Reaching the Lost- Success Stories

Statistics
Total baptisms (2018-2022) reported from U.S. Congregations: 2,345
Total Seminars Conducted (2018-2022): 181
Congregational Enrollments in 2023: 33
Remote Enrollments for 2023: 28
Student Enrollment: 129
States Reporting: 18
Total baptisms reported from U.S. Congregations 2023: 859

Upcoming Seminars
October 19-21 Streetsboro church of Christ, Ohio
October 22-24 New Concord church of Christ, Ohio
October 25-27 Greenville church of Christ, Ohio

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Featured Work: East Main church of Christ, Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Editor’s Note: New Movers is an excellent contact creator. Evangelism hinges on contacts. If we do not have contacts, we will not have Bible studies. New Movers are high-yield contacts because they are most likely to change churches. When you add HTHSOE training, you can take these contacts to another level.

 

New Movers Mean New Converts
Written by Brad Rowley

 

We rejoiced in the baptism of Jonathan and Nikki Grey last Wednesday. We found the Greys through the House-to-House new movers’ list. Teresa Mingle, Nicole LeBlanc, Gerry Whitacre, and Steve and Cathy Arnold all played a part in delivering the new movers’ baskets and the follow-up visits. Our compassion card teams sent cards for several weeks.

One of our deacons, Roger Parsons, helped with several service projects. Ken Reese and some of our deacons and volunteers pick up those who come each Wednesday with the bus. Billy Hutchens (pictured attached) has been studying with Jonathan and Nikki on Wednesday evenings for several weeks and will continue until they complete Back to the Bible. While studying God’s word, their hearts were touched. Our pulpit minister, Jon Mitchell, did a great job answering questions about baptism. This is another great example of East Main members collectively spreading the gospel. This is our fourth baptism this month and the answer to our prayers. To God we give the glory!

Sunday our compassion card team wrote 84 cards. We had two Bible studies last week. One of our new converts received one new contact card this week! Jon Mitchell, Chuck, and Linda Aardema are following up this week on a solid door-knocking prospect that we pray will lead to a Bible study. Jon has a gospel-centered, Bible-authority lesson prepared for next Sunday morning.

East Main will roll out our CHMeeting App to the entire congregation at the end of this month. Now the evangelism administrator can assign tasks (cards, follow-up visits, service projects) to evangelism volunteers through the app. This will save time and will keep a record of actions taken with each prospect. Eventually, the app will replace physical contact cards. Chris Taylor, a deacon, has put a lot of time and effort into this improvement.

Angela Weeks, our administrative assistant, has created a ticket for each new mover basket, which includes an address, helpful hints, and a place for the volunteer to record results. Once the ticket is completed, they will drop it off in our evangelism box in the lobby. This will provide feedback to Cecil Morris, the elder in charge of the new movers’ baskets. This will be our first new movers list with this major improvement. I have attached a copy of the tickets. One of our elders, Jay Pugh, will reorganize our discipleship team this month to ensure all new converts are discipled. We started our new convert class on Sunday with 12 people present. We are so thankful to God and our hard-working members!

Congregational Reports

Monticello church of Christ, Arkansas: Josh Walker (preacher) reports, “We finished our third round of card writing. Members are receiving responses from those who have received cards, and we are looking for opportunities to evangelize in those conversations. We have a Fall Festival coming up, and the focus is generating contacts and prospects—a change from previous Fall Festivals that did not have a known goal. We have started teaching Back to the Bible from the pulpit, and many have mentioned that things (biblically and program-wise) are making more sense to them. We had a Bible study in a benevolence case; he passed through town this week (I used Does It Matter?). While it did not yield the desired results, the seed was planted, and we pray that this man considers the things said during that study.”

Foothills church of Christ, Searcy, Arkansas: Josh Alexander (preacher) reports, “We have made some new contacts this past week. We have a couple of prospects, but they seem to be fighting a Bible study so far. We are pushing forward by being seed sowers, knowing that God gives the increase. We will begin sending compassion cards to our prospects and will try to follow the model. We finally got everything we needed for visitor packets. We will designate a team to welcome visitors and train them with the videos from the School of Evangelism website. Slowly but surely, we are getting organized in evangelism. It is a learning process but well worth the effort.”

Glencoe church of Christ, Alabama: David Marker (elder) reports, “We are working on making deliveries to our new movers. We plan to make some changes to this program that will produce contacts in a better way.  We will also emphasize and address our need to get more people involved in this good work. Rob Whitacre (one of our members), and our elders will be making plans to give further instruction on how we can be more effective in greeting potential prospects. We will be doing that before the events we have planned for our Fall Festival, which is always well-attended. Our attitudes are great; many are willing to be “doers” of the work. We have had some success, but we all realize many souls need to be reached!”

Farley church of Christ, Huntsville, Alabama: Josh Taynor (preacher) reports, “We continue to make progress: having Bible studies, sending out compassion cards and care cards (the latter to strengthen our members), we developed a church business card for members to share with prospects, Josh continues to train us, we’re making our visits, and finally, the elders are teaching the converts class for new/newer called, ‘New Horizons.’”

Hatton church of Christ, Alabama: Chris Miller (preacher) reports, “We have one contact who is very close to obeying the gospel. He has been through all the Back to the Bible studies and was at service for the first time Sunday. We are making plans for our Trunk or Treat to get a list of those who come so we can follow up with visits. We are also going back through our list of contacts from the last 12 months and revisiting them to set up more studies.”

College Avenue church of Christ, Enterprise, Alabama: Phillip Rabren (HTHSOE Graduate) reports, “Joey (preacher) has been studying with a young man in the community. He took a couple out to eat last Sunday; he had invited them to worship. Littleton (elder) will be talking to a contact this week; he will invite the contact and his wife to worship. We hope this will lead to a Bible study. The Gospel of Christ TV program contacted Richie (elder) about a contact in our area, and he will follow up with her.”

Lake City church of Christ, Florida: Jim Flegert (elder) reports, “Our greeter team continues to receive contact information from our visitors. These walk-in visitors are high on our priority list. They are placed on our spreadsheet and our compassion cards list. Our new mover team has also provided our congregational evangelism effort with more contact information, thus adding to our compassion card recipients. Several of our members are conducting BTTB studies with those on our prospect list. Tomorrow night, we are looking forward to the opportunity that God has provided us with our Mission Monday visits and should be able to add to the number of BTTB studies.”

Niceville church of Christ, Florida: Joe Palmer (preacher) reports, “This week, we mailed 81 compassion cards. We had two visitors. One was a returning local visitor who said to me, ‘Thanks for the cards’ as he entered the auditorium. We can see the compassion cards working in little things like that. This week, we also received a thank you card from another one of our recipients. Our congregation is working hard on the two upcoming community events. The increased involvement includes some of our prospects, as one newcomer that we took out for lunch on Sunday said, ‘Can I help with the fish fry?’ I answered, ‘Of course you can.’ Seeing people being excited and finding a place to fit into the congregation feels so good. Another dear sister showed me a door prize that she is making for our Trunk or Treat. No one asked her to do it; she just started serving in her way. God is good, and His word will not return void.”

North Brevard church of Christ, Titusville, Florida: Doug Gerdes (member) reports, “We are continuing to roll out the steps of the model. As a result of the compassion card effort, we are being recognized by the community as a loving and caring church. I have heard this from people who come to our Food Pantry days. Yesterday, after several weeks of receiving compassion cards, seven people at the Food Pantry agreed to have a Bible Study.  More asked for our prayers. They could not do the study then, so Matt and I are working hard to set up those studies. There is much more to do, but 25 people have volunteered to help with cards and be greeters. We are starting to see the energy change in the body, and we are looking forward to more success as we get people trained and involved.”

Fayetteville church of Christ, Georgia: David Gulledge (associate preacher) reports, “We have continued to collect contact cards to put on our prospect list. We have organized and printed the first prospect list and will make it available this week. We are working on dividing the congregation into four groups that will meet and send out cards. Lord willing, we will send out our first round of cards this week or next.”

Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Greg Garner (deacon) reports, “The compassion card group sent out 35 cards last week. Our New Movers group delivered 12 baskets and left nine door hangers (see pictures) for unanswered doors. As was mentioned last week, we knocked 240 doors on October 7 during the National Door Knocking Campaign with just under 40 people from WCOC. Of those 240 doors, 19 were added to a secondary visit list. So far, two WCOC groups visited four of the 19 from the secondary visits list. This is a work in progress. The Prison Ministry had a major milestone—Sheriff Taylor of Gwinnet County approved the use of Back to the Bible and Does It Matter presentations and the School of Evangelism for a pilot program of 400 tablets at the Gwinnett County Adult Jail. We had 18 attendees in our New Converts class. The Greeter Group reported that we had five visitors this week for Sunday morning worship. WCOC had two Bible studies last week.”

LaFayette church of Christ, Georgia: Jesse Teague (deacon) reports, “Group 2 met like clockwork to send out compassion cards last night.  It has become normal now— everyone meeting together after worship to help seek and save that which is lost. We have two new saints in the fold at Lafayette. Both obeyed the gospel after much care was shown for them, including many visits, studies, and transportation help to the store, doctor visits, and worship.  Dianne has had many health problems and has had help for many doctor visits.  Sometimes she can drive herself, but sometimes she needs help. She was so happy to ask that her baptism be announced, and she expressed much gratitude for the loving brothers and sisters at Lafayette. Another visitor, Red, has been coming for a good while now. He is a very good-hearted man. He has a learning disability, and it took different visual study aids to help him see the truth he needed to obey. He was so happy to finally get it and obey the gospel. He is in group 2 and came down to help with compassion cards last night.”

Warner Robins church of Christ, Georgia: Dave Domingue (elder) reports, “We wanted to provide an update regarding the work here at WRCOC. In the past week, God has blessed WRCOC with five baptisms; praise God! Our Widowhood Workshop (Navigating Loss) with Dean Miller brought in community visitors, including Justin and Tina, who were baptized after studying with Daniel and Katrina Stearsman and Stacy Grant, using the Back to the Bible series. A few days later, Ramone, who had watched our services online, decided to visit us and was baptized on Saturday. Then on Sunday, Brandon, who has been attending with his wife and kids, had lunch with our minister and his family before he decided to be buried with Christ in baptism. On Tuesday, Jarred, who had been taking World Bible School (WBS) classes, was immersed for the remission of his sins. Jarred said, “This is the best thing I have done my whole life.” Additionally, our weekend door-knocking is opening doors for Bible studies, including one with a Seventh Day Adventist scheduled for this week. The work continues; praise God! We have had 22 baptisms this year!”

Honolulu church of Christ, Hawaii: Lima Esene (regional trainer) reports, “We know the evangelism model works as we are working the model in our efforts to reach souls. I have noticed a big improvement in the way our members greet our visitors. At first, some had to put themselves out of their comfort zone to do these things. Now it has become second nature. Some are natural greeters, but some of them are made. The point is, that you need to get out of your comfort zone to serve the Lord. You never know what things you can do if you do not try. We are prospecting several local visitors. We have two ongoing Bible studies. Two of our new converts from last year, Tony and Doanne, are doing a mighty work with our youth group. Some children whose parents are not yet church members have been attending our youth events. Our youth group is another of our most evangelistic assets in the church. The highlight of this past week is seeing another soul come home to Jesus. After studying the Scriptures for about a month, Peter decided to be baptized into Christ. To God be the glory.”

Beloit church of Christ, Kansas (remote): Dustin Dougherty (regional trainer) reports, “It was a great weekend. We spent Saturday with the McPherson Church of Christ in McPherson, Kansas, and taught them how to use Back to the Bible effectively for personal evangelism. We also talked about ways to implement evangelism efforts on a congregational level. All the attendees, including the elders and the preachers, were very interested and raved about the material presented. They were very pleased with the simple nature and the ease of using the Back of the Bible booklets. Thirty-one members of their congregation attended, and all 31 were very pleased to learn more and excited to start doing more personal evangelism in their local community.  I pray that this is the first of many opportunities to help congregations in Kansas and the Great Plains region learn more about evangelism. In the future, I hope to spend more time helping congregations. God is good; all glory to Him.”

Coldwater church of Christ, Murray, Kentucky: Luke Puckett (preacher) reports, “We are working on a Bible study with a friend of one of our members. He has visited twice, and we are building a good relationship with him. Also, one of our erring members had heart issues, and we have added him to our contact list and sent several cards over the past week.  We plan to visit soon.”

Paintsville church of Christ, Kentucky: Zach Collins (preacher) reports, “I am going to make another push and put the program out in front of the congregation again! We have had 26 baptisms since the program began. We have one ongoing study and one potential study with a young couple who visited yesterday. I am trying to schedule a study with them soon.”

Central church of Christ, Paducah, Kentucky: Adam Faughn (preacher) reports, “In the last week, we have assigned coordinators for our guest bags and new movers’ baskets. We have been doing guest bags for quite some time, but it has been haphazard. We are glad to have both of these with coordinators in place, so we can do better and not let anyone fall through the cracks! We also met with some members about having more evangelistic outreach events in our community, especially in the coming year. We hope to get coordinators for these types of events in the coming weeks. Yesterday, we finished our three-part series on John 4. Last night, we trained on welcoming guests, and we gathered names from our bookmarks for the first time. Card-writing team 2 sent multiple cards to ten people and single cards to an additional six. We are preparing for our gospel meeting, which starts this coming Sunday. Many invitations have been made, and we pray for people to attend to encourage them further. More than 82,000 people live in our area, which is growing rapidly, and we are praying for one soul at a time!”

Blanchard church of Christ, Louisiana: Pat Cella (elder) reports, “We had a gospel meeting last week, and one lady on our prospect list visited two nights, which is encouraging. We also sent out 30 compassion cards.”

La Plata church of Christ, Maryland (remote): Eric Sykes (regional trainer) reports, “It was another week in the Lord here in La Plata, Maryland. We had six repeat visitors yesterday. We wrote 16 compassion cards this week. We currently have two new converts classes. One class just completed lesson 7 on Giving. The other group just started Lesson 4 How to Study the Bible. We are starting a third new converts class next week. We are training a couple to teach the class. Our new converts classes are being conducted virtually due to a lack of space at our church building. We had to reschedule Lesson 3 of BTTB with Ms. Delisa Jefferson for tomorrow evening. We appreciate prayers for a good study. We had to reschedule Lesson 3 of BTTB with Mr. Steve Nelson for this Thursday, due to his recovery from surgery. Prayerfully, that is going well also. We have six people on our compassion card visitation list for this week. We thank God for His workers and all His many blessings.”

Southside church of Christ, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Freddie Klein (preacher) reports, “We continue to preach on the joy of the Christian life on Sunday mornings. Our card group is working through contacts we made at the Trick or Treat event earlier this month. Multiple Bible studies are going on currently. We were pleased to have a visitor from our community after the outreach event.”

Looxahoma church of Christ, Mississippi: Blake Hawkins (deacon) reports, “We held a gospel meeting last week and enjoyed going out in groups in advance to invite our neighbors to the meeting. We also received our list of new mover addresses for the month, so will be getting baskets into the family’s hands soon to go make those visits. Additionally, we are making ongoing visits to those on our compassion card recipients. Teams continue to meet weekly on Sunday afternoons to write cards.”

Mt. Zion church of Christ in Brookhaven, Mississippi (remote):  Dalton Todd reports, “Brady and Lauren Wilson obeyed the gospel by being baptized into Christ on Thursday, October 12, around 8:00 p.m. Lauren, who was reared in the Baptist church, and her husband, Brady, who was reared in the Lord’s church, are eager students of the Bible; they are ready to learn and take in whatever it says. It was very easy to study with them. Lauren did not believe in the deity of Christ or the deity of the Holy Spirit and was immersed into the Baptist church at 11. Brady grew up hearing the gospel but came to realize that he did not have the faith that the Lord required before baptism when he was first immersed as a child. He finally learned the truth and was baptized with the one baptism of the New Testament (Ephesians 4:5). Once they realized they were lost, it took no further convincing them to be baptized. They filled out the survey, and we finished Back to the Bible in three weeks. They look forward to studying with others using Back to the Bible.”

West Hwy 160 church of Christ, West Plains, Missouri (remote): Marvin Hatley (elder) reports, “Congregational efforts continue to focus on building relationships with prospects. Two personal Bible studies continue to progress. One study is encountering an addiction issue, and the other continues with the prospect of receiving God’s word with humility. Benevolent work continues with several prospects, each receiving needed help with physical needs around their respective houses. We appreciate support and encouragement from others working for the Lord.”

Foristell church of Christ, Missouri: Rod Jackson (elder) reports, “We have started weekly training for our members to think about evangelism and be informed about available resources. Every Sunday afternoon, we show a YouTube video from the HTHSOE videos to equip our members further. It will take several months to go through all the videos, but most of them are about five minutes long, which makes a good ‘attention-grabbing’ video to promote evangelism further. We appreciate all prayers for us as we work on our contacts, prospects, and evangelism efforts.”

Samford church of Christ, Steele, Missouri: Kyle Imel (deacon) reports, “Samford is sending cards to the contacts we got from door knocking. Last night, we had a special prayer service for all of the contacts we gained. We lifted up each contact’s name publicly in prayer. One of the contacts from the door knocking is the mother of one of our members, who attended with him last night. We appreciate prayers for Ms. Diane.”

East Flushing church of Christ, New York (remote): Clarence Jenkins (preacher) reports, “We are grateful to God as we are still having visitors every Lord’s Day. This Sunday, we had two visitors who have been consistently attending. Our new converts class has been enlarging. We are continuing to stay engaged with the new converts and have Bible studies off and on. We continue to be encouraged, knowing we are slowly yet steadily building momentum. We appreciate all prayers.”

Carthage church of Christ, North Carolina (remote): Randy Chambers (preacher) reports, “We do not have anything new to report from this past week. The congregation is grieving the loss of a hard-working young Christian lady. We are using the time and opportunity to refocus the members on the fact that the harvest is plentiful, and laborers are few. So, we must get to work and pray to the Lord to send more laborers through our efforts of teaching the gospel to the Lost and God giving the increase! We appreciate continued prayers.”

Sullivan Village church of Christ, Lawton, Oklahoma: Steven Hill (preacher) reports, “I preached through the first lesson of John 4, with the first six points. I will preach Lessons 2 and 3 in the coming weeks. As soon as I get those contact list bookmarks, I will hand them out after my sermon and challenge the congregation to work on them. I have a study set up with a visitor named Zack who is 23. He is a product of our door knocking and has visited three times. Al, another man who has been coming, is scheduled for a study with a couple of members on Thursday.”

Coweta church of Christ, Oklahoma: Keno Shrum (elder) reports, “This has been another outstanding week in our evangelistic work. On Saturday, we hosted a chuckwagon dinner at our house and about 34 people attended. We met some of them through the door knocking on October 7. Some were invited by members who also came. Before the dinner, Jamie and I went through Lesson 1 of BTTB with James and Jennifer. They received it well and were back in worship services today. We will study Lesson 2 next Sunday afternoon. This afternoon before evening services, Dwayne and I went through Lesson 1 with Declyn. He also received it well, and we will go through Lesson 2 on Wednesday evening before Bible study. Thursday evening, Kelli, a recipient of compassion cards, is coming to our house for dinner and Lesson 1. She came to the chuckwagon last night and both services today. She has a heart of gold and will be receptive to the study. This week, we also have a study with Faye, another compassion card recipient, and we will go through Lesson 1. This evening, we adjusted our compassion card ministry with the instructions we learned during training. It flowed well, and we filled out many compassion cards. God continues to do glorious things through our congregation; we praise Him for the opportunities He has set before us! May God bless all the brothers and sisters laboring in His name!”

York church of Christ, Pennsylvania: Mark Raschke (deacon) reports, “This week, we sent compassion cards to two of our prospects who have recently had surgeries. Both have been attending our fellowship events, and one has regularly attended church services. We greeted some basketball teammates of one of our teenage members who visited on Sunday morning, one of whom had visited previously and received compassion cards from us. Fred and Pam took a family of prospects out to eat lunch; recently, they have been attending regularly. We reported to each other about the visits we made in September, and we divided contact cards for five of our prospects scheduled for visitation this month. Unfortunately, we could not schedule any additional Bible studies from recent visits. We also mailed 28 invitations to prospects for our November potluck.”

East Ridge church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee: Charles Cochran (preacher) reports, “We have exciting news. One of our dads had his son-in-law and daughter over for dinner on Saturday afternoon. After dinner, they studied Lesson 1 of Back to the Bible. The son-in-law enjoyed the lesson. The daughter was also encouraged. They have been attending a denomination. The whole family participated in the study! This is an encouraging example. I had a brief study on Tuesday with the son of one of our new members. We also had studies with some new Christians. We continue to use Jule Miller films with them. One of our Bible Correspondence Course students hopes to be baptized soon. She is in prison. We continue to send compassion cards! God is blessing our work at East Ridge. Luke Griffin will be in Missouri to plan for PTP there next year. He will also visit Iola, Kansas, to encourage that work. Austin Fowler led a group of our members on the annual door-knocking effort. To God be the glory! Great things He has done!”

McKenzie church of Christ, Tennessee: Randy McAdams (elders) reports, “We have been delayed in mailing out cards for October due to the lack of solid contacts.  However, mailouts, including names we obtained from our Community Kitchen, will begin this coming Sunday, October 22.  We recently ordered a new set of cards for visitors and encouragement as we have been mailing out a lot of these. We are continuing to work the system to obtain solid contacts from our congregation. In a meeting last night concerning the evangelism program, we devised a plan to put contact cards in every classroom so that when someone asks for prayers for a friend or family member, we will ask them to fill out a contact card. Also, I will put the contact cards out in the pews of the main auditorium. We counted the number of families who are currently receiving cards and realized we have mailed cards to more than 65 families. This means we have planted love and the gospel seeds into many households within the last six months. We will keep plugging along and tweaking this machine as we pray to our Lord to bless us in our endeavor. May all glory go to our Savior Jesus Christ.”

New Hope church of Christ, Middleton, Tennessee: Cole Wade (preacher) reports, “We recently had someone return to church that we had not seen in a while; many of our members were loving and welcoming. It is amazing to see people love like the Lord and show kindness to people who need kindness! We are excited in our growth, and I believe many of our members are growing in faith also.”

New Union church of Christ, Manchester, Tennessee: Paul Fultz (elder) reports, “We continue to review the Bookmarks on Sunday mornings and gather names for the compassion card list. We have congregational prayer specifically for prospects. Members have been very consistent in completing and submitting new contact cards. This week, we had six contact cards submitted. We had one visitor from the community. Greeters continue to record the visitor’s names and addresses. Additionally, greeters hand out visitor bags and add visitors to contact cards so we can send compassion cards and schedule visits during the first week after someone visits church services.  Card Team 3 met after Sunday evening services and wrote 68 compassion cards.  A New Convert/Bible Learner class meets each Sunday morning.”

Karns church of Christ, Knoxville, Tennessee: Spencer Clark (evangelist) reports, “This past week, our Fall Campaign began on Brotherhood Door-Knocking Day and continued throughout last week. Our goal was to follow up with people receiving House to House over the past year. We also followed up with others who received compassion cards after our spring campaign. In total, we made 383 follow-up attempts. Of these, 54 resulted in follow-up visits, and about nine were interested in studying the Bible. We had two studies last week, with more planned for the near future. One of the families visited church with us Sunday, and we invited them to the Fellowship Meal after services. They stayed until the very end. We have had 31 baptisms this year, and our most recent one was a referral from another new convert! God has blessed us abundantly with the increase. We appreciate all prayers for our efforts as we continue to plant and water.”

Covington church of Christ, Tennessee: Wayne Dalrymple (elder) reports, “We are continuing to work the plan at Covington. We have had a lot happen this week. Last Wednesday, our new convert, Daniel, responded by asking for prayers for strength and support as he attempts to make the changes God wants him to make in his life. On Sunday, we had two more responses. One was the son of one of our elderly members who lives out of town. His name is Mark; he asked for prayers to help him grow in his spiritual walk. The other is my mother-in-law, Judy. She asked for forgiveness for intentionally missing Sunday evening services for a few years. We continue to prospect several. One lady we have been sending cards to has expressed gratitude for the cards and amazement that people who do not know her would care about her so much. She is waiting for a liver transplant and cannot have visitors right now, but we will try to have either a virtual or digital study. Jeff, our associate minister, is working on a home for a friend of a friend; her name is Lisa.  While he was working, she admitted she knew nothing about the church of Christ, so Jeff began a study with her right then. They finished Book one and have scheduled him to return on Friday to do more work and continue the study. We have also written many compassion cards to our prospects. We appreciate prayers asking God to give us an increase as we plant and water the seed.”

North Jefferson church of Christ, Mt. Pleasant, Texas: Kris Groda (preacher) reports, “Pam Montevon is our most recent convert. She started coming to our “Christianity Cares” meetings. Tia built a relationship with her and brought her to different church functions. They attended a Bible study, and she obeyed the gospel. Daniel and Keely McCary are studying with some from the Home of Recovery Mission. They are in Book 2 of Back to the Bible. We have a men’s breakfast scheduled for October 21. All the men on our contact list are invited.”

Eisenhower church of Christ, Odessa, Texas: Allen Weakland (elder) reports, “Though our efforts in evangelism, have seen ups and downs, the highs we experience when someone sits down, and studies overcome any lows we have had. This past Sunday was one of those highs. We were blessed to have two families that had visited previously return and worship with us. Our members engaged in small talk and found out that both families had been experiencing hardship with health. Both families left encouraged and made it oblivious that they would be back. To see the beauty of Christ impacting these families was a high I would not soon forget. On another front, our deacons and members have been working so hard for our upcoming Fall Festival. We ask for prayers for this effort. God has blessed us with numerous contacts from previous years, which has resulted in the restoration of one family and several biblical studies. Always remember, God is good.”

Natalia church of Christ, Texas: Jim Word (elder) reports, “We had our second study with Iris this past Friday and have the third study scheduled for next Friday. Also, we have a study with two people tonight— Jessie and her boyfriend Owen.”

Bridgeport church of Christ, Katy, Texas: Doug Suggs (member) reports, “We encouraged our members to go by our evangelism table and check out some of our new materials. We are still asking everyone to submit contacts. One of our card teams meets Sunday evening.”

Canyon Lake church of Christ, Texas (remote): Jesse Stuart and Raoul Ferris (evangelists) report, “We are seeing the fruit of our labor in growing the congregation. We are now moving into the New Converts part of the Evangelism Model while still working on the initial steps of Contacts, Prospects, and Bible studies. We are excited to announce we had another baptism. We met David Cech by way of door-knocking. He is renting a room from a lady named Laura, who asked us for prayers. We placed Laura in our compassion card ministry. She then contacted Jesse Stuart for assistance with a broken garbage disposal. Jesse took Mike Stanfield, Raoul, and Misty Ferris with him. Mike is a handyman, so while Mike fixed the garbage disposal, Misty visited with Laura. During our conversation, Laura asked if we would contact David Cech. We met with David and set up a study with him. We completed all three studies of Back to the Bible. On Thursday, sister Wanita Faulkner sat in with Jesse as the silent partner, and during Book 3, David concluded his baptism as an infant was invalid. When he came out of the baptistery, he had a big smile and said, ‘To God be the glory.’ We continue to study with three more individuals and are in Book 3 with them. We are being patient with one young man because several of his beliefs regarding salvation and knowing he is saved because of his “religious experience” are being challenged. Our kindness and patience, we believe, are what keep him in the study as he wrestles with the text. We are grateful to see so many members here at Canyon Lake getting involved in the evangelism model.”

Wheeler church of Christ, Texas: Garrett English (preacher) reports, “The elders met and are discussing plans to go through the BTTB studies as a congregation. Some of our ladies have prepared new mover baskets for delivery this week. Compassion cards have been sent to a few prospects over the past few weeks. Things are looking up!”

Highway 95 church of Christ, Taylor, Texas: Benjamin Dossey (preacher) reports, “After finishing Book 3 of Back to the Bible this evening during our midweek class, Early Deary obeyed the gospel. We also had one of our members go through studies with another prospect. Josh studied with his friend Cameron Drew, and after his studies, he obeyed the gospel. It is great news that, yet another soul is added to the kingdom.”

Southwest church of Christ, Austin, Texas: John Garza (regional trainer) reports, “While we have multiple studies going on this week, we look forward to door-knocking our community. In the past, it was done by the students at the end of each quarter, and not in an effective way. Due to the training of HTHSOE, we are changing our approach and methods. Beginning this Friday, our members will join the preaching school students in learning how to door knock effectively.”

Fruitvale church of Christ, Texas: Raoul Ferris reports, “After follow-up work, we set up four Bible studies and met with a sister in Christ who is in need. I will be here till the end of the day and then return to Canyon Lake. We appreciate prayers as we seek more opportunities to follow up with contacts. We also seek prayers for the church here in Fruitvale and their studies. We see good results from knocking doors into the community and studying with people.”

Granbury Street church of Christ, Cleburne, Texas: Ryan Cowan (deacon) reports, “On Monday night, about ten of us gathered to discuss our prospects resulting from our compassion cards. Assignments were made, and past prospects from previous Mission Mondays were discussed. After watching a video about new movers, we role-played how a conversation might go when a new movers’ basket is delivered.  We have four contacts from our efforts with new movers’ efforts, and we will send them cards. My wife, Kerista, was able to take the next step with a prospect named Sheila, a contact of mine from my chiropractor’s office. Sheila and Kerista have planned a lunch following Sheila’s upcoming surgery. Sheila was very appreciative of the cards that we sent. A member of Granbury Street, Cody, may have a pizza lunch with Israel on Sunday afternoon. Israel and Cody began Book 1 after the morning worship service.”

Graceton church of Christ, Diana, Texas: Johnny Willeford (elder) reports, “The Graceton congregation enjoyed a wonderful Sunday morning worship service. A former song leader who was visiting led the song service, and our preacher, Scott, gave a very good lesson. We had another new family visiting us who had just moved into the community from the Sherman area north of Dallas. They could not stay for a meal because of other plans, but they did take a rain check for their next visit. This Friday is our family game night gathering at one of our deacon’s homes. We are inviting members of the community. With the cooler weather, we are having outdoor games. Group B signed 39 compassion cards for three people this week. Our prospect list has decreased in the past few weeks, but we hope it will grow with the new movers group starting their work. We pray for all the churches working to reach the lost as well as those struggling to do God’s will.”

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.

For additional HTH speaking appointments, go to:
https://housetohouse.com/house-to-house-speaker-schedules/