Burleson is active in mission work locally and around the world.
Locally, Burleson has a number of outreach efforts. In 1999, we began a bi-monthly mailing of House to House – Heart to Heart into 1700 homes in our immediate community. We gradually expanding our mailing to include every Hamilton household, some 6600 homes. We also added a monthly mailing to the original 1700 homes involving four local zip codes. In 2013, we started mailing 1200 copies into the area around the Desert Church of Christ in Pahrump, NV. In 2020, we added 2000 homes in Sulligent, AL to our work. Since 1999, we have mailed more than 750,000 pieces of literature in our area and a few beyond!
In 2011, we started a weekly local television program called “What Does the Bible Say?”. It is a live question and answers program that is shown in all local municipalities contracted with West Alabama Cable. These include Hamilton, Fayette, Guin, and Brilliant. The program also airs in Russellville, AL and along the entire northern Gulf Coast in the Florida panhandle.
For more than 30 years, the Burleson church has conducted a Christmas fruit basket campaign for shut-ins and other folks in need. In recent years we have included the local nursing home residents. Like a well-oiled machine, we assemble more than 125 baskets in less than 45 minutes. It is a sight to behold!
In addition to visiting the nursing home multiple times each week, Todd conducts weekly Wednesday Bible classes in the local high rise apartments, the assisted living facility, and the nursing home.
In 2020, the Burleson church joined other local congregations to encourage and build the work in Sulligent, AL. In addition to our House to House mailings, Todd was asked to preach three old fashioned tent meetings in the area. The first is scheduled for April 19, 2020. The second is tentatively scheduled for nearby Beaverton in September 2020, and the third is tentatively scheduled in nearby Gattman, MS in the spring of 2021.
From a global perspective, we have supported the work of Robert and Mary Martin for more than 50 years. Robert started as a missionary in North Carolina, but soon moved to the South Pacific Islands, where he has been for more than 40 years. In addition to the conversion of thousands and the planting of dozens of congregations, Robert started the Pacific Islands Bible School as a means to teach and train Christians in their local communities.
In 1999, our preacher, Todd Clippard went to Ghana, West Africa for the first time. The purpose of this trip was to work with two other brethren (Don Tarbet and Toby Soechting) in a nationwide preacher seminar. More than 200 men attended that week-long event. This was the first of 14 trips Todd would make between 1999 and 2015. Those trips led to the Burleson church, in cooperation with the Howe TX church, buying property and building a school of preaching to house and train twenty men. This school has now come under the umbrella of the Bear Valley Bible Institute. However, the Howe eldership still maintains oversight of the work. The school has graduated dozens of men who have gone out to preach the gospel in Ghana, Liberia, and Nigeria.
In addition to Ghana, Todd has also worked in Liberia, West Africa (2009) and Kenya, East Africa (2011).