Honolulu church of Christ, Oahu, Hawaii: We welcome the Honolulu church of Christ to the House to House/Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. Tagiilima Escene is a graduate of MSOP and had gone through some of our training already. His work at the congregation has resulted in numerous baptisms already. Since he already laid the groundwork, we are confident the enrollment of this congregation to HTHSOE will result in substantial Kingdom growth.
Aberdeen church of Christ, Maryland: Will Brown (preacher) reports, “We are further along in the training phase. This week the contact cards are being collected. The elders have met and put the evangelism teams together. We as the church are collectively building our contact list. Next week, the card team will begin sending the first set of cards to the congregational contacts. We are looking forward to setting up Bible Studies and new movers baskets.”
Jacksonville church of Christ, Alabama: “There are several contacts visiting our assembly. We passed out several new movers baskets recently. One of our young men (Jared) offered to mow the lawn the first time for free to each new mover. One called him and asked for his lawn to be mowed. This is a great prospecting tool. Our preacher (Keith) continues to work on several contacts as we seek to transition to Bible studies.”
Canal Heights church of Christ, Demopolis, Alabama: Bryan Cook (preacher) reports, “We ordered enough materials from Dollar Tree for new movers for several months. Thirty-three cards were sent to contacts this week with an undetermined amount from this Sunday. The sermon was the first of three parts of the evangelism cycle or flow chart. We continued to pray for our contacts and asked if there were any unfaithful or intermittent church members on their list. A few more people are stepping up to help. It is really a beautiful thing to watch. The ladies installed our new table cover and organized the card table. There are only a handful of people that are not participating, but they will come along. Continue to pray for our ministry as we pray for you all.”
Forestview church of Christ, Memphis, Tennessee: Tim Roland (preacher) reports, “God blessed His church at Forestview with a wonderful day! We were encouraged by our good attendance number: 78 with 19 visitors present! We continue to promote our participation in the House to House School of Evangelism! I completed our four-part sermon series from John 4, “The Politically Incorrect Evangelist!” We added a new member to our Encouragement Ministry Team; welcome Sister Patty Jenkins. Our EMT sent out 105 cards last week to our visitors, sick, shut-ins, members having birthdays and anniversaries, and members needing encouragement, which is fantastic. And the greatest part of the day was the installation of Bob Cooley as an elder for the congregation by elders Junior Bittle and Perry York (1 Timothy 3:1; Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5). May God bless the Forestview Church of Christ with both continued spiritual and numerical growth as we put the Lord first in our lives!”
Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Greg Garner (deacon) reports, “We finished the Back to the Bible sermon series. After a powerful sermon on baptism, and several questions later, we had two baptisms. The Service Team continued to work on the VBS materials. The VBS date is fast approaching. The Evangelism Team made 10 New Mover Baskets, 23 Visitor Bags, and 32 Compassion Cards. Our children drew and colored pictures to put with the cards. Our Bible Study Application class had their first night of role playing with two people conducting a Bible Study. They were eager to start this interaction. The Visitation Team continues to make weekly visits. One visit put us in contact with a men’s sober living group. Plans are to return this week with cards, DVDs, and snacks. We have six visits set for this week. We also have three ongoing Bible studies.”
Chase Park church of Christ, Huntsville, Alabama: Pat Cowden (preacher) reports, “We rejoice with the angels that Lauren O’Dell was baptized into Christ last week. She was studying with Evan Davis and his mother, Gina, both members at Chase. Evan is Lauren’s boyfriend and has been leading her to Christ since they started dating. Lauren has been visiting services and attending bible classes for quite some time. Please pray for Evan and Lauren as they continue to walk together in the Lord. And pray for us as their spiritual family to help them in every way we can.”
Adairsville church of Christ, Georgia: Rick Lawson (preacher) reports, “To God be the glory! Valerie McCloy was baptized for the remission of her sins tonight after studying about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. I appreciate Beverly Owens for joining us in our study, as well as the members who came to the church building for the baptism. Valerie is pictured between Joan Smith and Beverly Owens, both of whom were instrumental in making Valerie feel welcomed. She sought out the church of Christ after receiving House to House, Heart to Heart on a regular basis. Oh happy day!”
Coweta church of Christ, Oklahoma: Keno Shrum (preacher) reports, “We are staying busy here in Coweta. We had another study this past week with a woman who had attended the gospel meeting. She attended last Wednesday evening Bible study after the Gospel Meeting and was back for worship today. She has attended many different denominations and as a result is very confused on what God actually calls us to do. We are studying, she is growing in knowledge, and I believe her heart desires the truth. We have some other projects in the works that I am anxious to share next month. We continue to pray for all those who labor for the Lord. God bless you all in His Love.”
Crossville church of Christ, Tennessee: Alan Judd (preacher) reports, “We continue to implement various aspects of our evangelism program. We were excited Sunday that a gentleman who had received compassion cards visited for the first time. He introduced himself as, ‘I’m that guy that you sent a lot of cards to when I was sick.’ We pray that with follow-up and further cultivating, we will be able to interest him in a Bible study. VBS is coming up soon, and discussion and plans are being made to try to maximize our evangelism impact through this annual event. We continue to pray for more opportunities to spread the gospel and share God’s love with our community.”
Lafollette church of Christ, Tennessee: Ben Shaffer (preacher) reports, “We are happy to announce that Justin Haas was baptized on May 14. One of our elders and I had studied with him, but the situation had gone cold. Mark, the elder, was able to continue the study, and Justin was baptized the first study back. We look forward to helping him grow. One of our more recent converts has brought her friend John with her the past few weeks. As soon as I send this update, I am going to take him out to lunch to get to know him a bit better and work towards studying together. This Sunday we are starting our new converts class and it is nice that we have enough new converts that the class will have a good size! We are continuing to take time on Sundays to highlight the contact bookmark. This has really helped keep the focus on souls and makes a great impact every week upon all of us, myself included.”
Highway church of Christ, Benton, Arkansas: Steven Ford (preacher) reports, “This week was a good week. Visits have continued and some adjustments made. We are in the midst of a study with an individual who needs to be restored to fellowship with the Lord. Training in the BTTB manuals has concluded, and we are continuing to send cards and gather names for contacts.”
Shiloh church of Christ, Florence, Alabama: McKinley Pate (preacher) reports, “Another good week here at Shiloh. We had several in our young adult class deliver our first new mover basket. They were extremely excited about the response when they delivered it. We will begin sending cards to them this week. We have been following up with face-to-face contact on those who received our cards during the past week with follow ups scheduled for this week. We also finished going over the Back to the Bible teacher workbooks. We are giving God the glory for all that is being done at Shiloh!”
Eisenhower church of Christ, Odessa, Texas: Allen Weakland (preacher/elder) reports, “God continues to provide contacts. One of our fine Christian ladies, Melissa Moore, introduced Christy and me to her daughter and her boyfriend two weeks ago. He surprised us by attending worship services this past Sunday. When I stood up in the pulpit, there he was again! This time Melissa’s daughter was present as well. Many in the congregations talked with them and introduced themselves, and they had smiles on their faces. I think they were impressed. Please pray that we can go from a contact to a prospect.”
Paintsville church of Christ, Kentucky: Zach Collins (preacher) reports, “It has been another wonderful week at Paintsville! Last night, I received a call that the son of one of our members desired to be baptized into Christ! In his words, he wanted to obey the gospel “right now.” He was baptized and the Lord added him to the church (Acts 2:47). Pray for him as he begins his new walk in Christ. Our renewed focus on evangelism is working!”
Chesapeake church of Christ, Virginia: Ernest Benjamin (preacher) reports, “We have set up our evangelism table and have purchased materials/tools necessary to begin training the congregation in how to use B2B. On July 5, I am scheduled to begin teaching the seven principles of evangelism and BTTB in our Sunday Bible class. I will also preach about the congregational plan for evangelism in July as well. Beginning in July, we will be sending the House to House, Heart to Heart publication into about 8-9 thousand homes in the communities surrounding our building. We will also be using the new mover program. Year-to-date, we have had two baptisms.”
Riverbend church of Christ, Georgia: Austin Fowler (member) reports, “This was another great week at Riverbend. We were able to send out 110 compassion cards this week. I received an email from a co-worker whom we had added to the compassion card list. She thanked the church for the cards that we sent her and said she would be visiting us as soon as she gets better. We keep getting reports like this.
“Sunday, I began a study with Terry Smith. He is the cousin of one of our elders, Ernie Sanders. Ernie and his wife, Valorie, joined me in the study. Terry has Parkinson’s. To help make the study go better, we had Valorie be his scribe. The study went very well, and we are doing study two next week.
“Monday night, Dakota Roberts made the decision to be baptized into Christ. He studied with one of our elders, Jason Duggin. Here is a recap from Jason on study 3: ‘During the third study of Back to the Bible, we discussed Dakota’s previous baptism and his understanding of when he was saved. Dakota had been around multiple religious teachings as a child including the Lord’s church with his childhood friend. After our study of baptism, I asked him about his confidence level of him being saved if he were to die the following day. I then asked him what his confidence level would be if he obeyed the gospel that evening, and he said he would be 100 percent confident. Dakota decided to be buried with Christ in baptism. We will continue to teach Christian faithfulness to Dakota and his wife Lacey who was previously baptized in the Lord’s church. Please being praying for them as they begin their new life equally yoked in Christ.’”
Coldwater church of Christ, Murray, Kentucky: Luke Puckett (preacher) reports, “This past week we worked on ensuring our new movers baskets were up to date and checked with the new movers contacts that are sent out. We were able to find a couple that just moved in about one mile from the building. They are being added to our visit list, and we will follow up with them and take them a basket.
We continue trying to develop new contacts from our list. We are sending out several compassion cards every week with plans to visit in the future. We continue to pray that doors will be opened to study soon.”
New Hope church of Christ, Middleton, Tennessee: Cole Wade (preacher) reports, “We recently made several visits to new movers to the area, and most of the visits were very positive and successful. We are continuing to make contacts through card writing and new movers. We are also holding events that are bringing in new faces, and through the events, we are able to grow our evangelistic work! We will soon have a Bible study with a couple who is attending church, and we are expecting great things from it!”
Hillsboro church of Christ, Tennessee: Shelby Moorman (preacher) reports, “We visited new movers again yesterday and made several more contacts. We will send cards to those contacts this evening.”
Beloit church of Christ, Kansas: Dustin Doughtery (preacher) reports, “I spoke with one of the guys from the McPherson, Kansas, church, and we are planning to go there and teach them how to do personal evangelism later this summer. I preached this a.m. about what man would write if he could change the Bible and exposed the error of denominationalism and many false teachings associated with denominations. We are still working on developing contacts and sowing seeds, praying for studies to come and conversions to follow. We offer prayers for growth in the kingdom and all glory and praise to God.”
Shertz church of Christ, Texas: Jay Stewart (elder) reports, “This week we held a congregational meeting to further explain and generate support for our evangelism efforts. We presented the evangelism model and showed how we are specifically applying the fellowship and work groups to our membership needs. As mentioned before, due to our size, we founded three groups instead of four with an elder’s family and at least one deacon’s family in each group. Our fellowship meals are scheduled to start on June 5. We did not have any new compassion card requests, but we are cycling the existing ones through the groups. We created a plan to teach the Bible study material and supporting literature as our focus for the adult class in the summer quarter. We are hopeful that as the techniques to start a conversation about the gospel are demonstrated and the content of the BTTB and other material is covered, our members will gain the confidence to follow through.”
Northern Oaks church of Christ, San Antonio, Texas: Mel Hutzler (preacher) reports, “We have all four card-writing groups continuously running (one for each week). We have contacts coming in from visitors and a few from the bookmarks. We have members prospecting individuals and a few members currently having Bible studies. So far we have had four baptisms and hope to have more in the future. Our greatest challenge now is to get more members involved in evangelism program. With Bible camp, summer youth series, and VBS coming up, we hope to gain more contacts and to prospect them.”
Siwell Road church of Christ, Jackson, Mississippi: Derek Broome (preacher) reports, “We had a great week this week. One of our recent contacts from a new movers basket came to services on Sunday. My family and I asked them to lunch and enjoyed getting to know them. We also invited them over to our house this week for dinner and some information about the church. They were thrilled to hear more but already had plans to be out of town this week. We are having them over as soon as they return from their trip. We also have started a study with a young lady that had been baptized years ago but realized she did it for all the wrong reasons. Some recent events in her life have her thinking very hard about her spiritual life. She is eager to learn and wants to be sure she is in a right place before God.”
Rogersville church of Christ, Tennessee: Ethan Tate (preacher) reports, “This past Sunday, we had more responses to our compassion card program with wayward members returning and thankful for the cards we have sent. We were able to talk to them for a while to help them in returning to God and church. We are about to begin advertising and reaching out regarding our VBS. Our focus is to evangelize more within the community by having a month long VBS to give a better chance to reach out to families with changing schedules or vacations. While we are finalizing details, we are still building up contacts. Please continue prayers in these efforts as we really hope with studies coming soon will save souls!”
LaPlata Church of Christ, LaPlata MD: Eric Sykes (member/evangelist) reports, “My son and his wife just finished lesson three with her brother Deion; he is almost there. I believe we will have another family member of the body real soon. Please keep a close friend of one of our new converts, Lisa Jefferson, lifted in prayer. Her friend’s name is Cesar. Lisa had been trying to get him interested in a Bible study, but he was shot in the head and in the leg. Lisa called Sandy from the hospital, in tears, saying that the doctors gave him a less than 30 percent chance of surviving the surgery. We prayed with her over the phone, asking God to heal him and give him more time. That was two weeks ago, and Lisa called Sandy last night, saying someone wanted to talk to me; it was Cesar! His voice was weak, but he said that he wanted to thank me and our prayer group for all our prayers we sent up on his behalf. And then he almost brought me to tears when he asked me to pray for him over the phone. Then he asked me if I would mind coming to the hospital and sitting down to study the Bible with him. Of course, you know what my answer was to both questions: YES!!!
“Prayer works! God is good!!! And His word is powerful!!! Over the past two years, we have shared the gospel with and baptized five members of Lisa’s family all online, using Back to the Bible via Zoom. I am truly looking forward to being able sit down with Cesar and share the gospel with him face to face!
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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