We have changed the name of Currents and Contacts to Reaching the Lost. In upcoming months we will include articles to help you use House to House/Heart to Heart more effectively in your congregation. 

Deadline to send in materials for the March issue is January 15!(Send NOW if possible)

When will I get the January issue? 
The January issue is currently printing and mailing. Most churches’ HTH should arrive between January 15 and February 15. Dated materials will be given priority.

What events go in the March issue? 
Any event dated between March 7 and May 15 should go in the March issue.

House to House School of Evangelism

Training the Saved to Reach the Lost

In the summer of 2018, the eldership at the Jacksonville church of Christ asked me to serve as an evangelist for House to House/Heart to Heart and work full time in training churches of Christ in how to conduct personal Bible studies. This was a difficult decision after serving full time in the pulpit for over twenty years, but my heart hurts as we are seeing the decline of the church in America. HTH has produced thousands of prospects since its inception. Too many times this “low-hanging fruit” has gone unpicked due to a lack of training in how to effectively harvest it. For years, congregations have requested help to teach those who contact them due to House to House/Heart to Heart. Sadly, a generation has risen that knows not personal Bible study. 

We have begun a school of evangelism that comes to local congregations to teach proven methods for church growth. These techniques are simple to learn, based on scriptural principles, and have a successful track record. Most Christians struggle to find time away from normal routines; therefore we wanted this school to be mobile. So several times each month, my family goes on the road to bring the training right to your doorstep. We have flexible schedules that fit local needs and various formats that offer different levels of training. We can offer a Personal Evangelism Seminar or a Personal Evangelism Campaign. Additionally, the school offers a Certificate Level course and a Master’s Level program for those who want to carry it to the next level. Almost daily, I receive reports from the field of ongoing Bible studies and baptisms.

You can learn more about our seminars and campaigns, take advantage of free resources, read what other congregations are saying, submit questions and read answers, and look at our schedule by going to www.evangelism.housetohouse.com. If you want to schedule the school to come to your congregation, please contact House to House/Heart to Heart at rob@housetohouse.com. We ask for your prayers as we seek to train the saved to teach the lost.

—Rob L. Whitacre

GOOD NEWS BACK FROM THE FIELD!

21 Bible Study Requests! We have received 21 requests for Bible studies since our last issue and have passed those along to HTH congregations. Year-to-date studies: 264.

Four Preachers from HTH: We have heard back from four men who were converted
using HTH who now preach full-time. Oscar Graves, Freddie Klein, Joe Wilson, and Jonny Royal were all converted based on con- tacts originally made through HTH. Jonny Royal was converted during a door-knocking campaign that Rob Whitacre did in conjunction with mailing out HTH. Jonny now attends the Memphis School of Preaching. It is our hope that our joint efforts will produce much fruit for the kingdom.

Big Spring, TX: Denise writes, "We do have sev- eral doing correspondence courses because of the mailings, so it’s definitely worth it. We appreciate everything so much. You can’t even mail a letter for what these cost."

Conversions in Los Banos, California: Glen Bowman of the Los Banos church of Christ
reports, “I thought that you’d like to know that two people were baptized Sunday who started coming from the summer mailing that we did through you! I’m not sure exactly what details I should share, but here goes: Melissa came with her daughter the week before VBS in July (we advertised for that in our House to House mailing). The next Sunday Melissa came back, but not her daughter. One of the days of VBS, Melissa and David (her husband) came without their daughter and sat in the adult class. He didn’t come much, but Melissa kept coming on and off, and sometimes her daughter came, too. She started coming more regularly again recently, and David reached out to me a few days before he was baptized for help with things going on in his life. That Sunday I offered the invitation and they both came forward. I talked to them and studied with them a bit beforehand to make sure they understood, and they both seemed motivated to be baptized then. Most of the members of the church stayed behind until after the study was over and celebrated their baptism with them!”

Baptism at Shipps Bend church of Christ in Centerville, TN: Paul Vaughn of the
Shipps Bend church of Christ in Centerville, Tennessee, wrote, “We had a baptism as a direct result of HTH. The woman is continuing to study with us. We have had seven extra Bible studies, and she is doing great!”

Conversion in New Orleans, LA: Scott Cain reports, "Just baptized a H2H contact. Now
Erwin Lewis is our brother in Christ!"

Building Connections: HTH success doesn't always come from just reporting baptisms and restorations. To make the program work, you have to be on the lookout for contacts made through requests for free material and people visiting your services. We received the following report from the Warwick church of Christ in Rhode Island: "Wanted to let you know that this past Sunday, 9/2/2018, the Warwick church of Christ of Warwick, Rhode Island, had at least one visitor because of the House to House/Heart to Heart mailing."

HTH in Romania: We sent HTH in English to Romania for the first time in 2018.
Later in the year, they translated and dis- tributed copies of HTH in Romanian.

Soul Saving Strategies

NEW MOVERS PROGRAM   GET.HOUSETOHOUSE.COM

Over the past year my family has traveled to many congregations training the saved to teach the lost. My favorite sessions are the one-on-one private meeting with elders. In discussions about the current state of the church, we can clearly hear the passion and concern they have for the sheep, but we also sense the frustration and hopelessness they have in their hearts. I love these sessions because when we finish, we can see the power of the gospel rekindling their spirit with commonsense answers to the serious problem of decline.

I present elders with a 10-point plan to turn their local congregation into a model for personal evangelism. One of these steps is to train them to use House to House/Heart to Heart properly. Unfortunately, I find that most congregations with whom we work do not know how to use HTH and are unaware of all its benefits. One example is the “New Movers Program.”

While preaching at Willette, I had no idea about this tool. I knew HTH sent letters and emails explaining all the benefits, but like most preachers, I filed it away with all the other information to be “read” later. It was not until after we began the House to House School of Evangelism last summer that I learned about this amazing resource.

Description of Program
Consider these words from Polishing the Pulpit:

People are most likely to change churches when they move. A couple of generations ago, if an individual, a couple, or a family moved from one city to another city, they usually stayed with the same denomination. Those days are over. It doesn’t matter what denomination they were in the last town; they are willing to look at any church in the neighborhood. That is a powerful opportunity for evangelism. It doesn’t matter to me what church they were were part of in their last town. I want them to visit the church of Christ because it’s going to give us the opportunity, one day, to sit down and study the word of God with them. —David Shannon, Polishing the Pulpit 2014. "Turning Visitors into Attenders, and Attenders into Members, and Members into Workers.”

Brethren, the New Movers Program is a game changer. As Christians, we have an opportunity to be the first faces a new family meets. Please consider adding this tool to your soul-saving strategy and reach out to the lost who move into your community. 

Contact us to learn how you can get involved in the New Movers’ Program (call 877.338.3397, email info@housetohouse.com, or visit get.housetohouse.com).

—Rob Whitacre

Upcoming 2019 TOPICS

If you would like to sign up for 12 issues and begin contacting your community every month, please let us know at signup.housetohouse.com. (If you would like to continue with six issues a year—January, March, May, July, September, and November—then you do not need to contact us.)

March | Ten Things I Wish the World Knew about Jesus
April | Signs for the Times
May | If People Knew What I’ve Done, They’d Never Let Me in Church (Examining God’s Love and Forgiveness)
June | Enough and to Spare
July | What Does “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and You Will Be Saved” Mean?
August | Has Man Outgrown the Gospel?
September | I Quit Church After a Bad Experience, Why Should I Go Back?
October | The Curse of Jericho
November | The Song of a Soul Set Free (Psalm 32)
December | Victory Where There Was Once Defeat