Door To Door Soulwinning

[HappyChristian]

I disagree that knocking on someone's door is showing a lack of common respect. That, IMO, is carrrying it to the extreme. There are still people saved in that way - and if someone doesn't want a soulwinnere there, they'll say so. Sometimes rudely, sometimes politely. We've seen it both ways. If they tell us to leave, we apoligize for bothering them, thank them for their time and proceed to leave. In almost every case, they then are willing to take a tract to read later.

To compare Westboro to people out spreading the gospel is like comparing rotten apples to fresh oranges.

If a person doesn't want to go door mickibg, don't go. But don't knock (heh) those who do...

[Gorship]

I do think it varies by location, here on Vancouver Island, people dont seem to enjoy the door knocks.

[John81]

It may very well depend upon where one lives. Around here most folks consider it an invasion of their privacy for strangers to knock on their door and talk "religion". Seeing a stranger at their door they are automatically defensive and when they hear it's about "religion", that often sets them off. Then the phone calls go out and before long the police are out looking for those "harassing" folks.

[Gorship]

people automatically think we're JW's even if we intentionally wear only a collard shirt to not seem like we are.

[HappyChristian]

pacific northwest? sounds like you're near me.

OFF TOPIC--Your island is just a 20 minute drive and a half hour ferry ride from my mom's. My hubby, son and I visited Victoria a number of years back. I'm originally from Seattle.-BACK TO TOPIC ;-)

[HappyChristian]

I will tell you one sure way of knowing you aren't welcome (well, other than the police coming after you!): a voice on the other side of the door says "I've got a gun aimed right atbthe door. Get off my porch before I pull the trigger." And if it happens in Gary, Indiana, you better believe you get off that porch!!!

Women only visit in Gary wth their husbands. It isn't safe otherise. When the man hollered that, I turned around as my hubby did, he grabbed me to make sure I was in front if him, and we got off that pirch - without a word.

But then there was the time we met BOB. Drunk as all get-out, but able to quote a lot of scripture. Turns out he was saved, but had been convinced he had committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost for questioning a woman Bible study teacher *yes, charismatic). He believed he was on his way to hell. God led us to him and these many years later, he's got his theology straight and he's serving the Lord. Had we not gone doorknocking, he likely would have died soon from the booze.

Two sides of the coin. BOB and others like him justify door knocking in my book.

[JimsHelpmeet]

I think you have to judge the overall "climate" of your area. I've found that upper-middle class neighborhoods tend to be the least open to receiving a knock on the door and being presented with the Gospel. Our head deacon used to go door-to-door witnessing in New Orleans back in the 1980s. In the heart of Catholic Voodoo country. For every ten doors slammed in his face or dogs sicced on him, he would have one person who was grateful to find out there was a local church with a bus ministry or to hear about the plan of salvation. Honestly, if an IFB preacher showed up on my doorstep, we might just have revival on my front porch LOL. I grow so weary of the JWs, Mormons, and kids in flip flops and cut-off shorts advertising the local laser light rock show church showing up at my door. Of course, I realize not everyone would be quite so eager to have a believer knocking on their door. Personally, I don't think women going out soulwinning without their husbands is a prudent idea. I'm not even sure it's biblical. I had a gun pulled on me once while going out on visitation with the youth group I was in as a teen. I see the JW ladies out about every other week and it seems so unsafe.

 

My husband and I like to leave tracts written in Spanish at the laundromats. We have a fairly large Hispanic Catholic population in our area, so it's nice to be able to cut through the language barrier and reach them in a sort of indirect way.

[Joseph Redgate]

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[HappyChristian]

Same/same

[2bLikeJesus]

I am in Roseburg, OR which is in the southwestern part so a bit far from Vancouver BC, but I am from Spokane, WA/Coeur d' Alene, ID area as well.  I have door knocked in Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Southern California with MUCH greater success and welcome homes than here in Oregon logging communities.  Oregon is definitely a mission field with very few churches preaching the old fashioned gospel, but it is so incredibly hard to start a new work here that most last 2 years tops before they pack up and head for greener pastures.

[Pastor Matt]

I now do door to door differently than when I used to. When someone visits our church and fills out a welcome card, we go visit them. When I go and the person is not home, I knock on the surrounding doors and after I tell them who I am and I usually say something like this. " Your neighbor visited our church and they are not home, I have a gift for them, and I want to make sure that I have the right house." I then describe the person and they usually tell me if I have the right house or not. I then thank them and leave them a gift also and depending on the receptiveness I either continue to talk or just leave them a small gift and invite them to church. It is not as intrusive and seems to work well in our area.

 

Of course our church is mainly city and we rarely go a week without first time visitors.

[Joseph Redgate]

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[John81]

Being furious is uncalled for. We have to remember that we are called to be a light on a hill, not under a basket. As well, we are to count it all joy when we suffer persecution for our faith in Christ. Admittedly that's not always easy to do, but with practice and trust in the Lord, His will is done and we will reap the benefits of our OBedience in this life and/or the next.

 

I had someone loosen the lug nuts on the back drivers side tire of my car nearly 30 years ago. I don't think it had anything to do with my faith in Christ, mostly just the fact those I think were responsible (never found out for sure) didn't like the town I was from. I was on a gravel road when they started coming loose and wondered why the car was fish tailing so much. I got it on home, which wasn't too far away, and when I checked each one of the lug nuts was at the edge and about to come off.

 

In any event, Bro Matt's idea is rather creative and according to his report it's at least successful in planting seeds where he's at. If the folks he spoke of are saved, they should want others to know of their faith in Christ; if they are unsaved, perhaps others speaking to them will bring them to a place where the Holy Ghost can bring them under conviction.

 

Unfortunately, his approach wouldn't work well here because pretty much everybody knows everybody else; who is and isn't a Christian, who does and doesn't go to church, who the "church people" are, etc. Here the neighbors would take one of us knocking on their door and asking about their neighbor as being nosey, intrusive and bothersome.

[Joseph Redgate]

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[John81]

Unless a person requests privacy, why would one assume anything they do or say or where they go in public would be private? Why would anyone expect that everyone will be silent about who does or doesn't go to church? Whether concerned Christians or neighborhood gossips, everything we do in public is open to public discussion. Anything done in public is already public information. There is no expectation of privacy for anything done in public.

 

If a person has some sort of fear of others finding out they attended a church, they should make such known to the pastor. Otherwise, follow up is common among many churches and in some areas it's not uncommon for home visitors to also attempt to share Christ with others they see in the area.

 

We should fear God, not man.