Door-to-Door Evangelism

Evangelism: Loren Phippen
Monday, November 28, 2005

Since arriving here in Wichita, I have hit the ground running. As I shared in last month's newsletter, I was headed to Shreveport to work with the ICE team from NAMB in conjunction with the local association. I was blessed to work with a pastor from a small black church there and we saw numerous people in a real rough, unstable neighborhood give their lives to Christ.

I have had the pleasure to work with several churches here doing door-to-door and street evangelism. The Lord has truly blessed these efforts and we have seen the churches get excited as their neighbors have prayed to receive Christ. So you might be asking, as others have, why I am sold on door-to-door evangelism and if I think that is the only way to evangelize. I will answer the second question first. I believe there are many viable ways to share our faith. But I do believe that initiative, or cold calling, evangelism has its place and is very effective in several ways. I believe scriptures show our Lord, Paul, Philip, and others doing initiative evangelism.

First, it is clear that there are some people who will never come to any of our churches, no matter how many times we invite them or no matter what kind of programs and attractions we might have. These people need us to go to their door or approach them on the street and tell them about their need for our Savior and how He died for them on the cross. Many of these people have never heard the Gospel and they are very receptive to hearing it. Many of us are not sharing our faith today because of fear of failure and not knowing what to say. I have found the best way to get over the fear of sharing is to go out with someone that is comfortable and learn from them until you are comfortable doing it yourself. By doing this, we see that most of our fears are unfounded and that Satan uses these fears to keep us from being obedient. Thom Rainer in his book, The Unchurched Next Door, says that less than two percent of the lost or unchurched are antagonistic. My experience doing extensive door-to-door and street evangelism is that the percentage is much lower than that. Very seldom do we ever get talked rough to or yelled at. Most people are open and ready to hear the Gospel.

I believe that initiative evangelism is a very good training ground for all types of evangelism. By sharing repeatedly on the street or at doors, it will become part of our DNA and it will make it so much easier for us to share with people that we have a close relationship with.

I am currently working with several churches going door to door and am going downtown during lunch to share the Gospel. I am looking for more partners to do street evangelism with, and I'm ready to help train anyone in street or door-to-door evangelism.