Should Church Members Door Knock?
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By “door knock,” I assume that the person asking the question is speaking of going door to door in an effort to evangelize a local community. Door to door salesman, deliveries, and communication used to be very popular in the United States. It was out of this popularity that door to door evangelism developed also. Door to door sales is no longer as popular as it used to be, and so, door to door evangelism has also declined. That is not to say that one cannot do this, but there may be more effective ways of conducting evangelism.
In the New Testament, it was common for Christians to go house to house to encourage each other. This was not evangelism, per se, but edification. In Acts 20:20, Paul tells the elders at Ephesus, “how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house.” House to house visiting is a good practice for those who are Christians.
Jesus tells his disciples not to go house to house in Luke’s version of the limited commission. “And remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house” (Luke 10:7). He was not forbidding them to evangelize, but rather, not to go to multiple houses to receive assistance while preaching and teaching the gospel. They were to remain in the same house while in a particular city. The “house” that received them became kind of a home base for their ministry. Instead of “door knocking,” they likely simply walked around the towns (which were much smaller than the towns that we live in today) to talk to everyone who lived there. Everyone walked everywhere they went, so it would not be difficult to engage in conversation with them. Today, we do not have the same environment in which we may engage with others directly. For us to conduct evangelism, we need to use other methods. Door knocking has been used as a method of facilitating contacts.
Today’s door knocking is not as robust as 50-60 years ago. Society has changed. People no longer take kindly to strangers knocking on their doors and coming into their homes. Some even refuse to answer the door at all. While door knocking may still be done in some parts of the world with good results, in the United States, it no longer facilitates Bible studies the way that it used to. We have better ways to communicate with people in the community. The Internet is a huge way to get information into the hands of those who are looking for it. We also may mail information directly to people’s houses. My preferred method of personal evangelism is to be involved with the community. In this way, we can get to know people who do not know us, and perhaps one day that will lead to an opportunity for evangelism.
I also want to emphasize that it is every Christian’s duty to evangelize. This isn’t something that is relegated only to the preacher, elders, or deacons. Every member is responsible. That does not mean that a person must stand on a street corner and preach a sermon. We have multiple opportunities to evangelize by inviting people to services, handing out tracts, sending cards, talking to people at work, talking to people at the grocery store, and just doing the things that we normally do as people. The key is what Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” I will also add, as an evangelist, if you will steer me to someone who is interested, I will follow up with them. There are no guarantees, but we can work together to evangelize our community.