This brings me to my point. Showing up
unannounced and uninvited on a stranger’s doorstep is
perceived as a serious invasion of privacy today. If the
door isn’t immediately slammed in our face, anyone we speak
to is immediately closed off to what we have today say.
Perhaps a person may feign interest but only in order to not
be considered rude.
Just about everyone is familiar with
the work of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. When was the last time
you were happy to see one on your doorstep? Fairly or
unfairly any Christian door to door evangelism is going to
be lumped into the same group with the work of the Jehovah’s
Witnesses.
Now it can be argued that at least
door to door evangelism is making an attempt and is doing
something evangelistic. But what has been gained through all
of the evangelistic efforts of the Jehovah’s Witnesses? They
are known for going door to door. As far as their actual
beliefs, I’d be hard pressed to name any of them despite
numerous annoying contacts with them on my doorstep.
Aggressive evangelism techniques can
backfire. Not only can they end up producing no results,
they can cause people to actually become hardened the
gospel. The point of evangelism is to not just get out and
tell the story of Jesus, it is to create more disciples. But
the person who is annoyed that their Saturday morning is
being interrupted has no interest in being like the person
who is interrupting it.
Safety is also a concern for door to
door evangelism or doing anything door to door today. Not
too long ago children were encouraged by their school or
some other organization to sell candy and other items door
to door. Today they discourage this because of safety
reasons. In short, you have no clue what kind of person may
answer the door and what their reaction may be.
Christians shouldn’t avoid sharing the gospel out of fear
but common sense needs to be used too. Paul would ultimately
give up his life for the gospel but on many occasions he
fled for his life as well. He hid, he left under the cover
of darkness, and he was left for dead. Paul was no coward
but wasn’t about to foolishly put himself in danger.
Now this isn’t to say that door to
door evangelism hasn’t had some success. Any evangelism
method has seen some success or it would not be continued.
But times have changed however and we need to acknowledge
that while door to door evangelism may have once been
effective, its effectiveness has passed.
