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: 34
Remote Enrollments for 2023: 28
Student Enrollment: 129
States Reporting: 18
Total baptisms reported from U.S. Congregations 2023: 885

Upcoming Seminars
October 25-27: Greenville church of Christ, Ohio
November 5-7 Southern Hills church of Christ, Franklin, Tennessee
November 12-14 Forest Hill church of Christ, Memphis, Tennessee

COORDINATORS SPREADSHEET
HTHSOE Checklist

Featured Work: Honolulu church of Christ

Editor’s Note: The Honolulu church of Christ has led the way in the mission to awaken the spirit of evangelism among congregations. Their example is recognized throughout the Pacific islands and the continental states. Last year, they had the highest baptism rate of any congregation enrolled in HTHSOE. Their preacher, Lima, has made soul-winning the center of his ministry. In January we announced that he would be joining our staff as a regional trainer. This week, Lima teaches us about the value of tenderness when trying to evangelize.

 

Tenderness and Evangelism
Written by Lima Esene

Aloha from the Honolulu congregation. We have three Bible studies ongoing at this time. Our new converts class is going well. Our shepherds are looking to make some decisions that will benefit our congregation. Please pray for them in the process. These important changes will improve our efforts in evangelism. Last week, Wade Philips and his wife Joanna visited with our congregation. They are doing great work in Guam, helping the community there to grow spiritually and numerically. Please pray for their efforts.

I want to share a story about our contact, Michael. You have probably met someone like Michael. He has attended our worship services for some time. He is a Baptist, but he wanted to serve in our congregation. He wanted to figure out how to be more active in the church. As we know, those in denominationalism are lost and will be lost forever if they do not obey the gospel. Yet we must be tender with those who are like Michael. I told him, “We should study together first; later, you will learn what you want to do.” What if I said, “No, only members can serve in this church?” It may turn him away. What if I said, “Yes, you can do this or that in the church?” That would compromise the truth. We can be tender towards those who are zealous without knowledge. Today, we had our first study. We appreciate all prayers.

Congregational Reports

Streetsboro church of Christ, Ohio:  We want to welcome the Streetsboro church of Christ to the House to House/Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. The attendance and support of sister congregations were encouraging.  The elders and preachers are wholly committed to implementing the HTHSOE model. Ralph Price, their preacher, already sent a report, Ralph Price: “We had a baptism yesterday.  Ava Smith.  One of the children in our congregation.  I don’t think it was a coincidence that she chose to make the decision yesterday.  I know she has been thinking about it. We are beginning step one on Sunday.”

New Concord church of Christ, Ohio:  We want to welcome the New Concord church of Christ to the House to House/Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. Terry Townsend (preacher) did an outstanding job preparing for this event.  They have already had several baptisms this year. They plan to begin step one on Sunday.

Glencoe church of Christ, Alabama: David Marker (elder) reports, “A family of six visited Sunday morning. That is a result of a visit from our New Movers program. We are working with another family that started with an invitation card that has created an opportunity to work with them through benevolence. They have indicated they are planning to attend services Sunday. We are making plans for the upcoming Fall Festival.”

Farley church of Christ, Huntsville, Alabama: Ed Linebaugh (elder) reports, “On Sunday nights, our preacher, Josh Taynor, is masterfully training us to use the three Back to the Bible booklets. On Sunday mornings, one of our elders teaches our New Horizons Class (new and newer converts), which is growing each week. We are mobilizing our New Movers Team. One of our newer Christians designed a simple but effective business card for church members to hand out. This is becoming a popular tool for outreach. Our Fall Festival is this coming Sunday, and we will place our new cards in the Trunk or Treat bags (along with tasty treats).”

Winfield church of Christ, Alabama: Jerry Fann (member) preacher reports, “Thanks to New Mover contacts, we made 18 face-to-face visits handing out baskets. As a result, we now have two ongoing Bible studies and five prayer requests. We had one visitor for worship services; follow-up is in progress. Door knocking brought a Bible study prospect—a nonmember who is attending regularly. Fifteen to 20 members in four teams write and send compassion cards weekly. Five families with children attended our Fall Festival; they are now contacts. Friends and Family Day is scheduled for October 29, with a fish fry and trunk or treat at the local park. We are inviting the community. I will be looking for contacts.”

Hatton church of Christ, Alabama: Chris Miller (preacher) reports, “We handed out invitation cards Sunday and challenged each member to hand out at least ten per month; we are excited to see the results that come from this. Our “ramp crew” finished another ramp for one of our contacts, Mrs. Byars, who plans to visit when her health allows. We are remodeling a portion of our old auditorium for our Dorcas Ministry, which sews for people in need. All activities are part of our One Mission.”

College Avenue church of Christ, Enterprise, Alabama: Phillip Rabren (HTHSOE Graduate) reports, “Our elders met with the couple who will be coordinating the Compassion Card ministry to make final plans with the hope of fully implementing this soon. James, an elder, and his wife Melody took a visiting family visiting out to eat, and one group wrote eight cards that will be mailed out to them through this week.”

Monticello church of Christ, Arkansas: Josh Walker (preacher) reports, “One erring brother is garnering interest from the congregation, so we appreciate additional prayers. This week, we will teach Book 3 of Back to the Bible from the pulpit. We have a few visits scheduled for this week. We appreciated prayers for these efforts.”

Lake City church of Christ, Florida: Jim Flegert (elder) reports, “This past Mission Monday had positive results by providing our evangelism program with three new contacts from our new mover program. One of these three is a delinquent member of the Lord’s church who recently moved here and will be attending our worship. Another new mover and his wife had just been discussing finding a church to visit that night. The third mover was a lady returning to our area and looking forward to attending our fifth Sunday dinner on the grounds. These three plus two new visitors have been added to our spreadsheet and will receive compassion cards.”

Niceville church of Christ, Florida: Joe Palmer (preacher) reports, “This week was exciting. We had one baptism; a young man named Bennett McCloud had been studying the Back to the Bible lessons in Bible class and obeyed the gospel. On Saturday, we had a community fish fry and had good attendance. We met Ruth Reeves and found out that she is a sister who has fallen away. We offered to pick her up for worship Sunday and Sunday night. She took us up on the offer. We have other visitors we will follow up with from this event. Our card team sent 63 cards, and we had one Bible study, two visitors, two welcome bags, one visitor lunch, and one baptism. Next week, we will have our Fall Festival.”

North Brevard church of Christ, Titusville, Florida: Doug Gerdes (member) reports, “Today will be a busy day. It is our Food Pantry Day. Typically, 150 cars visit us, and each one is filled with souls needing relief from life’s trials and salvation through Jesus Christ. Several new contacts will be added to our Compassion Card list, which includes 20 to 35 names. In previous Food Pantry days, several have expressed interest in learning more about the church. Hopefully, we can solidify our studies today.

“We started our Greeter effort this past Sunday. The greeters were a mix of older members and young adults, which will help establish more bonds in the body. In the next couple of weeks, we will begin training members on the Bible Study material to build a team ready to reach seekers. More and more members are volunteering to help as they see the results of evangelism.”

Fayetteville church of Christ, Georgia: David Gulledge (associate preacher) reports, “Dave has continued to preach on evangelism. Sunday, he preached from Amos 3 and Acts 2. We have continued to pray for the contacts on our contacts cards, and the congregation has done an excellent job by turning in names for prospecting. Our current prospect list has eight names on it. We will be sending out our first round of cards this week.”

Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Greg Garner (deacon) reports, “We collected one contact card to work on this week. The Compassion Card Group created 24 cards last night. Our New Movers Group delivered three baskets to newcomers to the area and left seven door hangers for unanswered doors. We knocked on 240 doors during our National Door Knocking Campaign on October 7 and added 19 names to a secondary visit list. So far, four of the 19 from the secondary visits list totaled eight doors that have been revisited. A deacon from Snellville Church of Christ is cleared and ready for on-the-job (OTJ) training by WCOC Prison Ministry. He will train others to use the Back to the Bible (BTTB) and Does It Matter (DIM) presentations for teaching and conducting Bible studies at the Gwinnett County Adult Jail. We had 12 attendees in our New Convert class. The Greeter Group reported three visitors this week for Sunday Morning worship.”

LaFayette church of Christ, Georgia: Jesse Teague (deacon) reports, “One member came forward in tears because family members have fallen away. She was comforted by the loving members at LaFayette, and Reid is making sure we have the names and addresses correct so we can start encouraging these souls with compassion cards and visits. It is good to have a way to get started instead of just wondering what we will do. There will be tweaks and adjustments as we go; each person is different, but it is good to have a starting point.”

Jerseyville church of Christ, Illinois (remote): Jake Medford (preacher) reports, “We celebrated this Sunday with two more baptisms at Jerseyville. A month ago, we reported the baptism of John Wilson. After a sit-down Bible Study using “Does It Matter?” with John, his wife, Tina, and his son, Johnny Jr., decided they needed to be baptized! We baptized them immediately following the study on Sunday afternoon. We continue to have a steady stream of visitors who are being prospected. The compassion cards are doing great; we send about 25-30 cards a week, depending on the size of the weekly list. We have our Trunk or Treat this Saturday. We are setting up multiple ways of getting contacts and making connections.”

Paintsville church of Christ, Kentucky: Zach Collins (preacher) reports, “This past week, we have sent cards to a new family that has had some health struggles. The mother of the family was injured in an accident. They are the neighbors of one of our members who has been bringing them food and other amenities. Recently, she invited them to visit our congregation! They have visited and are interested in continuing to attend. We are scheduling a Bible study with this family, and we are beginning the Back to the Bible material. We appreciate all prayers for a successful study!”

Central church of Christ, Paducah, Kentucky: Adam Faughn (preacher) reports, “Yesterday, we began our 2023 Gospel Meeting; Gantt Carter is preaching. His lessons focus on first principles, and we have worked to have a good number of guests. Thankfully, we were blessed with some and will spend part of this week staying in touch with them (and, Lord willing, others who might come to the weeknight services). Our card-writing team completed many cards for contacts and new movers. We collected names again, as we plan to do each week. Over the next few weeks, we hope to get more volunteers to serve as our follow-up team, as visiting those who have received cards will soon become a weekly endeavor. Some follow-up visits were made last week, but a lot more will be coming soon! We continue to pray for open doors to Bible studies.”

La Plata church of Christ, Maryland (remote): Eric Sykes (regional trainer) reports, “This was a tough week for the La Plata church of Christ; more than half the congregation was home sick (26). We had 14 visitors. We wrote 18 compassion cards this week. We baptized Delissa Jefferson last week. We had four people in our new converts class. We appreciate prayers for our sick members to get well soon.”

Southside church of Christ, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Freddie Klein (preacher) reports, “We continue to have multiple Bible studies throughout the week. Friday, we had a funeral for a sister in Christ, which provided avenues to speak with her children about spiritual matters. During our recent mission weekend, we focused on our domestic missionaries. It proved to be fruitful as we had a restoration of a teen who had been gone for a year and a half. We had several members of local congregations visit with us and a visiting family from our school supply giveaway. All in all, we had the largest Sunday morning attendance since before Covid.”

Iuka church of Christ, Mississippi: Robert Wimbish (elder) reports, “We continue to see several visitors each Sunday morning. We have two Bible studies currently ongoing, with one just completed. Our ladies are working hard and setting a good example for all of us. They are conducting Bible studies, preparing between 60 to 100 cards weekly, creating pottery for our Welcome/New Mover baskets, and making bread and cookies for our visitors.

“The next door knocking campaign is scheduled for Saturday, November 4. We had several visitors and two Bible studies due to the first campaign, and we are looking forward to another great day of meeting our neighbors. We have several community outreach events planned for the upcoming holiday season that should bring even more visitors through our doors. Our new digital sign is running now, so we can advertise these outreach events more clearly. We plan to use the holiday season this year as an open doorway for our neighbors to meet us and learn about the love of God.”

Kensington Woods church of Christ, Hattiesburg, Mississippi (remote): Chris Donovant (evangelist) reports, “I am sending a picture of some men whose stories are connected. In March or April of 2020, I baptized Don, the black man in the picture. He is a barber, and he tries his best to teach the gospel to those who sit in his chair. The bald-headed man in this picture builds beds for people, hoping to teach them the gospel. The white-haired man is our sound and audio man at church; he asked me a couple of weeks ago if I could teach him to teach the gospel to others. The man in the gray sweater and blue shirt, second from the left, sat down in Don’s barber chair and started telling him about the problems he was having. He and his fiancé had just broken their engagement. He was out on the street and needed beds for his three kids. Don called me; I called Jerry, and Jerry built the beds for him. I told them to set up the study. We started studying with him, and tonight, Don baptized him into Christ.

“This is the story with the three men in the picture. The man on the left invited the man on the right to a church function. I met him, studied with him and his wife, and baptized them both in June. He probably has five studies a week now. They studied together with the guy in the middle, a guy they both work with, and baptized him after service. We are on fire here!”

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, “This week, we spent significant time reviewing 2023 and planning for 2024. We kicked off the week with a meeting with Rob to review overall goals and discuss progress. We are working hard to “work the plan,” and we were thankful for Rob’s insight into our efforts so far. We continued to plan for our deacons to give monthly reports to the church on their area of ministry as it directly affects evangelism. We are discussing technology, benevolence, domestic and foreign missions, and our overall education program rooted in evangelism. We hope to refine our goals for 2024 and continue to focus on souls instead of more programs. We continue to send and track compassion cards every week. We visit our contacts and ask the three “critical questions” as we work to set up Bible studies. Every week, we show videos to continue to train our members in evangelism and to keep evangelism in our minds. We appreciate all prayers as we “work the plan” and try to do our best in the kingdom!”

Samford church of Christ, Steele, Missouri: Kyle Imel (deacon) reports, “We are sending 20 contact cards this week. Nineteen of those are from door-knocking two weeks ago. We will meet on Wednesday to decide which member will visit which contact. We have several Bible studies at different stages. We appreciate prayers for open hearts.”

East Flushing church of Christ, New York (remote): Clarence Jenkins (preacher) reports, “Currently, we have 11 persons on our prospect list, nine new convert studies in progress, and a Spanish Bible study in progress. We sent out compassion cards, and we have several Bible studies that have been delayed for various reasons. We look forward to picking up the pace and focusing on our evangelistic efforts. We appreciate prayers.”

Carthage church of Christ, North Carolina (remote): Randy Chambers (preacher) reports, “We attempted to deliver a new movers basket to a family we met during door knocking, but the family was not home. We will try again later. We have prepared material to mail to eight homes who signed up to receive the HTH/HTH magazine. We had a follow-up study with two people who finished the third BTTB lesson and wanted to continue studying. We continue to train, pray, and encourage those who are working the program so that God will give the increase!”

Cary church of Christ, North Carolina: Larry Fife (preacher) reports, “Sunday, before the sermon, I presented our new evangelism strategy. We had to adjust from what we were doing because of our congregation’s dynamics and our area’s demographics. I think this new approach will be advantageous for us. We have a Bible study in progress, but scheduling the third study has been challenging because of time conflicts. We will deliver new movers’ baskets soon, and we pray for good results. Our new converts class is going well, and the new converts have told me the class is very helpful. We continue to give God the glory.”

Sullivan Village church of Christ, Lawton, Oklahoma: Steven Hill (preacher) reports, “We had a Bible study on Thursday. On Sunday, I handed out the cards with the list for ten prospects, and we are getting the ball rolling. I am preaching on John 4 and helping the congregation identify contacts in their life.”

Coweta church of Christ, Oklahoma: Keno Shrum (elder) reports, “Today between services, Jamie and I had a great study on Lesson 2 of BTTB with James and Jennifer. We are scheduled for dinner and Lesson 3 next weekend. Wednesday evening before Bible class, Dwayne and I went through Lesson 2 with Declyn. He is an amazing young man eager to move to Lesson 3 this week. Due to a work conflict, Kelli rescheduled for Thursday to go through Lesson 1. We wrote a good number of compassion cards this week as well. This morning, my sermon was Quantity, not Quality, based on Matthew 22:1-14 and following the outline on the HTHSOE website. It was well received; we have more and more contacts as our brothers and sisters realize that we tend to be pickers by instinct. So, with a focus on planting and not picking, the contacts are rolling in.

“God has blessed us so much that we had 57 in attendance this morning. Those who attended are eager to learn, work, and grow. We have a goal of 70 attending regularly by next summer, and we are determined to share the glorious Gospel message with everyone we meet to reach that goal. Our mission is twofold: to grow spiritually and to grow numerically. We emphasize both equally because if we are not growing numerically, then we will never grow spiritually. Our Lord has commanded us to “Go into all the world” (Mark 16:15-16). If we sit in the pews and hoard the Gospel for ourselves, we are not fulfilling the commands of Christ Jesus. So, we are going into the highways and gathering all, bad and good (Matthew 22:10). We appreciate guidance and encouragement in our evangelistic efforts, and May God bless all who labor in His name!”

East Ridge church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee: Austin Fowler (member) reports, “We are excited about our Fall Festival and Victory Sunday with Dan Winkler coming up this weekend. We have been door-knocking to invite our neighbors and handing out invitations to our friends to join us. We are praying that we will have visitors and that we have opportunities to add them to our contact list!”

McKenzie church of Christ, Tennessee: Randy McAdams (elders) reports, “Galatians 6:9-10 says, ‘And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have the opportunity, let us do good to all, especially those of the household of faith.’ This is what we are striving to do with our evangelism program. As reported last week, we build contacts through our classroom members when they ask for prayers for friends and family. Our church is on our sixth month of mailing cards and sowing seeds of thoughtfulness and love. May our Lord bless our efforts and give us wisdom and guidance in touching the hearts of mankind.”

West End church of Christ, Knoxville, Tennessee: Hector Cortez (evangelist) reports, “Esec Hernandez was baptized on Wednesday, October 11. Finding a soul and seeing his salvation is always a spiritual celebration. Esec has already started his growth in the class of new Christians. Last week, we made nine visits after completing three weeks of compassion cards. Of these nine visits, we managed to have a good conversation with four. We will make further attempts to find the other contacts this week. Our compassion card ministry finished three weeks with four contacts, and we are in the second week with five contacts. We have eight contacts from people who have visited our congregation for the first time. Last week, we had Bible studies using Does It Matter? in Spanish.”

East Main church of Christ, Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Brad Rowley (elder) reports, “On Sunday, we wrote 54 compassion cards. We did not have any new contact cards. We had three Bible studies last week. Jon Mitchell, our pulpit minister, is working with a door-knocking contact who has attended the previous two services. We are praying that Jon can start a new Bible study with him. Jay Pugh, the elder of the discipleship team, had a meeting Sunday to discuss methods and distribute a new list. We have three new volunteers on the discipleship team: Gail Rowley, Nicole LeBlanc, and Cheri Carroll. We have 18 workers who are actively disciplining. On Sunday, Mark Isenberg, one of our elders, shared some success stories with the congregation in hopes we may encourage more East Main folks to get involved in our mission efforts. The new convert class, taught by Brad Rowley, is going well with 13 in attendance. One of our deacons, Chris Taylor, has prepared a meeting on Sunday, November 5, to implement the new app to assist our evangelism efforts. We thank our members who work so hard in these efforts. To God, give the glory!”

New Union church of Christ, Manchester, Tennessee: Paul Fultz (elder) reports, “This week, members submitted five contact cards. Card Team 4, led by Butch Lawson, wrote 58 compassion cards. We made nine assignments for New Mover bags and delivered some of them. Last week, members made eight follow-up visits and contacts, not counting phone calls and texts.”

Covington church of Christ, Tennessee: Wayne Dalrymple (elder) reports, “This week, we have evaluated some of our ministries to ensure they are being implemented with evangelism in mind. We will adjust a few things to try to make them more effective in making contacts. On Sunday, we had a visitor, Doresha, who sent us a message on our Facebook page and asked for a ride to services. We picked her up Sunday morning. She told us she needed help in various ways. We are helping her some and showing her the love of God. She said she is willing to study the Bible. We will schedule the study for Wednesday evening when she returns to our services.

Jeff could not study with Lisa on Friday, but he did work on her home, continuing the prospecting. He will go back later to do more work and attempt to set up the second study. Jeremy, the husband of one of our members, just went into the hospital with a serious condition. I will be visiting with him on Tuesday. We wrote cards to him on Monday evening. We hope to set up a Bible study with him. I will be studying with Thomas on Thursday. We have gone through BTTB and have continued studying. Thomas is still hesitant to obey. I think his connection to his family might be holding him back. I intend to use the chart on “What about My Family?” from Evangelism Visualized to help him get over that obstacle.

“This Sunday is our annual Friends and Family Day. We asked our members to invite their relatives and friends to our services for this special day. Our guest speaker will be Eric Lyons from Apologetics Press. Our theme is “Reasons to Believe.” We will be ready to welcome our visitors with visitor bags and get their contact information. Our services will conclude around 2:00. That evening, we will have our Fall Festival. We are inviting our friends and family to that as well. We are praying that God blesses us with many contacts.”

Hico church of Christ, Texas: James Nash (preacher) reports, “Jessica Tovar was baptized into Christ this past month. Diego and Jessica, with their boys Matthew and Morgan, have been attending since last year’s door-knocking. Recently, they have been in a Bible study with Bret and Kristi Polk with Melissa Koonsman helping. We rejoice!”

Bridgewater church of Christ, Katy, Texas: Doug Suggs (member) reports, “Two sisters visited our worship service and went to lunch recently. We helped get one of them supplies so she could begin a job. She will be contacting another contact to try to set up a study with her. Andre has a Bible study set up for tonight (Monday) with a recent contact, and he reported that he is excited about this. On a sad note, for our congregation, Bo Petru, one of our deacons over the card ministry, will soon move to begin a new job in another city. He has been doing a good job ensuring contacts were sent cards. New converts are gaining knowledge through additional studies, and everyone is excited. We appreciate all prayers.”

Natalia church of Christ, Texas: Jim Word (elder) reports, “Our third study with Iris was canceled last Friday as she came down with a stomach bug. We rescheduled to have the study today. After completing Back to the Bible, she was baptized into Christ. We will be having a second study with Owen and Jesse this evening at 7:00 PM.”

Canyon Lake church of Christ, Texas (remote): Jesse Stuart and Raoul Ferris (evangelists) report, “This week we thank our brethren who joined us for our door-knocking efforts. The following churches of Christ gave of their time, strength, and effort: Shenandoah in San Antonio, University in San Marcos, La Vernia from La Vernia, and the Stringtown Road church from Medina. Several Christians from the McCarty Student Center in San Marcos assisted. We had a total of 31 doorknockers. Because of this joint effort, we knocked on 137 doors; 63 people answered, and we made 26 contacts. To God be the glory. Concerning the evangelism model, we continue to study with New Converts and seek new connections and prospects. We still have three ongoing studies regarding salvation.”

Wheeler church of Christ, Texas: Garrett English (preacher) reports, “The elders and I went through the BTTB booklets and plan to teach/train through them on Wednesday nights starting soon. We are arranging teams who will regularly write cards, and I preached about compassion last night and its use in evangelism. I talked with the preacher at the local interdenominational church about end times. He asked about baptism and salvation, so I believe we will get to study through BTTB with him soon.”

Highway 95 church of Christ, Taylor, Texas: Benjamin Dossey (preacher) reports, “Over the past few weeks, we have had several visitors who have consistently come on Sunday. We are hopeful to be able to begin Bible studies with them as soon as we can get it scheduled. Additionally, we will be going out to deliver our new movers’ baskets this coming weekend.”

Southwest church of Christ, Austin, Texas: John Garza (regional trainer) reports, “Last week, the students and I did some door knocking using the special edition from House to House. We offered specific prayers on the flyer and used the invitation cards for every door that opened to us. In our two-hour session, we met a few contacts and hope to follow up with them this week. Even though many doors were not opened to us, we are encouraged by the few. I am glad our students can learn this valuable lesson.”

Granbury Street church of Christ, Cleburne, Texas: Ryan Cowan (deacon) reports, “Paul Doyel and his wife Sandy are about to begin Book 3 of BTTB with a prospect. During my conversation with Paul, we discussed the importance of always documenting, in the prospect’s own words, whether they believe they are saved and the reasons behind their confidence. Paul and Sandy have been doing an outstanding job in their efforts. Danielle, who resides with Paul and Sandy, was recently baptized a few weeks ago. She actively participates in our Foundations class and asks relevant questions as a new believer. Paul and Sandy’s efforts have been truly encouraging!

“One of our shepherds, Jackie Madden, and member Cody Randig are about to begin Book 3 of BTTB with a couple who was identified during our campaign week and initially listed among the ‘few.’ We mailed about 45 cards to this couple in an effort to ‘earn’ this study. My daughters, Ella and Kaitley, are personally involved in one study each. Over the past few weeks, we have been reading Bobby Bates’ book, Fishing for Men. Studying this book together and heading out for visits has brought immense joy for my family and me. I am incredibly grateful for our Elders’ commitment to evangelism.

“Currently, we have almost 50 prospects who have received multiple cards. Several families actively reach out to these individuals, attempting to connect with them at their homes to establish a better understanding and ask our ‘three questions.’ Engaging with people at home presents challenges, but I am confident that the Body will diligently try to reconnect with these individuals, even with the approaching holidays.”

Graceton church of Christ, Diana, Texas: Johnny Willeford (elder) reports, “We enjoyed a game night Friday evening at the home of one of our deacons. Kreston and Amy Willeford opened their home and backyard for a great evening of fellowship and games. Over 70 attended for burgers, hotdogs, and yard games, including four families from our community. Two were former recipients of compassion cards. Sunday, Group C signed 122 compassion cards for eight individuals. We had three families visit with us Sunday. Today, our Mission Monday group met for our monthly training and assignments for home visits this next month. Our New Movers group started delivering welcome baskets today. I will report their success next week. We have two Bible studies beginning soon. Pray for their success. Please keep Anna and Kyle Hendricks in your prayers. They will be new parents on Wednesday. Their daughter will be having heart surgery instantly after birth.”

Northern Oaks church of Christ, Texas: Mel Hutzler (elder) reports, “We had another baptism recently. James Dawson was baptized Friday night. Anthony Castillo has been studying with him. We are thankful for his decision to put Christ on in baptism. Lord willing, a few more baptisms will take place soon. Joe Bentley, one of our elders, has been doing an amazing job teaching our new converts class that has been growing. We have more and more members getting involved in evangelism. It is hard to find a room in the building on Sunday morning where a Bible class or Bible study is not happening. I am thankful to the congregation for their hospitality in prospecting those from our community and for their willingness to engage in a Bible study.”

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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