Door to Door Effectiveness?

[Robert Truelove]

Within the last 10 years, have any your churches been involved in any door to door ministries (inviting people in the community to church, evangelism, etc.)? If so, in what part of the country and what were the results if any (visitors, new-members, etc.)?

 

[Rangerus]

Our Baptist church here in Austin has used the LifeWay FAITH Evangelism strategy for several years now. FAITH Evangelism is basically a disciple making, door to door evangelism training and ministry conducted by church members and small Bible study groups. We initially had a lot of success, but in recent semesters the numbers have dropped off. No one knows why.

 

[TaylorOtwell]

When I was in college, a friend and I went through every guys dorm door-to-door (this was back in my Fundie days). We would usually use the Ray Comfort style evangelism or the bridge illustration. There was no lasting fruit at all. Seriously, not one person. Now that I look back on it, I think the root reason behind it was to try to save myself rather than save others, as I was constantly condemned by a lack of evangelism.

However, participating in a consistent Bible reading partnership has shown fruit 100% of the time.

 

[raekwon]

Nope, never. The closest thing to door-to-door anything we've done was mass-mailing when we planted five years ago. That wasn't terribly effective. Still, God has brought plenty of people into our church, mainly through word-of-mouth, one-on-one relationships, and the web.

That's not to say we'll rule out ever doing door-to-door, but right now, other means of evangelism and outreach are proving very effective.

 

[Jimmy the Greek]

On occasion, we send couples through nearby neighborhoods to invite people to church. We don't do a hard sell. We just give them a pamphlet and mention our emphasis on the Bible as God's Word, etc. We draw from a fairly large geographical area in the DFW area, but our door-to-door activities are kept to immediate neighborhoods.

We don't really "measure" supposed effectiveness. We just do it.

 

[Pergamum]

It is my theory that most all "cold contacts" are terribly "ineffective" - yet I have run across several folks who have been saved by a tract ministry...and it always boggles my mind. God uses relational contacts mostly it seems.

 

[KMK]

On occasion, we send couples through nearby neighborhoods to invite people to church. We don't do a hard sell. We just give them a pamphlet and mention our emphasis on the Bible as God's Word, etc. We draw from a fairly large geographical area in the DFW area, but our door-to-door activities are kept to immediate neighborhoods.

We don't really "measure" supposed effectiveness. We just do it.

I agree.

How can you possibly 'measure' effectiveness? We have done some door to door with the same emphasis. Our community is so small, however, that the churches end up fighting with each other over territory. Every other door you knock on is someone else's sheep. So when we do door to door stuff the first thing we ask is, "Do you have a church?" and if they answer, "Yes," then we say God bless you and move on.

-----Added 1/14/2009 at 09:34:39 EST-----

It is my theory that most all "cold contacts" are terribly "ineffective" - yet I have run across several folks who have been saved by a tract ministry...and it always boggles my mind. God uses relational contacts mostly it seems.

According to 1 Cor, what God uses is 'foolishness'.

 

[raekwon]

How can you possibly 'measure' effectiveness?

Asking newcomers "how'd you find out about us" is a good way.

 

[Barnpreacher]

When I was in college, a friend and I went through every guys dorm door-to-door (this was back in my Fundie days). We would usually use the Ray Comfort style evangelism or the bridge illustration. There was no lasting fruit at all. Seriously, not one person. Now that I look back on it, I think the root reason behind it was to try to save myself rather than save others, as I was constantly condemned by a lack of evangelism.

Brother T,

In spite of our "root reasons", God may have very well been pleased to turn a heart to Christ through your evangelism. We mustn't place God in a box and think that just because we were Fundamentalists or used the Ray Comfort style evangelism when we witnessed that God couldn't have honored His Word. We can't always see the results of putting the gospel of Christ out there. We may not see fruit right away, but how do we know in 10 years one of those guys you witnessed to will not find himself being witnessed to by someone else, and he will think back to the day that "annoying" guy came to his dorm room and told him the same thing. One plants and another waters, but God gives the increase.

-----Added 1/14/2009 at 09:45:41 EST-----

Within the last 10 years, have any your churches been involved in any door to door ministries (inviting people in the community to church, evangelism, etc.)? If so, in what part of the country and what were the results if any (visitors, new-members, etc.)?

I pastor in a very rural area in Tennessee. In the almost 8 years of my ministry here we have done a lot of door to door visits. We mostly invited people to the church and gave them a flier with some Scripture on it. Has it been very effective? I do know that one of my most faithful families started coming to the church because we knocked on their door one Saturday morning. So I'm thankful that God gave us some increase there.

We (our church) haven't gone out on visitation for several years now. It's a difficult place to minister when you're in the heart of the Bible belt. Most people either go to church somewhere, since there is a church on every corner, or they have made up their minds that they aren't going to go. Plus, we've already covered most of the area around my church.

 

[Josh G]

I grew up in a fundy Dispensational church where door to door visitation was big. The pastor of the church would always sneak something to do with visitation into his sermon. Then he would proceed to make you feel bad if you were not there that week. My family would go occasionally, but we never seemed to see any results. It always confused me how the pastor would be all happy when he led someone to the Lord, but they never showed up in church.

I think the main problem with this type of witnessing is that there is no real commitment. Someone may say a prayer and get "saved", but when you never see them enter the church or hear about them growing you begin to wonder if they really got "saved."

Just my

 

[Marrow Man]

Within the last 10 years, have any your churches been involved in any door to door ministries (inviting people in the community to church, evangelism, etc.)? If so, in what part of the country and what were the results if any (visitors, new-members, etc.)?

Is Christ Reformed Church planning on a door-to-door strategy, Robert?

The church here in Louisville did it a bit before I came w/o much success at all. It was very successful 30-40 years ago (when the church moved to the area), but it seems folks are more suspicious nowadays of strangers coming to their door. They also get hit with lots of JW and Mormon visitors, so I'm not sure that the nonreligious group all such strategies in the same heap. In addition, we live in a heavily Roman Catholic neighborhood. That's good in the sense that there are lots of folks who need the gospel (most are only nominally RC anyway and don't attend church regularly); it's "bad" in the sense that most aren't interested in Protestantism either (e.g., some fear that they would not be welcome at a Protestant service).

When I was in seminary, we did the door-to-door strategy on Sunday evenings for about 4-6 weeks. We concentrated on new residents, not established homes. It was not terribly effective at all, although there were lots of interesting conversations. One of the groups that went out ran into a mother who was leaving with her young child to go to the evening service of a local megachurch (where she was a member). When asked the "salvation question," she gave a textbook "good works" kind of answer. That sort of thing wakes you up as to how deceived people can be with a false assurance of salvation.

 

[Pergamum]

Tomas the drunk just got saved for the 3rd time this year here....

Today he was dancing obscenely in the road and red betel nut spittle was dripping down his chin.. and he was threatening cars as we passed. As I was getting ready to go down the hill again Noah asked me "Why are you bringing Buddy Bat with us today...." as I loaded it into the vehicle.

And this guy was VERY emotional and cried for salvation and knows the Roman Road forward and back. He is obviously one of MY converts, because he sure ain't the Lord's.


I think this board is very good at stressing that it isn't all about evangelism....it is about discipleship...and to disciple one needs a relationship or else one is just selling a product.

 

[Marrow Man]

Our Baptist church here in Austin has used the LifeWay FAITH Evangelism strategy for several years now. FAITH Evangelism is basically a disciple making, door to door evangelism training and ministry conducted by church members and small Bible study groups. We initially had a lot of success, but in recent semesters the numbers have dropped off. No one knows why.

How Reformed is the Lifeway material?

 

[PresbyDane]

I have not done a lot of door to door but what little there was, was not veru effective.

 

[Robert Truelove]

Tim,

A few years back we used to do door to door often and actually hit every major subdivision within a 5 mile radius of our church. In all of that effort, we only have had one visitor as a result and that was to a special Wednesday night study and he made it very clear up front that he was only interested in the study and was not interested in leaving his mega-church (he only came to two studies BTW).

As a pastor of a small church, I ask because from time to time we have people bring this up..."why aren't we doing more door to door". My response...we have done plenty of that in the past with no direct results.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that God cannot and has not used the effort; it's just after knocking on so many doors with such horrid results regarding the growth of the church, I think there must be a better way to spend the time and energy.

Thoughts?

Within the last 10 years, have any your churches been involved in any door to door ministries (inviting people in the community to church, evangelism, etc.)? If so, in what part of the country and what were the results if any (visitors, new-members, etc.)?

Is Christ Reformed Church planning on a door-to-door strategy, Robert?

The church here in Louisville did it a bit before I came w/o much success at all. It was very successful 30-40 years ago (when the church moved to the area), but it seems folks are more suspicious nowadays of strangers coming to their door. They also get hit with lots of JW and Mormon visitors, so I'm not sure that the nonreligious group all such strategies in the same heap. In addition, we live in a heavily Roman Catholic neighborhood. That's good in the sense that there are lots of folks who need the gospel (most are only nominally RC anyway and don't attend church regularly); it's "bad" in the sense that most aren't interested in Protestantism either (e.g., some fear that they would not be welcome at a Protestant service).

When I was in seminary, we did the door-to-door strategy on Sunday evenings for about 4-6 weeks. We concentrated on new residents, not established homes. It was not terribly effective at all, although there were lots of interesting conversations. One of the groups that went out ran into a mother who was leaving with her young child to go to the evening service of a local megachurch (where she was a member). When asked the "salvation question," she gave a textbook "good works" kind of answer. That sort of thing wakes you up as to how deceived people can be with a false assurance of salvation.

 

[LawrenceU]

I find that street evangelism is more effective than door to door. But, I still do some door to door at the beginning of each semester at the local university.