What's your view of going door to door knocking on doors? (Gospel, Lutheran)

[Mikelee81]

My church does it. I feel comfortable passing out invitations/tracks to come to Christ and Church door to door, but I don't feel right about knocking on doors. I wonder about the effectiveness of it.

If you do agree it should be done, what is your approach?

[ImCurlybelle]

I find it REALLY obnoxious and I usually come right out and tell them - it's your religion, not mine. They are usually so persistent, and aggressive~ It's crazy to me ... what type of religion is that ??

If I'm in a bad mood, I won't even open the door - I'll let them ring the bell till they get the hint. If they try and give me papers, I tell them, "Keep it, it'll only go straight into the fireplace-".

Do not force it down my throat ... I can't stand it.

I had a man put his foot in the door once so I couldn't close the door and I completely lost it on him - a man of the devil, going door to door using aggressive and overzealous practices and intimating people into thinking their beliefs are wrong, and the only right beliefs are the ones knocking on doors.

[Mikelee81]

Originally Posted by ImCurlybelle

I find it REALLY obnoxious and I usually come right out and tell them - it's your religion, not mine. They are usually so persistent, and aggressive~ It's crazy to me ... what type of religion is that ??

If I'm in a bad mood, I won't even open the door - I'll let them ring the bell till they get the hint. If they try and give me papers, I tell them, "Keep it, it'll only go straight into the fireplace-".

Do not force it down my throat ... I can't stand it.

I had a man put his foot in the door once so I couldn't close the door and I completely lost it on him - a man of the devil, going door to door using aggressive and overzealous practices and intimating people into thinking their beliefs are wrong, and the only right beliefs are the ones knocking on doors.

Thank you for your perspective.

This thread could really just go off on a downward spiral temper tandrum, and I would rather it not. The type of response written here is probably shared by a number of people that do not believe. With this said, there is a way of going about it without being "aggressive" or putting foot in the door ways which I believe it's clear that is not going to be effective anyways.

Anyone want to discuss effective ways.

Or is there any?

When I'm going door to door passing out tracks/church invitations I just let them know it's an invitation. Most just take the information and I walk on. Sometimes I get a discussion going. Today I actually talked to a girl that was kicked out of my church a while back when I wasn't going. I think discussion and invitation is good. I'm not about the forced conversion as I don't think it works and risks leading people away from Christ.

I wonder about door knocking and methods however.

[robertpolyglot]

Those people get a fairly good read on the people they are dealing with. They don't get far with me and leave fairly quickly. I have LITTLE patience for it, since it's always a religion that is ... ahem ...different from mine that does the knocking.

[jghorton]

While we've done the 'door knocking' approach, the method is the primary approach for a couple of cults ... which tends to leave a bad taste for many. Further, it's not particularly effective as an evangelism approach, but, works well for announcing a church bazaar or something similar in the neighborhood; opening the door to discussions of childcare and more specifically, questions of faith. The problem that many have is that they make it into an unnatural, forced parody of evangelism, instead of simply a natural outgrowth of simply being a friend.

I'm solidly in favor of evangelism and teach it as a general principle, but, more in the context of simply stepping through the doors that God opens; ... not putting a headlock on people and trying to shove the four Spiritual Laws down their throat. The thing many churches and Christians lose track of is that "Only the Lord can do the work of the Lord." Yes, His method is to involve us, but, human methods and approaches are more about 'trying to do the work of the Lord, in the arm of the flesh.'

[twin.spin]

Our church did that for many years ( I did a couple of times) and as jhorton said it produced an aftertaste of the image of the approach for a couple of cults in America which are known for that.

The best way still is the person to person that comes from friends and neighbors who know one another. Much like how one told another in the scriptures:

John 1:41
The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ).

John 1:45
Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

Luke 5:15
Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.

[roneb]

Dad started new mission churches throughout the Pac NW for most of his years as a Lutheran minister - he did a lot of knocking on doors! He was not pushy, but was very social and gragarious.

[Mightyqueen801]

It's annoying to most people, and I think it serves more to make the knockers feel as if they went out and tried to spread the gospel more so than it actually does do anything to spread the gospel.

We are a small church that has discussed ways of reaching out to the immediate community to let them know we are there and welcoming of all. Someone at the vestry meeting said, "Well, we're not going to go out knocking on doors, are we?" and there was a chorus of "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO". We don't want to make enemies out of our neighbors!

[technoD]

Originally Posted by Mikelee81

My church does it. I feel comfortable passing out invitations/tracks to come to Christ and Church door to door, but I don't feel right about knocking on doors. I wonder about the effectiveness of it.

If you do agree it should be done, what is your approach?

It's NOT effective, especially if you're peddling that trash to my door. If you're wearing ties, white shirts, and carrying a library of crap you better be wearing nikes!


T.

[Mikelee81]

Thanks for the responses.

I agree that the knocking on doors approach could do more harm than good. Maybe it is because of the approach that is used however.

I think John's on the right track with sending out an invitation to come to church. That's pretty much all I was doing yesterday. I didn't knock on doors but went door to door putting gospel tracks with Church invite inserts in the door handles. If I saw someone on the way, I'd just invite them to church. The response was generally positive. I think this approach works as it doesn't come across as "pushing" beliefs but an invitation. It also got the gospel message into the hands of the individual. "faith comes by hearing the Word of God." What do you folks think about this approach?

I know some churches have like bake sales or something social to bring people in. I'm not sure how this works though as I know of one person that goes to these all of the time, but is clearly not saved. She's just going to get some food cheap. A local church is having a bake sale today actually, and I'm having her pick me up a blackberry and apple pie actually. So I'm not so sure how this approach works for evangelism.

As for door knocking, my Pastor goes out and does this. From what I hear one of the stories went as the following..

Pastor : I want to invite you come to church

Person: I've never been one to do the church thing

Pastor: You will be doing the grave thing though (probably did with preacher tone)

He told us this is how it went during his preaching. I guess the guy was just looking down at the track for a while. I haven't seen the guy in church. I don't think it was an effective approach.

Two individuals from another local baptist church came and knocked on the door where I'm staying. I answered it, and the question was "do you know you're going to heaven when you die". I told them that I did as Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior and I'm trusting him. They asked if I was going to church, and told them yes and where I was going. My biggest issue with the whole thing was that their tone was confrontational. I felt like I was on trial. It wasn't done in a gentle compassionate way with genuine concern for the individual (even if the person thinks you're nuts they can't say you don't care). I wonder how much success they had in their outreach. I just told them thanks for stopping by and God bless. Even as a saved believer however, I really don't feel drawn to come to their church. There's an image of an unhappy grumpy confrontational judgmental group even if that's not the case.

I wonder about this as our church is actually struggling quite a bit right now. (so prayers are welcomed for New Life Baptist Church). Everything about the church is great except I do not agree with this one concept of outreach. I wonder if it does more harm than good.

I will say that what partly drew me to the church I'm at currently was simply receiving a piece of paper that said "bible believers" on it from them. It caused me to look into it, and eventually I got up the nerve to go. It was my decision however, and I believe God was pulling me in. I don't think I would have gone if someone was trying to force me into the decision though.

If someone does agree with going door to door knocking, what is the approach that you think would work?