Going door to door
A member of the Following and Fishing forum posted this question,
How are your experiences with going from door to door? What did you say? How did it normally go? I think I would like to start it, but when I did it three years ago I was having a very difficult time and since that never done it in a western context again...
Here’s my thoughts
1. Don’t rule it out.
If post-modernism has taught us anything it’s that there is no single “Western context”.
We’ve just moved to the EastEnd in London. Outside our door is a myriad of “contexts”. Hipsters, Bangladeshi Muslims, Bangladeshi hipsters, old time EastEnders, Filipinos from Barcelona, single mums on welfare, single mums on drugs. Ten minutes away is Hackney, that’s Afro-Caribbean. Across the city there are Poles, the French, Nigerians, Nigerian Muslims, Nigerian lapsed Christians, Nigerian hipsters.
How do you find out what works in your “context”? Try knocking on one hundred doors and see what happens.
2. Don’t go alone.
No need to explain. Just don’t go alone.
3. Learn from best practice.
Listen to people who have done it and learn from the best. Start with Jesus. How did he enter an unreached community of strangers? What does that look like today.
Here’s a couple of great podcasts with people who regularly visit unreached communities.
On the frontline with Ray Vaughn
God, give us Austin Texas or we die!
4. Begin with the end in mind.
Why are you knocking on doors? From a movements perspective the end game is a “person of peace” leading to a new group of people gathered around the Scriptures learning to follow Jesus. If going door to door gets you there — do it. If not, try something else. The best practitioners know the end game and keep trying until they find the most effective way to get there.
If someone tells you it won’t work, ask them if they have a better proven method that does.
