Evangelism,  The Monday Muse

The Monday Muse: Door-to-Door Evangelism

Easter and Christmas can be times of great reflection for a person. In a culture such as America, the focus of Easter and Christmas can quickly shift from celebrating the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to commercialism and materialism. If anything, these two holidays encourage and create more church visitors than any other time of the year. No matter what we think about evangelism as it relates to “getting people in the doors,” we cannot deny that both Easter and Christmas afford us great opportunities to share the gospel with many people who would normally not be seen near a church.

Evangelism is an important part of being a Christian. It isn’t simply something we do, but it is who we are. There are many methods of evangelism with a host of fervent proponents of each method. Growing up, the most commonly mentioned and practiced form of evangelism was door-to-door evangelism. I am sure we all have stories and experiences in the door-to-door method whether we were the evangelist or the evangelized. Times have changed since the advent of the door-to-door method and continue to change. It seems that every year that goes by brings with it a growing sense of skepticism relating to the “effectiveness” of door-to-door evangelism. So let us ponder and discuss the door-to-door method this week. Here’s your Monday Muse question:

Is door-to-door evangelism still a viable and effective method of evangelism today?

7 Comments

  • billphillips

    Hello,

    That’s an interesting question. I think it’s sad that Christians have let Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons out-evangelize us. I’ve never been witnessed to by a Christian, but I have been plenty of times by those groups.

    Acts 5:42 says, “Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.” I think the effectiveness of our efforts has less to do with us and how cool we appear, and more to do with the message we’ve been given. It’s not so important exactly how we do it (as long as it’s biblical), but that we are doing it.

    Thanks,
    Bill

  • burnshead

    I’m extremely skeptical of door-to-door evangelism. It’s reflective of our mass consumption, fast food, get rich quick mentality in America. It’s myopic and short sighted.

    I grant that we have little to do with our evangelical effectiveness – only God can change hearts – but at the same time I don’t think we can ignore how the human nature receives the method by which we share the gospel. Christianity already has a poor public image in America in the eyes of outsiders; we cannot simply continue approaching these people in the exact same way we have decade after decade just because of generational precedent.

    The goal of evangelism is to see people turn to Christ and become Christians, and in a social generation (15-30 yr olds) that values true meaningful relationships, this is most effectively done in a way that builds from trust and friendship… not a spontaneous neighborhood shotgun approach.

    I would rather foster 1 to 2 close friendships and evangelize over time than randomly hit up 50 people in some neighborhood, and leav a bad taste in the mouths of 48 about Christians and our faith.

  • Natedog

    Well, one day I decided to go down one street in a small town where I once lived. The town was about 1300 people at the time. I decided I would knock on every door along that street. I felt like I was denying myself and taking up the cross and getting out of my comfort zone. I wanted to meet people so that I could develop a relationship, hoping that I could share Christ with them over time. Well, some came to the door and we actually talked for a couple of minutes. Some did not come to the door even though they were home. Some came to the door and talked very briefly and said goodbye. Some actually invited me inside. I really didn’t get a negative response, but it did seem pretty awkward at times. Out of that experience I saw only one of those individuals in the months ahead and we really didn’t talk. Some of that could have been my fault for not deliberately going back to his home. I think that door to door evangelism can be done respectfully, but I think we just need to keep our eyes open and our ears to all opportunities that come our way. Is there an individual that you seem to see pretty frequently that actually talks to you? Go develop a relationship with that person. That’s my two cents.

  • Jeff Lash

    I would agree by saying that faithfulness is always more important than methods. Methods can change in the face of changing cultures so long as we are faithful to serve the Lord. So yes, ultimately, it doesn’t matter how we do it as long as we do it.

    However, I would say that there can be some unintended consequences resulting from our methods. For instance, by going door-to-door, do we communicate to our neighbors that we are more concerned about a sales pitch and “getting them in the door” than we are about serving them. Does there have to be a dichotomy of those things? No. But it seems that many churches use business strategies to witness and those remove the service aspect from it. There are so many ways we could flesh this out but hopefully you get the point.

    What if we modified the door-to-door method by infusing service into it which leads to relationships which leads to opportunities? It seems to me that this might be a better way of connecting with people in our culture today. In doing this, we must also be careful not to confuse service for proclamation. As much as we need to serve, we need to also proclaim the gospel and share it verbally with people. People need to see our good deeds so that they might support the message that we proclaim. But I agree…I think relationships is the way to go. Now the questions remains, will you take the time out of your busy schedule and life to build relationships?

    To take this discussion further I might ask whether church programs, in regard to evangelism, help or hurt efforts to promote evangelism in our everyday lives?

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