5 Possible Desired Outcomes of Door to Door Visitation

Perhaps your church is thinking about a door to door evangelism outreach.

Some churches excel at it.  Other churches want to get better, and still others want to avoid any kind of door to door visitation.

If you are considering a door to door evangelism campaign, the premier question I would ask you is

What is your desired outcome?

1.  Prayerwalk the community.

You might structure your door to door campaign as an ongoing prayer effort in your community.  You can do this form of prayer ministry without even touching a door.

I have a pastor friend who spent his lunch hour, 5 days a week, walking the streets of his community.

He would simply

• Pray for the community.
• Pray for the small businesses.
• Pray for the government workers.
• Pray for the people who walk the street for their errands, lifestyle, or other purpose.

Sometimes he would stop in front of house or office and pray a short prayer, or other times, he would keep walking while praying.

This form of door to door outreach isn’t really knocking on doors, but is intentionally walking every street of an area that you have defined and praying for every house, every business, and every person that you see as you walk.

Often, this pastor felt a leading to engage particular people in conversation, invite them to a church event, or even offer to pray for a particular need.

Be sensitive to moments of generosity, moments of grace, and moments when the Holy Spirit might lead you to engage a person in conversation.

2.  Community Exegesis

Another technique of a door to door visitation is to learn about the needs of the community.  Some churches will visit every house and business in a defined area and seek to gather information about the community.

These visits usually take the form of some kind of survey that is not evangelistic in nature, but aimed at gathering a reasonable sample of community data.

However, you might encounter some geniune spiritual thirst while talking with people.

Consider if the Holy Spirit is prompting you to take the conversation further.

3.  Gospel Presentations

Some churches will choose to carry a particular gospel conversation house to house.

That might be:

• The Four Spiritual Laws
• The Romans Road
• Evangelism Explosion
• Evangecube
• The Bridge
• Steps to Peace with God
• Do versus Done.
• Or some other gospel presentation that’s been reduced to several points.

This was a common practice in many church growth programs decades ago and may still be appropriate in some places.  I am often asked to teach door to door evangelism with this model, but I do a different take on it, since I don’t think everyone is ready to hear the gospel on my time schedule.

Rather than assume that a person wants to hear the gospel, I look for signs of spiritual interest.  If there are none, I offer to pray for any need they may have and then move on.  This leads me to the next one.

4.  Spiritual Thirst

I believe that noticing spiritual thirst will open good conversational doors.

While there are many gospel presentations (I call them gospel scripts) that one could memorize for door to door evangelism campaigns, I teach an evangelism method can help you at each door you visit during your evangelism campaign.

• Watch for the working of the Holy Spirit
• Listen for spiritual thirst
• Discern your place in their journey
• Suggest possible next steps towards Jesus.

If part of your purpose is evangelism, consider using the Effective Conversations DVD for door to door training.

5.  Start New Seeker oriented groups

Using a good tool, like The Your Journey Guide (by Gary Rhormayer),  you’ll be able to determine some community needs, plus see who is currently thinking about improving their spiritual life.

I’ve started using this tool myself to determine who has a genuine interest in learning more about God.

Then, with a group of people, we can start a small group time together among neighbors and talk more about who Jesus is and so on.

This is my biggest joy – gathering spiritually open people who want to grow and have expressed a desire to learn more about Jesus.

What is your desired outcome of door to door visitation?

If you were to consider the various outcomes, what might yours be?

That outcome will determine what kind of training you will want to provide, plus suggest the tools you will need.

If part of your purpose is evangelism, consider using the Effective Conversations DVD for door to door training.  It can help you with more effective conversations that presenting a simple script.

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