It is time to talk about a type of evangelism that most people would never attempt. Door-to-door evangelism.
Let’s start out by answering some basic questions.
Is it legal?
Yes, Christians have the legal right to go home to home passing out tracts or Bibles and to engage in conversation.
There have been numerous court rulings about his topic over the years siding with Christians in this matter.
The only exception is if someone clearly posts “No Trespassing” signs.
If someone posts a “No Soliciting” sign, Christians still have the legal right to go to that door as we are not soliciting.
However, just because something is legal does not make it a smart idea to do. We are representatives of Christ and need to act as such.
Most people who have “No Soliciting” sign on their homes expect not to be bothered. The best thing in that case is to just leave your information at the door and move on.
Is it effective?
Simply put, yes, it is very effective.
Sure, you may get doors closed, even slammed in your face. You will come across rude people, mean people, mad people and more, but where in life don’t you run across these people anyway?
Many people can be having a bad day or something they are distracted by that we have no idea about.
With the proper materials, the proper planning, lots of patience, lots of prayer, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, door-to-door evangelism can be one of the most effective forms of evangelism out there.
You do not need to be a Bible scholar well versed in the ways of apologetics to be effective going door-to-door.
Even if you stumble over your words, forget simple Bible verses on salvation, forget to pray, or have not prepared properly, God will use what you have done.
Remember what Isaiah 55:11 tells us:
Isaiah 55:11
“so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
ANYTHING we share or put out there about God, He will use for His purposes, and it will not return void. So, you cannot be unsuccessful when evangelizing door-to-door or in any way for that matter.
How much does it cost?
It can cost as little as your time or as much as you want to put into it.
At times, I have spent absolutely nothing in terms of finances while going door-to-door evangelizing.
And then there are times we have spent probably two to three dollars per house, which can add up quickly if you are going out twice a week and hitting about 20-40 homes per day.
Once you have been doing it for a while you will get the feel of what you feel comfortable with spending and what the lowest cost, most effective materials are.
I would say at the very least to have some good Bible tracts to leave with someone. You can get most tracts for less than twenty cents each.
Is it difficult?
At times it can be easy, fun, and very rewarding.
Other times it can be difficult, frustrating, and discouraging.
The more you prepare and know your stuff and the more you pray beforehand and in between houses, the easier it can be.
Even if you are very well versed on apologetics and evangelism, and pray fervently, it can be difficult at times. But you gotta remember Isaiah 55:11
If you bring with a small pocket New Testament it will help you with Biblical references that may be difficult to recall when put on the spot.
We carry a small pocket New Testament from William Fay and Share Jesus Without Fear and we take them through the parts he recommends that show someone how they can know 100% for sure they will get to Heaven.
It also has a great reference section on the most common excuses people have for not accepting Jesus Christ and how to respond. I would highly recommend carrying these pocket New Testaments with you.
Tricks of the Trade
One of the things we have done in our door-to-door adventures is find a local ministry that most people, believers as well as non-believers, can get behind.
A ministry that helps the homeless or offers free meals to those in need.
In our case, in our small town there is a wonderful local ministry called the Warming Center that offers free meals every night of the week, a food pantry, a clothes pantry and takes donations.
We have put together a half page flyer with the information on it and use that as our opening.
We present the flyer and ask them if they have heard about it. Very few people will reject you outright and it gives you just a couple seconds while they are looking at the flyer to assess the situation.
You really learn some great tricks as you go along. One thing to lower someone’s guard is as you are walking up to their door look around their yard.
Do they have dogs, talk about dogs, do they have beautiful rose bushes? Talk about them. People love talking about their stuff. During those few seconds they are looking at the flyer, see what they are interested in.
You can usually tell within those few seconds if someone is open to talking or not. If they are not, we give them some Gospel information including a copy of our Gospel of John with Commentary, some good Bible tracts, and some church information.
We have put together a Resource Guide that has all sorts of helpful information for those in need. Food banks and free meal locations, city and county help, senior help, local churches, community services, addiction help, veterans help, housing help, recovery help and more.
One thing we made sure is to put lost of information in it about how to be saved, how to share Jesus, how to pray, and much more. We pass out as many of those as possible while going door-to-door.
One thing you find out is that most people really do want to help others, and almost everybody in our area knows someone who is struggling, financially or with addiction or just in need of some help.
After giving the initial half page flyer some will then reject any further information, so we put a Gospel message on the back of the Warming Center half page flyer so either way they get the Gospel message.
"We gave you this flyer because we just wanted you to know that we care about you and wanted to let you know about something very important.
Like everyone else, we will one day stand before God. God will judge us according to His Law, which we all have broken (lying, stealing, lust, hate, blasphemy, etc.) and will be found guilty.
Since God is a righteous judge, He will have to punish us for breaking His Law. That punishment is eternal separation from Him in a place called hell. But God loves us so much that He provided a way for us to be forgiven for breaking His Law.
Jesus Christ lived the only perfect life ever and took our punishment for our sins when he died on the cross. He defeated sin and the death that it brings by rising from the dead. All we have to do is repent (turn from our sins) and accept Jesus, and we will spend our eternity in Paradise.
It is a FREE gift from God.
Once we take our last breath, our eternity is sealed . . . forever. We may not have a tomorrow.
If you have any questions or for more information
928-955-9626 • www.GOD411.org • 480-577-5759"
One other thing we do, since our local God 411 is a Christian Resource Center, we get some relatively inexpensive Christian books to hand out on prayer or devotions or growing in your walk, something to help believers grow.
Christianbook.com is a great source of inexpensive Christian books and materials. Many times, they have books on sale for 99 cents and then a week or two later it is 15 bucks. So, if you catch them at the right time, you can get a lot of materials at a very good price. Just recently, we got a $30 book for 49 cents.
For those who are questioning things of God or even those who are growing, one of the best resources is a book by Mark Cahill called One Heartbeat Away. It has answers to just about any question they may have. You can buy them for bulk on his website. It is a bit more than some other books that you can get for 99 cents at Christianbook.com, but it is really worth it.
They also have some striking colorful tracts and little booklets on his website.
Chick.com is a great resource for not only the hundreds of different tracts in many languages they have in small comic book form, they also have some great apologetic books and much more.
You can learn how to talk to people about Jesus from people like Ray Comfort. His website is https://livingwaters.com and has a ton of great evangelism resources.
We also carry a small note pad to write down prayer for those who need salvation as well as prayer requests for health, finances, family members, etc . . .
We have added things such as free coffee mugs, calendars or tote bags with a short Gospel message on them that you can get at a place like pens.com at a reasonable price per unit.
It is just something that has the Gospel on it that they will keep around and use and see the message regularly.
Again, once you start adding tracts, books (even low-priced books), resource guides, church information, Gospels of John, calendars, tote bags, or whatever you may include, it does start to add up.
You may choose to go with just some tracts and a pocket New Testament.
Going door to door evangelizing can sound intimidating, and as I mentioned in previous post about what to expect when evangelizing, you never know what to expect.
You will come across people that are lonely and invite you in and even offer you some refreshments.
You will have people that are not happy to see you and close the door in your face.
A Pastor friend of mine who I used to go door-to-door with would bring his three-year-old daughter with because as he said, it makes it harder for someone to slam the door in the face of a three year-old.
You will have times when you cover 10 homes in 10-15 minutes and other times when you spend a half an hour at one home talking, fellowshipping, and praying with other believers or discussing the Gospel with non-believers.
Don’t be in a rush. If someone is open to talking, take advantage of it and give them all the information they need to be saved. The rest is up to the Holy Spirit.
Some days you will cover 40 homes in an hour. Other days you will cover 20 homes in two hours.
After we get the Warming Center flyer and any other information we have brought with us into their hands, we usually either ask them if they need prayer for anything or if they attend church locally.
This gives us a good idea where they stand in their relationship, or lack thereof, with Jesus Christ.
From there, if they are a believer, we ask them if they were to die tonight are 100% sure they would get to Heaven. You would be surprised how many confessing Christians say no.
If they are a non-believer, we feel the situation out and usually try and walk them through the William Fay method.
There are times when you stumble through, doing your best to remember your apologetics and then there are times you can feel the Holy Spirit working through you and everything comes out just about perfect.
Going door to door evangelizing can be very rewarding and very exciting. You get to meet some interesting people in your town and make new friends.
As you go along learning how to do door-to-door evangelism you will see what works and what doesn’t. You will realize very quickly if someone is open to talking to you or not.
It can be addicting evangelizing in this way. We were only going out once a week but have bumped it up to twice a week.
Some of the best things about evangelizing door-to-door is you can do it for no cost, it is legal, it is easy, and most of all, it is a very effective way to fulfill the Great Commission.
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