These are just some of the comments received from the over 200 churches that have used My Friendship Connection:

Dear Vernon:

Just wanted to send you a report of the outpouring we have seen during My Friendship Connection.  What an amazing month it has been at Lexington Baptist Temple!  We have seen God work in an awesome way and are continuing to see His hand during the follow-up efforts.  Our church has never been more unified around the Great Commission.  Even over the past few weeks leading up to this past few Sundays we saw increases in attendance with visitors coming.  On week 2, we had 158 in attendance.  On week 3 we had 175 in attendance.  On week four we broke the 200 attendance barrier.  As Pastor, I was already overwhelmed by what was happening, but November 2nd shook me to the core.  We received just over 100 commitments from friends to come and we spent time praying over each name and need.  The entire church came together under the banner of reaching their friends and on November 2nd, we saw over 350 people in attendance!  The greatest news of all is that one received Christ during the service and 3 received Christ in the week leading to the service.  Next Sunday, we will be baptizing 4 people which will bring our total baptisms for the month of October (My Friendship Connection month) to 10!  Praise the Lord for what He is doing and thank you for following the vision He gave you to do “More” for Him.  I am excited about the prospect of the reports that will come from churches all around.  God bless you and thank you again!

In Christ Alone,
Pastor Derek
Rev. Derek Holmes, Sr. Pastor
(859) 806-4635

Regular Attendance: 190     Visitor’s: 247      Today’s Attendance: 437   Salvation’s: 2

Other Decisions: numerous      Was this your high attendance? Yes.

Auditorium seats: 350      What percentage of people participated? 80%

Has this church used Friend Day before? No.

Angie Parker
Secretary
Mountain View Baptist Church

Update  1/ 19/09:  WOW we are still excited! We have seen 6 more people get saved and baptized.  8 have joined by transfer and there are at least 25 “unchurched” that have been coming since November 2nd.  We have followed the plan and just as you instructed we continue to work with them. We know any day they will get saved. We have invited all our “friends” to our Valentine dinner. My people are excited and we have next year planned already.

Hey SHBC,
Wow! That is all that can be said for this past Sunday--Refuse to Attend Alone--My Friendship Connection Day. As we look at the well over 300 visitors that we had, it is amazing what God did through His people these past five weeks. Thanks to every SS leader and every person that made the effort to bring their friends, relatives, coworkers, etc. The Lord truly blessed our efforts. I am anxiously looking forward to hearing from the other 200 hundred churches that were a part of this process. Look at what the Lord did this past Sunday...
 
Our average SS attendance--290-310 November 2nd--484
Our average Worship attendance--310-330 November 2nd--618
 
Professions of faith--5 (these were in the service) Will be more as we begin to follow up
Rededications--many
Families touched--over one hundred
Follow ups needed---will be busy for the rest of the year--Praise the Lord
 
Pastor Jason
  www.sharonheights.org

Vernon,
The letter attachment pretty much tells it all.  Fifty-eight of these letters have been mailed to families who visited on Sunday November the second.  These families represent approximately 90 guests.  What a blessing..!!  There are seven families that have expressed an interest in becoming an active part of the church as members.  We are currently working with them concerning salvation, baptism and membership.  Praise God..!!   Follow-up Continues.
 
Thanks for your help and God Bless,
 
Pastor Rick Mondell   New Life Baptist Church Goldsboro, NC 919-396-2163

Vernon,

Thanks for all the hard work with MFC. As I told you in the previous email, we had a great day. We’ve had several families continue to stay with our church since our Oct. 5 Friend Day. In fact, one single adult came at the invite of a friend. Now her parents also are attending, and attended a small group this past week. In fact, they normally attend the early worship, but stayed for the second worship also to hear the music. Another couple who was invited to attend MFC came a few weeks before the actual day, and have continued to stay. We moved into 2 morning services with the push of having room for Friend Day. The residual effects of that day are helping both services stay strong. To be honest, we have failed somewhat in doing sufficient follow-up, but we are still reaping rewards even today.

Thanks again,

Chris

Good morning, I apologize for the delay.
 
Name of church:  New Hinson Baptist Church, 1143 Co. Rd. 48, Slocomb, Al. 36375
Phone:  334-886-3097   Pastor's email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
 
Regular Attendance:  S.S. 150 / Worship - 190    Visitors: 110
Today's Attendance: S.S. 252 / Worship 335
 Salvation decision:  0   Other decisions:  6 recommitments
 
Was this your highest attendance:  yes - it broke all previous attendance records
Auditorium seats:  Sanctuary seats approx. 250 / However, we moved out to our Family Life Center and used chairs.  We set up approx. 375 chairs.
 
What percentage participated?  About 75% of our regular attendance.
 
Has this church used Friend day before:  No, this is our first time, but it won't be the last.
 
I praise God for the great attendance and we anticipate many more decisions in the weeks to follow.  Thank you for the opportunity to participate.  Our people were so excited.  It is so good to see our folks get excited about reaching people.
 
Dennis Singletary, pastor

Vernon,

We had a great day yesterday at Ca-Vel Baptist Church in Roxboro.  Of the visitors invited, 73% showed up for either the Reception or Worship Service!  About 65% came for both!  We average about 70 people in our Worship Service and we had 117 yesterday.  It was a good day.  Now, the follow-up begins!

Jon Glass   Pastor Ca-Vel Baptist Church

Thanks, Vern, for the encouraging e-mail.  We had a very good day here at Alpine Bible Church.  We had over 300 adults in the sanctuary this a.m. with over 50 new adult visitors.  That's not actually as many as we anticipated but it was still a very positive day for the whole church.  We had a spirit of unity and excitement all morning long.  The dinner afterwards was a great time of meeting and getting to know some of the visitors personally.  I'm looking forward to the follow up this week.  We'll keep you posted.
Jack

Report from Rock Branch Baptist Church


2150 Coldwater Road
   Elberton, GA 30635
  706-213-9200



Total in Attendance – 250   Registered guests - 63



Several lost people in attendance, but no one came forward to trust  
Christ in the worship service

Previous high attendance was 266 last year at Friend Day.

It was a great day!! We have many new prospects as a result of this 
special day.

Thanks for your help,


Ken Wright
Pastor

Avg attendance - 90-100
Attendance this morning  159
53 guests
1 joined our fellowship by statement!
Praise the Lord!
 
Paul Wilkes   Springdale Baptist Church   Dublin, Ga.  31021
--
Your Home For Faith, Family, and Friends! 
www.springdalebaptistchurch.com

Montwood Baptist Church
 - 4416 Boston Road
  Roxboro, NC



Rev. D. Carroll Brackett, Pastor


Regular attendance:  55  Visitors:  25
 Today's attendance:  80   Salvations today:  0   Other decisions:  0


This was our high attendance Sunday. 
Percentage of people participating:  69%


This is our first time using My Friendship Connection.


Respectfully submitted 
In HIS Service, 


D. Carroll Brackett

Hi Vernon, 

We had a great Friend Day this morning! We've been averaging about 65 people each Sunday, and this week we had 110. I'm not sure of exactly how many guests we had, but there were between 10 and fifteen different families here for the first time. No decisions for salvation, but I've already been approached for follow-ups. Looking forward to making calls and sending letters this afternoon.

God bless you and thank you so much for My Friendship Connection!

Bruce Pratt
Faith Baptist Church

What an exciting day, our people were excited especially when their friends actually came to Church. We had 235 in Sunday School and 326 in Worship our biggest day ever. There were 5 saved and 1 by statement. A great day! Sunday Night yes we still have Church on Sunday night many of the guests were back on Sunday night. We baptized 5 and had a great service. Thanks and keep praying as we follow up.

Robert Parrish.