Visiting Door-to-Door

I kept a journal for about ten years, 1998 to somewhere in 2007. Not exactly sure why I stopped. I have picked up the habit again.

I was reading through a section of it from when I served Dunaway United Methodist Church, outside of Winchester, KY. I came across something that may be of help in understanding why door-to-door visitation is so important.

I had an entry about a house I stopped at. It's strange I remember exactly where it was, and even some details about the house, even though the family never came to our church and I am not sure that I ever stopped there again.

A woman answered the door and I shared a bit about our church and was probing to see where she was spiritually, what doors might be open for a conversation about Jesus. Before I left, I asked her if there was anything I could pray for her about. She said yes, her 18-year old son was very sick with kidney problems. So we had prayer.

We often make excuses for why we don't do door-to-door evangelism. We say it is ineffective (which since most people who say this have never consistently done it, I am not sure why they say it is ineffective.) We say it is intrusive, an invasion of privacy, and Americans don't like that and they associate it with Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. I can answer from experience that very few people have ever been disturbed that I came by.

And more: there is such a great benefit. I got to pray with a woman with a deep concern for her son. I learned something about the community I lived in. When you add up all the homes I tried to visit and people I tried to talk to, I think I generally got a better perspective on what was actually happening than most other people.

If for no other reason than learning what is hurting and helping your community, learning what they pray for and praise, shouldn't door-to-door visitation be more of a priority? And was it not a great benefit to that mother? I have countless other stories of people who never came to the church but were blessed by a visit. And I also have countless stories of how many people did come to the church because of a visit to their house, being blessed by the knowledge that God cares, that His shepherds were out roaming the hills, gathering up the scattered flock! In net numbers, we grew by about 30 in worship in that little church. If you count my first year growing it down from 35 to 20, the net gain was closer to 45 or 50. And I am not sure how to count all the people who visited here and there for a season. Is it any wonder that one of the vows Wesley had his preachers take was to “visit from house to house?” We still take that vow, we are just not held accountable to it. In fact, it seems the majority of UM pastors don't think those vows actually mean anything!

After reading my journal entry, I was convicted that I need to get back out there. I realized I have not been as diligent about it this year. And here are some things to consider. Last year at Morehead, we had 20 professions of faith, bringing in 30-something new members. This year, 4 professions of faith and 12 new members. I get it, the Lord blesses how He's going to bless, so you can't just look at the numbers. But I think the numbers do mean something when you realize you were not out there as much as you needed to be. I let too many good things get in the way of doing the important thing! And how amazing is it that I have a lot of help in this work... more than I ever have had anywhere? Time to get serious about systematically using it!