“Ricky Shanks June 2020 Report”

Saturday, July 18, 2020

Report from “Ricky” William Shanks in Gainesville GA
4565 Persian Trail; Gainesville, GA 30507; Phones: 843-569-8729-Home; 843-725-9283-Cell

Website: AnswersFromTheBible.ORG - Dial A Bible Study: 770-835-4000 (Ext. 3 for Spanish.) Gainesville church of Christ (GCOC.org) 2815 Wallace Rd. Gainesville GA 30507 meeting location

June 2020

The work here continues to inch in a positive way. The flock now is meeting for both worship and Bible classes. All are in good health. The most vulnerable have not yet returned but wait on medical news to improve in our area. Georgia numbers are back up because of the riots, so the darkness continues to hover in our state. It is so good to see our brethren in person again. Greg Perkins came with his young people to go door to door and seems to have some wanting to obey the gospel soon. We are gearing up to accommodate a bible class in Spanish if that happens. He found a couple of English language contacts which I am following up on. We pray the Lord of the Harvest will give the increase to those seeking.

This last week we had a lot of visitors as result of splintering congregations of the Lord’s church. As mentioned a couple of years ago in my report, flocks of God’s people have not been immune to the world’s chronic “me isms.” God calls us to serve Him as Lord and King yet too often His people end up being more influenced by the world.

•   We as His people serve at the pleasure of our King.

•   As a flock of His people we are to be representatives of His character and His spokesmen.
  Yet as we have witnessed the “me, me” generation’s behavior in the world and how it has infected many brethren. Result, where once was a good fruitful flock in the past with godly elders, over time the behavior results in flock splintering and eventually closing their doors. Where are the humble saints who put God’s cause above all else? We have always been at war with darkness but it is sad to see the carnage created when a so few personalities can create such damage among God’s people. May the “King of Salem” (peace) reign.

  The Facebook (FB) efforts we make have now been changed. Out of 14 programs FB prevented us from going live 3 times. Thus we had to record it and post later. FB continuously changes how it works almost weekly. What works one week would not work the next. Because of the lack of consistent reliability for live broadcast we decided that short 3 minute prerecorded efforts would be more fruitful. They become more consistent with less interruptions and the finished product will focused on one subject at a time and titled with the subject. In addition to that, I noticed the demographics of FB heavily leaned toward older watchers (45 and above). These short videos are also being posted on Instagram (IG) which leans toward a much younger viewership. The first 3 are running already. We are using “googles most asked religious questions” as themes for now. These may not help mature saints much but will hopefully find those who are lost and seeking God’s salvation. IG does not have the statistics tracked like FB but we looking for connections locally that we can help study with in person. I can’t wait till the “fears” of virus will totally subside where we can mobilize our local saints in an evangelistic meetings and meet people in person with festivals, free speech areas in colleges.

  Stats from FB: 44K people reached. 35K minutes (583 hours) viewed from beginning of effort total of which the highest amount was last week. We now have 663 who follow the page. 13K post reached and 9K viewed video this week.

  My goal is that we find local good and honest seekers who will show initiative to ask and knock (Matt 7:7) with reaching out via TEXT or downloads from website above. Pray with us that the Lord of the Harvest will show us those in this area who seek Him. Thank you for your encouragements and we all serve Him to His glory!

  Honored to serve, Ricky Shanks

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