Profile: A Brief History of Hillsboro Church of Christ

The Hillsboro Church of Christ was founded in large part as a result of the prayers of Mrs. Solomon Hughes. Her desire was for a church to be established in Hillsboro, Ohio that proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Evangelist J.V. Updike was an answer to those prayers. Through a series of meetings led by Updike in the Hughes’ home, the HCC was organized and planted in 1888 with one hundred members. Church services were held in a tent until the completion of her first building in 1892.

In the winter of 1914, a six-week revival meeting was held in a temporary structure on what is known as the Webster School Property. Despite the harsh conditions, this structure was filled to capacity every evening. As a result of this revival, three hundred individuals were baptized into Christ. In 1915, a new and larger building was built in the place of the pre-existing structure of 1892.

Because of continued growth, a chapel was added to the building in 1966 as a place for the youth of the church to assemble and worship. In 1981, a newer and larger building replaced the structure from 1915. At one time, the average attendance for HCC was 600-700 people. But as with all churches, HCC experienced a season of hardship and struggle. Currently the average attendance is 280. Coming out of that difficult season, our church leadership and staff have realized the need for HCC to shift from an attractional model of evangelism to relational model of evangelism.

Shift: From Attractional Church to Personal Evangelism

Our former Senior Minister, Jim Bush, made an early connection with Dr. Gary Johnson after reading Gary’s book, Leadershift. Jim realized the importance of creating a healthy environment for transition as he came to the end of his tenure at HCC. While engaging in a personal mentorship with Gary, Jim also lead the church leadership into a more formal partnership with e2 (effective elders) which is the elder/leader mentorship ministry that Dr Johnson leads.

In January of 2019 a group of leaders in the church (including elders, ministers and ministry team leaders) first met with e2 to begin the process of connecting and being mentored by the ministry. In April of the same year, our group came together for a two-day retreat to refocus our efforts as a church into a directed mission, vision, and values which could guide us into the next phase of our mission and ministry in our local community. Once that had been established, a team was put together in September to craft a three-year plan we called Reach to establish how we would achieve our direction through redoubled efforts in the spheres of evangelism, discipleship, and leadership training.

November of that year is when I (Micah) was brought on staff and was given the mantle of leadership for the Evangelism team. It was an exciting time because we were given the responsibility of making sure that every believer at HCC established and invested in a friendship with an unbeliever and earned the privilege of sharing the Gospel within the next three years.

Next Steps

Then, of course, the world turned upside down in 2020. While the year was full of difficulty, frustration, and tragedy for many, we also found a multitude of opportunities to evaluate and reorient the way that we thought and functioned. During that year, the Evangelism Team began working with Dr. Tim Wallingford from the Christian Church Leadership Network. He worked with us to focus on bringing intentionality in training the congregation.

We began having Dr. Wallingford come out to work directly with our team in dreaming and crafting a plan to shift from the attractional model of church growth to personal evangelism. As the plan came together, we had Dr. Wallingford preach and teach workshops on the church as ekklesia with specific applications to reach the community.

This is the process we follow:

· We ask the congregation to make a commitment to pray for the lost. Recently we have been asking for the specific number of twenty-five to be saved and immersed in baptism. This number will increase each year.

· We plan a sermon series on personal evangelism.

· We invite the entire church to a specialized evangelism training workshop.

· Those who attend the workshop are invited to be part of an evangelism training small group. 

· This group is asked to meet biweekly for one year. 

· This group starts out by identifying their oikos; ten people in their sphere of influence.

They study through material to encourage the purpose and technique of sharing (we use More Disciples by Doug Lucas and Turning Church Members into Disciple Makers by Dr. Wallingford.

Each team member has opportunity to share recent flags they have planted, God conversations, and God encounters. In addition, the meeting includes prayer for the lost and additional training for effectiveness.

Results

In the ten years before implementing this new plan, we had between three to seven baptisms per year. Since implementing the new plan, in year one we had thirteen baptisms. This year we have had twenty baptisms with several ongoing conversations with interested individuals. What a great work God is able to do through his church when we create disciples who make disciples and pursue his model for sharing faith!

Clouse, B. and Herrick, M. In (Eds) Larae Thompson and Shawn McMullen. Evangelism - Hillsboro Church of Christ (2023)

Pgs. 144-146