in sharing their faith with others and seeing it through to a decision point about Christ. In addition, we have several other studies ongoing, as well as follow-up New Convert classes. We covet prayers for our evangelistic efforts.”

Cedar Grove church of Christ, Andalusia, Alabama: Josh Halloway (preacher) reports, “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness . . .” (Galatians 6:1). The Lord has blessed us with two more restorations this week. Joe Keller and Jerry Bass both confessed public sin and were restored to the Lord’s church. These wonderful souls have made four restorations so far, and three in less than a month. Our ‘Unfaithful List’ is a great priority for us in this evangelism process. It is the first area we started tackling. We are making several visits and conducting regular weekly Bible studies. We have officially jumped into our compassion card ministry now. We appointed Mrs. Niva to be one of the servants. She has done an excellent job setting up a room, organizing cards, and helping the teams. We look to utilize that portion very soon.”

Hartselle church of Christ, Alabama: Justin Smith (preacher) reports, “This past week we held a time during our worship to pray over the names on our bookmarks. Since then, I have had multiple talks with members who have had meaningful conversations about the church with someone on their bookmarks. One said, ‘I have been praying for God to show me my place and how He can use me to help my two friends. Tonight, He answered me.’ She went on to tell me how she has set up a Bible study with these two. These conversations are becoming more normal at the Hartselle church of Christ. Praise God!”

Highland Park church of Christ, Muscle Shoals, Alabama: Andrew Myhan (deacon) reports, “We added two new contacts to receive cards this week. We started sending cards to a family looking for a church home. They visited with us and said they were overwhelmed by how friendly the congregation is; they had never experienced that before. They came back on Sunday and Wednesday. It is very encouraging to see how we have improved our friendliness and awareness to visitors.”

Creekwood church of Christ, Mobile, Alabama: Tucker Presley (preacher) reports, “Emma Tunstall was baptized into Christ on Friday evening by Rob Hayes of the Mobile College Ministry! Praise God! She has been attending Creekwood on Sundays for a couple of months now. One of our members used to work with her, and she invited Emma to Creekwood, so she has been coming fairly regularly on Sunday mornings. She goes to Regency church of Christ on Wednesday nights because that is where the Mobile College Ministry meets, and that is how she connected with Rob Hayes, who baptized her. She is now receiving cards of encouragement from us! On another note, we finally have some movement on getting coordinators in place. In particular, we have identified coordinators for the new movers’ and visitors’ work, and they have agreed to serve as coordinators. We still have one Bible study ongoing. They are moving slowly through the booklets because they want to understand the context of the passages that are covered. Other than that, we continue sending cards each week and making visits as people come off the list.”

Hatton church of Christ, Town Creek, Alabama: Chris Miller (preacher) reports, “We currently have nine prospects on our list, and we have two ongoing Bible studies. We are in the process of transitioning one of the prospects into a third study. Our New Converts class ranges from two to four students each week.”

Mountain Home church of Christ, Arkansas: Joshua Adams (preacher) reports, “Last Wednesday night, a Back to the Bible study ended with the baptism of young Joseph (18)! He has been attending for several months with one of our teen girls and started studying with her father. We are excited to welcome Joseph into the household of God! We have five additional Bible studies ongoing, which will hopefully soon lead to more people putting Christ on in baptism. Additionally, our door-knocking group is going out this week to make contact with our first round of compassion card recipients. One of the Bible studies already in progress is from one of those recipients. We have made another request of our congregation to provide us with more contact cards; we are receiving many. Twenty-on people stayed after evening Bible class to sign cards.”

Windsor church of Christ, Colorado: Lucas Stephens (member) reports, “For the first time, we added new movers from our neighborhoods to our compassion card list, and we signed cards for ten families. In addition, we added our new movers with a single card that everyone signed. We had a few returning visitors, which is encouraging. We have taken them to lunch twice in our building, and a stronger relationship has developed through the prayer of a Bible study. We have updated our new movers baskets with information about our neighborhood cookout in the park on June 14. We are excited about this event, and we think we will have lots of visitors with whom we can schedule Bible studies.”

Lake Forest church of Christ, Jacksonville, Florida: Brian Howard (preacher) reports, “Three people from one family plus one other man placed membership Sunday. We also had some visitor prospects. One of our erring members has returned in response to the compassion cards.”

Margaret Street church of Christ, Milton, Florida: Troy Spradlin (preacher) reports, “Our VBS planning team met recently to start preparing; we are approaching it from an evangelistic point of view. The team  wants to emphasize door-knocking, inviting the community, and creating contacts! In addition, several adult classes will accompany the children’s activities. We are excited and praying it will generate prospects leading to Bible studies. Our current 2025 Year-to-Date Accountability Board numbers include the following: 160 Contacts; 32 Visitors; 81 Neighbors (Prospects whom we have loved and/or studied with); 39 Bible Studies (total completed); 1230 Compassion Cards sent; and nine Baptisms.”

Niceville church of Christ, Florida: Joe Palmer (preacher) reports, “This week we had the blessing of seeing another precious soul confess Christ and be baptized. Seth Nichols has been visiting and studying for a few months. On Saturday, he was baptized in the beautiful Choctawhatchee Bay. This week we had four studies. We sent 30 cards. We had a new family visit Sunday who is looking for a church home. The mother was formerly affiliated with the church of Christ but has not attended in about 16 years. We had another visitor who came for the first time on a Sunday. These two families have children and will be a welcome and important addition to our church family.”

Avalon church of Christ, Florida (remote): Preston Silcox (elder) reports, “We have had two good couple weeks. Our attendance has remained in the 80’s, whereas we were averaging in the 70’s a few months ago. We had six visitors this Sunday and two Bible studies last week. We mailed 27 cards.”

Bremen church of Christ, Georgia: Scott Broughton (evangelist) reports, “On Sunday, we recognized and congratulated our 2025 High School Graduates, Rachel, Makinzie, Noah, and Graysen. They were each presented with the Apologetics Press study Bible. We pray that all the graduates will read their Bibles, stay faithful, and lead others to Christ.”

Lafayette church of Christ, Georgia: Jesse Teague (deacon) reports, “Last night was the third Sunday, so Group 2 met to sign compassion cards. Eleven members helped us to send cards to five souls. We also had a visitor from the community. He typically attends a denominational church, but he was not able to go on Sunday morning, so he visited with us Sunday evening. So much of the religious world has abandoned a second worship time on the first day of the week. I am glad our elders have decided not to discontinue this practice. If we did not have a Sunday evening service, this visitor would not have had the chance to hear the Gospel. He received a gift box from our ladies’ welcome group, and he will receive cards this week, thanking him for his visit. He said he would definitely be back.”

Cartersville church of Christ, Georgia (remote): Charles Harris (regional trainer) reports, “As we progress in implementing the model, our number of Bible studies with the lost has increased.”

Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Larkin Cook (member) reports, “We attended the Sunabella of Towne Lake Assistant Living devotional on Sunday. They had ten non-Christian attendees. The Prison Ministry Group is coordinating Bible studies with an Adult Medium Security Facility. The Compassion Cards Group sent compassion cards this week. WCOC had seven non-Christian visitors this Sunday morning. We also had six Bibles studies last week.”

Honolulu church of Christ, Hawaii: Tagiilima Esene (preacher) reports, “Studies continue with six souls at the moment. The highlight for this week for us is seeing the first fruits in connection to our ‘Converted’ podcast. In the podcast, members of the church share how they came to the knowledge of the truth. This past Sunday, Paul, who had seen the first episode of ‘Converted’ in 2024, was baptized into Christ. Paul was raised as a Catholic. In 2023, he started attending one of the charismatic movement-type churches. When he listened to the first episode of ‘Conversations’ when Rafe and Flori share their story, it resonated with him. He reached out to me via Facebook Messenger, showing his interest, and from then on, we started studying the Bible together over Zoom in 2024 whenever we could. Being in American Samoa, I connected with brother David Willis, the preacher for the Lupelele church of Christ. David continued to study the Bible with him. This past couple of weeks, he and his wife came to Hawaii for a visit. We had soul-searching conversations over food and spent much time together. This past Sunday, I preached on the importance of studying the Bible. During the invitation, Paul responded. We thank God for the increase. To Him be all the glory!”

Collinsville-Troy church of Christ, Illinois: Jason Wright (elder) reports, “On Saturday, 23 saints gathered to deliver new mover’s baskets. The weather was great and people were in a good mood. Latisha was a new mover. She brought her family to worship on Sunday and stayed for class. We made a few more contacts and then shared lunch together. On Sunday, during our SOS training, we discussed the previous day’s work, considering what could be improved and what worked well, as well as different experiences at the door. Our previous hands-on, simulated training sessions had built our confidence. We handed out three visitors’ bags. We mailed 84 compassion cards this week. We conducted six personal Bible studies. We are looking forward to another great week!”

Highland Village church of Christ, Bloomington, Indiana: Mark Stauffer (elder) reports, “We have sent 65 cards, made two visits, and had five visitors at services so far this month. Our neighborhood was hit by a tornado on Friday. Thankfully, there were no injuries, but there is a lot of damage to trees and houses. Power poles and lines are down, so I have to come into town for communication. Based on reports that I have heard, there were six or more tornadoes in the Bloomington area on Friday. Personally, we lost our garage and small barn; we also have damage to the siding and roof on our house. There is a lot of cleaning up to do, and we have had a lot of people helping us with the work.”

Beloit church of Christ, Kansas (remote): Dustin Dougherty (regional trainer) reports, “On Sunday, my wife and I were with the Ransom church of Christ in Ransom, Kansas, so I could teach the adult morning class and present the lesson for the Christians there during worship. Locally in Beloit, they had 27 in attendance with one return visitor. I concluded the first text-a-day journey through the New Testament last week, and two readers wanted more study. I sent them both copies of Muscle and a Shovel to read. We are going to do a second read-through beginning in July. I am close to finishing the study Growing in Christ with a local brother; it has been a great strengthening study. To God be all honor and glory.”

Poole church of Christ, Kentucky: Andrew Wynne (preacher) reports, “This past weekend was eventful. On Saturday, May 17, we had a baptism and a restoration. It is so encouraging to see hearts that are still receptive to the truth. On Sunday, we had several visitors in our worship assemblies. We plan to start Book 3 of Back to the Bible this Wednesday night. We appreciate continued prayers for our efforts to reach the lost and restore the wandering souls.”

Madisonville church of Christ, Kentucky: Russell Kline (preacher) reports, “We had two visitors on Sunday. There were no baptisms and no restorations in the past seven days. We mailed out 15 compassion cards to two people. There are currently no ongoing Bible studies. There are three active ongoing Bible Correspondence Courses. We distributed 11 cards for members to make some in-home visits.”

Central church of Christ, Paducah, Kentucky: Adam Faughn (preacher) reports, “Last Monday evening, we were thrilled to baptize Ginger Spearman into Christ. Ginger had been baptized about a year ago, but after further study and reflection, she decided that she had only been baptized to “do” that action, not because she truly believed in Jesus. She made that right on Monday evening, and we are so grateful for her willingness to do what God says for the reason God says. Also on Monday, two of our ladies studied with April, who has been visiting with us for a few weeks. April is a traveling nurse who is likely only in Paducah until the end of June (though she hopes to return later this year), but is very eager to study. Additionally, after the study, she called her husband and studied the material with him over the phone! Another study is set up for this week, and we are praying it goes well.”

Gonzales church of Christ, Louisiana: Patrick Adkins (deacon) reports, “This week, James preached Lesson 2 on John 4 for the morning worship hour, and then trained us on the evangelism table in the p.m. service. The table is set up. We also had a meeting to continue discussing the coordinators. The accountability board is set up with one change: we will change the ‘Prospect’ insert to ‘Neighbors.’ We also had two baptisms! We are mentioning evangelism in every prayer, and we also offered a prayer for those on our neighbor’s list.”

Chalmette church of Christ, Louisiana: Scott Russell (member) reports, “This past week we met with the men to talk more about the School of Evangelism. Since we were already familiar with the ‘New Movers,’ it was fairly simple to begin right there. One of our young couples (Frank and Regina) will now coordinate that effort. Yesterday, Mark preached on ‘Quality, not Quantity.’ Wayne Schulz and I are going through the website, taking a little bite out of each day so that we can implement more and more as time goes by.”

La Plata church of Christ, Maryland (remote): Eric Sykes (regional trainer) reports, “Our compassion card team wrote 56 compassion cards this week. We are currently prospecting seven people. Our Friday night class just finished training on Lesson 2 of Back to the Bible. We had 15 members from La Plata and several local and out-of-state congregations attending. We are starting Lesson 3 on Friday. Sister Moton, one of the class’s senior members, just completed Lesson 3 of BTTB with a friend in a senior living facility in DC. We have made arrangements to baptize her friend at sister Moton’s home congregation, the East Capital church of Christ in DC, on Wednesday morning. We currently have five open Bible studies. Two folks are studying Lesson 3 of Back to the Bible. We have one who just completed Lesson 3 and is scheduled to be baptized on Wednesday. We are starting the first lesson of Searching for Truth: Introduction About Truth with a couple who has completed BTTB and Does It Matter? On Tuesday night, the advanced teacher training class will finish Chapter 4 of How to Close the Study, which is titled ‘Closing Techniques.’ We will go door-knocking after class. Our Wednesday night Bible study class is going great. We are starting Chapter 3 of Growing in Christ, titled ‘Assurance.’ It is the perfect class for our new converts and the folks training and mentoring them. We had 15 members in the Growing in Christ class. We had seven new converts in the new converts online Bible study classes.”

Iuka church of Christ, Mississippi: Sam Glover (preacher) reports, “Metrics are a bit easier to nail down today because we had our monthly evangelistic meeting last night. We are sending eight cards for follow up today, with eight visits being scheduled over the course of the next week. We have four new addresses for volunteers to visit and deliver new movers’ baskets to establish contact. We also have a new PO Box address (card will be sent). One new study is in progress, and the prospect is very intent and sincere about studying the Bible. Today, we made a visit to a former member with health issues and two visitor follow ups. We are inviting prospects to a BBQ being held at the church building this Saturday.”

Mountain Island church of Christ, Charlotte, North Carolina: Clyde Gilbert (elder) reports, “We have four ongoing Bible studies; we are praying especially for one who is very close to obeying the Gospel. We have had several visitors lately and are following up to try to set up Bible studies.”

Linville Forest church of Christ, Kernersville, North Carolina: Kelly Brown (preacher) reports, “Lindsey Sherrill was baptized Sunday morning. Lindsey just moved into the area three weeks ago. We request prayers for her as she begins her new walk with God.”

East Flushing church of Christ, New York (remote): Clarence Jenkins (preacher) reports, “We had one visit during the week last week and one for worship service. After worship service, we watched the YouTube video ‘Tips for Evangelism: We Serve an Offensive God.’ Our metrics thus far, for and through the month of May, are two baptisms, 26 compassion cards, 18 prospects, nine Bible studies, and one in the New Convert class. We appreciate all prayers.”

New Concord church of Christ, Ohio: Terry Townsend (preacher) reports, “We have added a couple of new contacts and will be sending them compassion cards soon. We had one new visitor on Sunday. He is the son of one of our members who left the church years ago. We will be adding him to our contacts, and a follow-up visit will be made in the next few days.”

East Sparta church of Christ, Magnolia, Ohio: Andrew Masterson (minister) reports: “We had a pancake breakfast Saturday with the sole purpose of creating contacts. It was a huge success with 47 people attending. We were able to get contact information for 24 people. Two of them came back to the worship services on Sunday. We believe several of these will be good prospects. We also had a meeting to discuss who will be in charge of the different areas. The Bible study that started during our seminar is going well. The young couple understand the biblical principles very well. A volunteer stepped up and asked to head up the Compassion Card part of the program, and are following up on that. We are following up on a couple who visited our services two weeks ago and another who visited last week. There are no studies set up yet with them, but we are hopeful.”

Owasso church of Christ, Oklahoma: David Combs (elder) reports, “Yesterday in our Adult Bible Class, we started our study of Book 2 of Back to the Bible. In our worship service, we prayed for the people on our bookmark cards and the evangelism program in general. Following morning services, the Evangelism team leaders met for a potluck lunch and information session. Those in attendance were preachers, elders, deacons, coordinators, team leaders, and helpers. Information was shared, and the process was made a little clearer. The following evening, Team 3 met to write compassion cards. Sixteen card writers wrote 105 cards to be mailed out this week to seven prospects. We currently have one Bible study in progress.”

Porter church of Christ, Oklahoma: Nathan Boyd (elder) reports, “On Sunday, May 18, Tristan B. was baptized. Tristan was a visitor who received compassion cards, and he was presented a Bible as a high school graduate this year. Tristan kept visiting each Sunday over the last six weeks or so. He had made a choice to be baptized the Sunday before but wanted his family there when he did. Thanks to God for allowing him that time. For many years, the church has hosted a meal at our annex, served and provided for the Porter consolidated teachers and staff for their end-of-year and beginning-of-year meeting/classroom prep or take-down tasks. We provided a service, appreciation, and prayer in the past, but we were not directly evangelizing; we only had goodwill evangelism. This year, on May 16, teachers and staff had lunch in order to have more direct evangelism. Ladies made 100 gift bags to be passed out to those in attendance. The bags had church information, a study guide, an invitation card, a Christian gift card, and candy. Thank you to everyone who worked to make this happen. May doors and hearts be opened.”

Cheyenne church of Christ, Oklahoma (remote): Nathan Brewer (coordinator) reports, “It has been a year since we went through remote evangelism training. Sunday, I began what should be a nine-sermon run on evangelism. The first sermon was Evangelism Overview. I plan to cover the steps of the Evangelism Model, including going through all three Back to the Bible booklets as members follow along and fill out the booklets.”

Coweta church of Christ, Oklahoma: Keno Shrum (regional trainer) reports, “Jamie and I spent the weekend at Sullivan Village church of Christ in Lawton conducting a Refresh and Continued Education training. The congregation is quickly implementing the training. In Coweta, we are still working with several prospects, hoping to get them into Bible studies soon. The congregation met Sunday evening and filled out compassion cards to mail to visitors and a person who recently lost her dad. As soon as the cards finish mailing, members will visit in-person to follow up on the cards and work to till the soil of their hearts. We hope to schedule Lesson 2 of Back to the Bible soon with Brenden and Dawn.”

Sullivan Village church of Christ, Lawton, Oklahoma: Steven Hill (preacher) reports, “Sullivan Village just finished our evangelism refresher with Keno Shrum. We had a great time and were able to get a good idea of what we need to do to get going again. We will be implementing the methods and patterns that House to House teaches, which ultimately come directly from the New Testament. We ask for prayers as we regroup and prepare to start firing on all cylinders again. To God be the glory.”

Union church of Christ, South Carolina (remote): Terry Hale (evangelist) reports, “We had three visitors this week. Two of the visitors are coming from another congregation; they had heard about the work and want to be a part of it. Three attempts were made last week to start a study. Three studies are ongoing Book 3; six studies are in Books 1 and 2. We had an excellent class with new converts using the Acts Workbook.”

Ocoee Street church of Christ, Copper Hill, Tennessee: R.E. Vann (elder) reports, “Three transition visits were made with good results; we added another prospect. We are approaching our VBS this year with a more evangelistic approach.”

Covington church of Christ, Tennessee: Wayne Dalrymple (elder) reports, “We have had some visitors attend our services lately. Noah is a young adult who has consistently attended on Sunday mornings for three months. I have been encouraging our young adult members to prospect him and start a Bible study. Another visitor we had on Sunday was Thomas; he lives in an apartment within a hundred yards of our parking lot. He said the person who usually picks him up to take him to a denomination could not pick him up, so he decided to walk over to our building to attend our services. We got his information. Monday evening, we wrote him several cards to thank him for visiting. I intend to give him a call this week to invite him back. The study with Chris has been stalled for a few weeks. We are dealing with a difficult situation as well as some health issues. We hope to show our concern for his health and encourage him to resume his studies. Our VBS will be June 1-4. We expect several visitors then, also. We ask God to provide opportunities to reach the lost through this effort.”

East Ridge church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee: Charles Cochran (preacher) reports, “We had two baptisms. Austin Fowler and I studied with Matt Wilson a few months ago, the husband of one of our Christian ladies. He has been attending with his wife and her dad and mom. The other baptism was a 14-year-old, the son of one of our families. His name is Andrew Hinnard. I do not think anyone except his family encouraged him. We continue to try to encourage some of our new converts. As you know, that is an ongoing process. We try to continue to reach out to visitors. I have several Bible Correspondence Course studies in progress. Another member and I continue a Bible study with a nonmember. My wife and I are currently in Iola, Kansas, trying to encourage this small church. This is where Luke Griffin and his wife Kristi met. His father preached here many years ago. Kristi’s dad and family live here. Our elders are making a list of members at East Ridge who are unfaithful so we can extend our evangelism efforts to them as well.”

McEwen church of Christ, Tennessee: Jonathan Jones (preacher) reports, “We had our first baptism from the program Monday night. A young couple in our congregation wrote a contact card for their friends, and we began sending them cards. Soon we had them all in our home for a meal and began meeting every Monday night for dessert and Bible study. After making it through the three booklets, the wife of the family decided she needed to be baptized, but the husband insisted his baptism was scriptural (even after his Baptist pastor insisted that it was not). We are going to continue working with them and will study again tonight. Please pray that he will accept the truth eventually. I also studied twice with a young couple last week who need to repent from living together before they are baptized. The studies went well; they realized they need to make changes. As far as I know, they are making arrangements to get out of that living situation or get married right away. I will find out more when we meet with them again on Tuesday. One study was quite sad. A lady had been visiting when we were going through the red booklet of Back to the Bible on Sunday mornings, and she realized she needed to be baptized. I had suspicions about her marriage, and when we studied repentance and Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 19, she did not accept the truth and turned away. Please pray for her heart.”

Chapel Hill church of Christ, Tennessee: Matt Jones (deacon) reports, “We will have our monthly coordinators meeting this week to check up on all the different areas. We still have a couple of Bible studies in various stages. We are gearing up for a big summer with many outreach efforts planned in the near future. We look forward to many opportunities to share the Good News.”

Sycamore Chapel church of Christ, Ashland City, Tennessee: Jackson Erwin (preacher) reports, “We set up our evangelism table last week and introduced all its materials. We also collected about 100 surveys, and we are now working on organizing the teams. We had several returning visiting families for the last two weeks, and we just added a new family to our membership. We should have all our teams set up by the end of this week, and we already need to place a new order for our materials for the table.”

Cookeville church of Christ, Tennessee: Jonathan Medley (elder) reports, “This week has really taught us the benefit of faithful congregations communicating with each other. Last week, David Oxley from the Rome church of Christ in Lebanon, Tennessee, contacted us about a young man they had been studying with in their prison ministry. The young man, Cody, had been released from prison and was temporarily in Cookeville before moving to a halfway house. David gave us Cody’s contact and asked if we could check on him and study with him. We reached out to him. Our deacon over benevolence took him some groceries at the hotel where he was staying. Due to the nature of Cody’s previous conviction, there were restrictions on where he could go and whom he could meet. One of the members in our congregation has met with him and completed all three Bible studies using Back to the Bible. Cody obeyed the Gospel tonight! He has an unscriptural divorce, and we have already discussed with him the necessity of remaining unmarried. He says he understands that, but it will be a challenge for him. Please pray that Cody continues with his studies and his desire to please God. Once he moves to his halfway house in East Tennessee, we will contact a congregation near him. Last week, I completed the first book of Back to the Bible with Jared. We are meeting this week to start Book 2, and based on his background, I suspect we will start having some tough conversations. Pray that these two souls can be added to the Lord’s church soon. Jared is married and has three children, so this could be a generational impact for his family.”

Philadelphia church of Christ, Lebanon, Tennessee (remote): Alex DeGraves (associate preacher) reports, “One of our elders was able to set up a Bible study with one of our prospects! We are praying that the study can go well and bring the family to Christ! On Sunday evening, a member realized she had not been baptized scripturally and came forward to be baptized in accordance with the scriptures. What a wonderful thing! Finally, we are sending the last cards this week from our first round of prospects. We went over the transition visit sermon yesterday, and we hope to have fruitful visits next week.”

Stewarts Creek church of Christ, Smyrna, Tennessee: Jon McCord (member) reports, “We did our third training class on compassion cards. We are going to take a break from training next week to give some time to get coordinators set up. We will resume with both AM and PM training on June first.”

New Union church of Christ, Manchester, Tennessee: Paul Fultz (elder) reports, “We had 12 visitors on Sunday; our members submitted four names to add to our prospect list. We wrote 33 compassion cards. During the week, we made four visits. We meet every Monday to discuss our evangelism efforts.”

Soddy church of Christ, Tennessee: Joe Mallory (preacher), “It was our privilege last week to hear Rob present wonderful lessons at Soddy that helped us look in the mirror and realize what we can do as a congregation to reach the souls of men. Last Sunday, we passed out our post-seminar surveys to every member and collected them yesterday. We were able to welcome some new faces this past Sunday due to our graduation celebration, and are praying for doors of opportunity to build relationships with them. We began our start date this past Sunday with the presentation of the sermon from John 4, as well as filling out the bookmarks. The congregation is excited about the process of contacts becoming prospects. We are looking forward to the labor and fruit of congregational evangelism! We are praying to prepare and implement the upcoming seminars in the Memphis area!”

Collierville church of Christ, Tennessee: Justin Evergarden (evangelist) reports, “Next week, the congregation will begin learning how to effectively use the Back to the Bible study series. This past Sunday, we held training on the New Movers Program and are now preparing to deliver welcome baskets. We are contacting local pizza shops to explore potential discount partnerships as part of this effort. The idea is to provide new movers with a hot, delicious meal (complete with a drink), eliminating the need to cook or unpack on their first night. This approach not only blesses the recipients but also supports local businesses by bringing in new customers. Our compassion card room is fully set up, and we have begun sending out cards. All coordinators have been assigned, and we will begin offering one-on-one training with them in the coming weeks to ensure the program operates smoothly. Excitement and momentum continue to build, and we are grateful for every opportunity to reach souls and glorify God through this work.”

Blackman church of Christ, Murfreesboro, Tennessee (remote): Brian McCord (member) reports, “We had our fish fry this past Saturday with 120 in attendance. We have made some new contacts and will follow up with them. Our first set of new movers is here, and we will be constructing and delivering baskets in the next couple of weeks. We continue to send out 20-25 cards per week. We also have an upcoming workday in two weeks, and 31 people have signed up to help. Many of these are from a group we are allowing to use the building for their program on a daily basis. We hope that we will be able to get to know them better during this work. Finally, we have a member who receives free bedding from the company she works for. She will be donating it all to us, and we will be doing regular bedding giveaways to the community to make more contacts. The first one will be on the same day as the workday. We pray that we will be able to make good contacts from this.”

Rome church of Christ, Lebanon, Tennessee (remote): David Oxley reports, “We will meet this week for our advanced class. We are sending cards this week to three prospects. We will meet Monday night for our New Converts class and have planned visits to 10 prospects for this week. This week, we worked with the Cookeville church of Christ to support someone in the area who needed help and wanted a Bible study. We are so thankful they were able to help, and hopefully a soul will be saved through the effort.”

Hillcrest church of Christ, Springfield, Tennessee: Tim Taylor (evangelist) reports, “We are celebrating the one-year anniversary of our School of Evangelism training. What a blessing it is to see the precious souls we have reached out to over the past year now worshiping and serving the Lord alongside us. We look forward to renewing our commitment to reach and teach the lost in the coming days. We had a Zoom meeting with Rob to provide us with additional training. We are continuing to build the culture. We had four first-time visitors this past week!”

Birdwell Chapel church of Christ, Cottontown, Tennessee: Kerry England (elder) reports, “Birdwell Chapel’s first Compassion Card team met Sunday evening before services. We will be mailing 25 cards this week to recent visitors and other contacts. It went well, but we see ways to streamline the process and make it more efficient. That way, in the future, we will be able to send more cards to more contacts.  We received the list of new movers to our community this week and will be making those visits in the next couple of weeks. We are praying these efforts cultivate hearts to desire a Bible study.”

Rivergate church of Christ, Madison, Tennessee: Doug Tooley (preacher) reports, “We had three visitors on Wednesday night. We had five visitors on Sunday morning and one on Sunday night. We had a recognition of our graduates after the service on Sunday morning. We had one request for a prayer for forgiveness on Wednesday night. Last week, a Bible was given to a prospect; I hope to schedule a study soon.”

White Oak church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee (remote): John McGiffin (preacher) reports, “We had several visitors on Sunday. My wife and I took one visitor to lunch. He has been a Christian for about nine years. He was converted while attending Harding University. He and all his friends are attending a ‘church of Christ’ that he feels is not sound. The minister has started referring to himself as a pastor. They have two services: one sings a cappella and one has a band. The a cappella service now has praise groups that stand in front of the church. He is disenchanted because his friends have grown up in the church, and he has not. He knows it is not correct, so he is ‘church shopping’ while his friends seem content. We listened to him for two hours while we asked questions and deferred. He is interested in studying Does It Matter? by Bobby Bates. He feels that he can convince his friends to go through the study also. We continue to do what we can, but sometimes God puts someone in our lives who needs help. He is like our Cornelius right at the moment. We pray he responds accordingly.”

West Fayetteville church of Christ, Tennessee: Steve Jefferson (elder) reports, “West Fayetteville had several returning visitors yesterday who have received cards recently. We had a couple of new visitors who were visiting a family with whom we have been studying. Yesterday, the Compassion Card Team 1 sent about 36 cards to two contacts.”

Southwest church of Christ, Austin, Texas: Bryce Mayfield (evangelist) reports, “Travis Young has been visiting the Southwest church of Christ for several weeks now. Our members were quick to greet him and make him feel welcome. Travis quickly noted that the church ‘seemed like a big family.’ We put him on our card list to encourage him, and he kept visiting. One of our Bible students, Jaston Richter, approached Travis and asked for a Bible study. Travis agreed! After finishing Book 3 of Back to the Bible, Travis decided to be baptized. We rejoice with Heaven as Travis made this wonderful decision. To God be the glory!”

Eisenhower church of Christ, Odessa, Texas: Allen Weakland (preacher) reports, “It has been several weeks since our last report; however, the work has continued to progress. Travis has been in contact with a fellow graduate of UTPB for several months. With graduation behind them, Michelle accepted an invitation to attend Wednesday night Bible class this past week. She attended our a.m. and p.m. service Sunday. We request prayers for Michelle as she continues her journey toward God. We pray that Travis will help and guide her toward spiritual renewal. Let all praise God.”

Grandbury Street church of Christ, Cleburne, Texas: Ryan Cowan (deacon) reports, “A homebound woman from the community contacted our church secretary regarding the House to House publication. She stated that she enjoyed reading it, and was disappointed that she had not received a copy in the last month. This has prompted us to ask two members to hand deliver a copy of House to House and attempt to learn more about this potential prospect in the desire to begin a Bible study. This woman’s phone call reminded me how important it is to cast a broad net as we seek the ‘few’ who are receptive to the message of God’s Word.”

Roanoke church of Christ, Texas: Caleb Rutherford (preacher) reports, “Our Transition Visit team met to re-focus and also assign visits. Those should be happening this week. Several Bible studies are still going on. I started a new study on Saturday evening with a visitor who came with someone else who has also been visiting (who is already a Christian). We had a great study for more than three hours! Although we normally do not study for this long, he did not want to stop. He wants to sit down again soon and talk. He was blown away at the simplicity and clarity of what the Bible says to do in order to be saved.”

Midtown church of Christ, Victoria, Texas: Cody McCoy (preacher) reports, “Sometimes you have a period of time when the contact opportunities have slowed and you are praying and working to make something happen. Then it does. Yesterday, one of our members brought a trainee, Nyzjuan, from work to both services. He loved it and wanted to attend as long as he is here, with a possible move to Victoria. He is staying at a hotel, so I sent him an email instead of a card because he will not see it at his home address for a while. I know we will get a study soon because of how comfortable he was while visiting. I invited him and Desmon (member) over to the house to eat and talk Oregon football. We also had a member, Elijah (who was converted by a family in the congregation), who brought his two brothers, Judah and Aaron, yesterday. We went out to get pizza after services, and they want to learn more about the church. Pray for us that we will get the Bible studies soon, and they will bear fruit.”

Bridgewater church of Christ, Katy, Texas: Doug Suggs (deacon) reports, “Our new movers met to gather material for 34 new movers to our area. One of the card teams met, and a good number of cards will be sent. We had a return visit from a visitor who received cards, and she was very impressed, as was her daughter. She will be traveling, but we hope to get a study when she returns. Our New Converts class is going well.”

Colleyville church of Christ, Texas: John Garza (regional trainer) reports, “We continue to be excited and working here at Colleyville. We have multiple other studies taking place. We have many other prospects that we hope will come to fruition. Many good works are taking place.”

Howe church of Christ, Texas: Aaron Alsbrook (preacher) reports, “We again prayed for those on our bookmark cards before our morning worship. We continue to remind brethren to fill out contact cards in order to make prospects with compassion cards. Our second card-writing group met Sunday afternoon to write cards to our current contacts. We continue to place evangelism in our minds and are putting the pieces together to allow the entire congregation to be evangelistic as the Lord designed His church to be. We currently have nine prospects on our list and will be making visits soon.”

Fruitvale church of Christ, Texas: Carl McCann (elder) reports, “We continue to average about ten visitors each Sunday morning. Our Bible studies continue. Chris and Alice have decided to discontinue the study. I believe that he has to deal with a past of bitterness, which is getting in the way. Alice seems to enjoy studying. We have been studying with another couple, Shane and Cierra. Again, the husband seems completely disinterested, but the wife is very interested and enthused to study. Mike and Sherri are another couple that will be studying about baptism soon. They were very interested in the elders in the church last week, especially the roles they provided to govern the church. Beverly Grimes was baptized on Monday, May 19, at the Van church of Christ (picture below). Jesse Stuart and Raoul Ferris leave for the Cayman Islands this week, where they will be training the West Bay and Georgetown churches of Christ on the importance of using an organized study. They are instructing them on the use of Back to the Bible.”

Southside church of Christ, Lubbock, Texas (remote): Joshua Hubbard (associate minister) reports, “We have wonderful news! Dale, one of our elders, has been studying with Juan Rodriguez for about six weeks using Back to the Bible. After a lengthy discussion Tuesday afternoon/evening, Juan realized he needed to put the Lord on in baptism. We are so thankful for the power of the Gospel of Christ, and we give God glory as we celebrate the addition of our new brother to the church!”

Wheeler church of Christ, Texas: Garrett English (preacher) reports, “We had our fellowship meal this Sunday honoring mothers and had a few visitors from the community. We will follow up and ask them about their visit. I keep reaching out for studies to the ones I have mentioned before, but I have received little to no responses. We will keep asking, looking, and praying for more opportunities to study.”

Beltway church of Christ, Virginia: LeAndre Johnson (preacher) reports, “This week, John 4 part 3 was preached. We reviewed the seminar on the HTHSOE model Wednesday. We are getting ready to execute the plan.”

Abingdon church of Christ, Virginia: Freddie Klein (evangelist) reports, “This week, we conducted several transition visits to some of our prospects and visited new movers in the area. In total, we had eight adults and four children make visits to 18 contacts, resulting in one new contact from these visits. We welcomed a community visitor for the third time this Sunday, along with other visitors from the region. A prospect expressed gratitude by sending a card to the church, thanking us for the compassion cards; this is the second card we have received from the community this month. On Wednesday, I distributed five invitation cards to each family and challenged them to pass them out during the week. I organized the evangelism materials in the evangelism room, making them more accessible to the congregation, and making it easier to restock our evangelism tables. During Sunday morning service, Nathan preached part of the Back to the Bible series. Since March, we have seen two restorations, and we are engaged in many studies. Additionally, several individuals who have been on the fringes are making a more concerted effort to attend. On Sunday evening, we decided that all who put together visitor bags should meet on the fourth Sunday of the month to prepare for the upcoming month.”

Williamsburg church of Christ, Virginia: Jim Bishop (elder) reports, “We conducted our monthly door-knocking. Forty-eight doors were knocked, six bags of food were handed out, and four contacts were made. Today we had one local visitor and two who had visited previously. One of the visitors who visited previously is the mother of one of our recent new converts. This is the second mother brought in by a recent convert. The first was baptized a week ago. We continue to send compassion cards each week. Thanks to God for answering our prayers!”

Westside church of Christ, Salem, Virginia: Jeff Durham (elder) reports, “We are gathering thoughts and feedback from those who took lead roles in our Community Support Day to determine what worked well and to identify areas that might be improved for future events. Some of these same people were asked to write the first compassion cards to those who completed Prayer Request cards. We want to work towards keeping a connection that was established last Saturday with those who interacted most with those from our community. Our next similar event will be our Backpack/School Supplies giveaway as another way to make connections and serve our neighbors.”