Door to Door Visitation?

Squire

I suspect your opinion is correct, but I don't have any reference to the practice, so can't comment with anything like real knowledge on the subject.

 

Acts 5:42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. (KJV)

The disciples proclaimed Jesus not only in the public arena, but also in the private. Undeterred by suffering and threats, they still preached the cross in the most public place in Jerusalem, as well as from house to house.

Mark 6:7 And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits; (KJV)

It is my opinion that after Jesus gave the Great Commission, evangelism has proceeded through every means possible. Door-to-door is nothing new. It may have lost its appeal at some point in history, but it is not a new concept.

 

Jehovah's Witnesses claim to have been doing door-to-door "evangelism" since 1920.

In England, I can't ever recall knocking on doors at random, but the pastor and members did home visitation. At time of fellowship combined with evangelism as a means of reaching out.

When I first came to Canada, Baptist churches were out knocking on doors routinely..so, this covers from the mid 30's to the present on door knocking.

Cheers,

Jim

 

What about Matt 10:5-15?

 

I think we are well aware of the scriptural injunctions and practices. The question at hand is when did modern door-to-door evangelism start.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Squire, I'm not familiar with the historical beginnings of modern door-to-door visitation (cold-calling). In my experience growing up among landmark Missionary Baptists in east Texas, I was not aware of any such practice before the 1970's. I have no doubt that other Baptists were already practicing it earlier or that some of our city churches were engaging in door-to-door visitation. In the country communities there wouldn't have been hardly such a thing as "cold-calling" or random visitation, since everybody knew everybody else and many were related. Much of the push for evangelism in many country churches in the South (Baptist & otherwise) was actually related to the annual protracted meetings (later called revivals).

 

I agree rsr. I remember after I was saved in 1969 in Houston, Texas, our IFB church used door to door visitation weekly. It was not too difficult to find people who would at least invite us in and listen to what we had to say. Now, we live in a different society, at least here in the large city. Very few will even open the door. Because of the nature of our world, I don't blame them.

Although I do not have anything against this type of visitation, even back in the early 70's we saw very little results with it.

 

I have no idea when DtD started for Baptists, but I would delinitely not believe the JW's were out there in the 1920's. They wouldn't know there past if you placed it under their noses.

 

With the new 'Faith Training', our church does door to door, cold calling, every Sunday afternoon. We were doing it on Thursday nights but it got to be too late and so very dark.

So many are coming to Christ because of this! We had 100 baptisms last year.

I, personally, love door to door. I did it with Lois Bott back in the early '80's during the work week. We'd knock on doors and witness to housewives.

Diane

 

Can't actually push it back any further for you, but as a teenage I remember taking part in door to door visitation, a systamatic attempt to visit each house in the town, in the early 1960's in England. It was already established then, not someting new.

Regards
Bob

 

I think Pastor Bob 63 took it back to biblical times in his post. I doubt you can go much farther back than that!

Sue

 

You are right, Keith. We used to go out every Wednesday evening for an hour by twos. The streets were assigned by a card system covering all of the township, including names and family members. The visitation was plainly to invited people personally to the church and to make their acquaintance. It was a great joy for the people going out and they came back full of excitement. How productive? Only God knows......we only saw a few come out to church.......Still, don't the angels in heaven "sing" over one soul which repents and comes safely into God's arms?

Cheers,

Jim

 

Keith, I have found your question intriguing. What I have not found is much historical information. I found a little on what has already been alluded to - D. James Kennedy and the Jehovah's Witnesses. Here's a quote from Todd Hertz in Christianity Today:

I also found an article tieing the "present-style" of door-to-door evangelism with the Jehovah's Witnesses:

I am not familiar with the site, but it is evidently an outreach to Jehovah's Witnesses.

Those two articles contain the most I have been able to find so far. The three links below make only passing historical reference. The first article is a statistical "encouragement" for the churches of Christ to use the method, and does refer to JW's & Mormons. The other two links are basically doctrinal. Not much help, just found the links and thought someone might be interested.
Door-to-Door Evangelism Facts
Soulwinning or Salesmanship?
Personal Soul Winning