As part of mission every year, we spend a few hours door-knocking. After yesterdays disappointment, I’m pleased to say that I had a better time of it today.
We’ve done door-knocking for a few years now, so I don’t find it scary. But it is hard work and often not that pleasant. And in the past we’ve really done virtually no training for it, which has made results a bit hit and miss.
To help us out a member of our church, Jono, wrote us a guide for door-knocking. Jono ran for office at the last state election, and door-knocked several thousand homes. By the end of the process, he had a good feel for the best way to approach this sort of thing, and he translated his experience into a guide for our church. If Jono agrees, I’ll put the whole thing up on my blog at some point.
In prep for door-knocking this time around, we did a brief Bible study and quickly ran through Jono’s notes. Still not quite adequate in regards to training, but we are getting there. Hopefully next year we will do some role plays etc as well.
Our practice is to go out in pairs, and I went out with our assistant minister, Matt. The opening line is pretty vital. With Jono’s help, we came up with something like the following, “Hi, I’m Craig, this is Matt, and we’re from Annandale Community Church. We’re coming around the old-fashioned way, door to door, to see how we can better connect with our community. Do you have a couple of minutes to chat?” And you go from there.
What were the results today? Matt and I were out for about an hour. We visited 25 homes, and probably 70% of them weren’t home. If no-one answered, we slipped the churches business card under the door and moved on. Of those that were home, most said they were too busy to talk. In those cases I asked, very politely, if I could give them our business card. They almost all said yes, and as I gave it to them I pointed out that it had our website address, which had some talks and videos on it for downloading. We then left wishing them a good day. I think we made a good impression on all these people.
We had two brief conversations, one with a catholic and one with an atheist. Both terminated the conversation after about 2 minutes, at which point we again asked if we could leave our business card with them. Both seemed happy enough to accept it.
The last house we visited, we had a long conversation with the resident, who seemed to be agnostic. We discussed God, Jesus, the Bible, morality, atheism and all sorts of related things. We spoke for about half an hour, and I think we listened carefully to her views and were able to gently challenge her on a couple of points. At the end of the conversation, we invited her to church sometime, and gave her the card and suggested she check out some of our talks (she seemed interested). I feel we made a good impression.
So those were my experiences today, much more encouraging than yesterday. Of the other pairs that went out, results were mixed. Some had some good conversations, some did not. That’s how it goes.
I believe that door-knocking is an effective way of raising awareness in the community, and it also helps develop a bit of courage, and some experience with certain types of questions. Thinking ahead to next years mission, I think we really need to improve the training in order to get maximum benefit from this activity. We need to make sure we understand our goals in door-knocking. We need need to develop a solid, structured approach (that people can depart from if they are confident). And we need some training in some of the most common responses we encounter ("I’m a Catholic” and “I’m an atheist” are two common ones).
I haven’t done a huge amount of doorknocking, but I always think it is worth doing occasionally, especially for a church that is trying to minister in the local area. It helps both knocked and knocker, if you know what I mean. Builds relationships, raises community profile, helps those doing the doorknocking to look outwards, pray, and think about their conversations. And just occasionally, a really worthwhile chat.
I’m not that experienced - but who is? I’ve always found that the easiest place to do it is public housing areas. You are guaranteed that many people are home, they often want to talk about God and (in my experience) are quite open to pray with and return a visit.
Well done for you guys getting out there and having a go.
If no-one answered, we slipped the churches business card under the door and moved on.
I also wonder if an ( A6 sized ) postcard with brief details of activities as well as church times - and a map - might communicate a bit more information. We’re just looking afresh at our printed materials - and are considering this approach. It would be interesting to hear of any feedback from what other churches have tried.
I know that last Christmas Rosemeadow Anglican had a special postcard printed up specifically to advertise their Outdoor Christmas Carols - and these were letterboxed throughout the district - plus they were placed on shop counters in bulk including the ( now gone ) Starbucks.
When I’ve organised doorknocking in the past, I’ve prayerfully used the following strategy.
1) Do a survey of the area to see how many houses are in each street in order to start a database to keep notes on.
2) Train those who will be going out. There are a few areas to think about in this regard. One is to do with the how of doorknocking (the greeting etc - for this we acted out different scenarios). One is to do with how to present the Gospel (we used 2 ways to live). One is to do with how to answer questions.
3) Put together folders for the doorknockers with a) a map of the area they’re doorknocking; b) the data sheet for that area (see point 1), c) 2 ways to live tracts, d) information about the church to give out, d) a pen, e) surveys.
4) Let people know we’re coming. In the week prior to going out we would distribute flyers to those places where we were planning to doorknock letting them know that we were coming and giving them the chance to opt out if they wished to (N.B. my experience is that a small percentage of people will ring in order to opt out). When we doorknocked, we would introduce ourselves and point people to the flyer that we’d sent out warning that we were coming.
5) Use of surveys whilst doorknocking. This removes the unease of knowing what to say to people right up. It provides very useful data about the area (e.g. I discovered that 50% of our area was Catholic) and surveys (when used well) can also open up opportunities to speak about the Gospel. The last 2 questions in our survey were the EE questions - If you were to die tonight do you know for certain that you would have eternal life, and, If God was to ask you ‘why should I let you into heaven’ what would you say? These 2 questions often generate good conversations.
6) With the surveys we also would give people the option to receive the results. Many would take up this option and this provided opportunities for further contact.
7) When a visit was finished, we would write any details about the visit on the sheet for entry into the database (e.g. this house has a big dog - watch out). If a person wasn’t home we would record this for the next time we doorknocked the area.
8) At Christmas time we returned to those houses who had completed surveys and gave them a mug with details about the church on it filled with lollies and an invite to our Christmas services. People were pleasantly surprised by this gift.
Craig, the use of web facilities to get a taste for the church is a very good idea.
We’ve just letterboxed dropped the entire parish (not that big) using an A6 flyer advertising a 4 week series with John Dickson. But I think that’s a great idea to develop something a bit bigger than a business card with useful church info for people that you visit who aren’t home.
Bob
PS I hope you’re not going to become one of those posters who introduces their pet topic (in your case, Starbucks!) into every thread . . :-)
I have major problems with door knocking. How many people have been converterd through door knocking? How many friends have you maded by door knocking? If people want to CONNECT with people in their neighbourhood they should join a local gym, vist a pub or join a TAFE course.
Eh, I have mixed feelings about door-knocking, and by that I mean mostly negative.
I’ve done it happily a few times back in the uni mission days, but these days I just see it as a nuisance. I think there’s a real double standard as everyone scoffs at and is annoyed by JW’s or Mormons door-knocking, but if we do it, it’s apparently right and proper and above criticism.
Some of the reasons given for why it’s ok don’t make much sense to me. That it helps those doing the door knocking is neither here nor there - annoying a bunch of people for your own benefit is just selfish, no matter what your intentions are. Claims of raising your profile in the community are also questionable to me - you might raise your profile, but probably as the annoying door-knocking people! Think about Mormons and JW’s - if they door knock you then they’ve raised their profile with you, but I’m guessing it’s probably not in a positive way.
Likewise “creating relationships” - let me suggest that if you have to randomly knock on people’s doors to build some new relationships, you probably have bigger issues to deal with.
Some of the pretenses used as an excuse to slip in a “So… how are you feeling about eternity?” question also seem rather dubious, and wheeling out the occasional anecdote about Joe Bloggs who responded is also neither here nor there - if any response justifies an action, then why not start cold-calling your area and drum up some interest that way? What other annoying and/or intrusive methods are worthwhile because Joe Bloggs might come along to our event?
If winning hearts was as easy as a novel setup and clever opening line then I might feel differently, but I think people and evangelism are deeper than that.
I’m all for dropping flyers and what not (particularly in a sustained way), but door-knocking seems like a nuisance that’s just as likely to turn (many) people off than it is to generate interest imo.
Why so aggressive Sheldon and Luke? Some people actually like other people coming to their doors. There is a significant population of very lonely people out there. The younger ones spend lots of time on the internet on forums like this; where as the older one just stay at home by themselves.
Door knocking is not a substitute for real friendships, but it is still an expression of concern for the lost.
This discussion is about how best to do door-knocking. Can I suggest that you two be wet blankets somewhere else and let this discussion be useful?
If annoying people is such a crime. Why do it on these forums? If you don’t want to door knock - fine. That’s clear. Let others get on with the job and talking about how do best do it.
Why so aggressive Sheldon and Luke? Some people actually like other people coming to their doors. There is a significant population of very lonely people out there. The younger ones spend lots of time on the internet on forums like this; where as the older one just stay at home by themselves.
Door knocking is not a substitute for real friendships, but it is still an expression of concern for the lost.
This discussion is about how best to do door-knocking. Can I suggest that you two be wet blankets somewhere else and let this discussion be fruitful?
Ditto to that! Of course there can be annoying door knocking - hence the need for good training as Craig outlined at the beginning of the thread. My associate regularly doorknocks houses in our parish, and the overwhelming response he gets is positive - and I don’t think it’s just from people who are lonely. Many appreciate the fact that the church is active in the community, and also respond to his warm and easy manner.
Why be prescriptive about it - door knocking is bad / door knocking is good? Perhaps like lots of strategies it is constructive in some situations and not so much in others. And no, it probably doesn’t lead to lots of conversions, at least not in an easily identifiable way. But if it is a positive contact, it will be part of an overall process that will end with some coming to Christ.
@Andrew - Some people might, but most people don’t. How do you feel about JW’s door knocking you? I think most people find it annoying and intrusive. You could argue cold-calling people during dinner was an ‘expression of concern for the lost’, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good one.
Also, as far as I can tell, most syd ang door knocking efforts aren’t about providing some company to lonely people, it’s about drumming up interest in whatever event/mission their running and trying to get them into a gospel conversation within 60 seconds of meeting them. To equate mission-driven door-knocking to looking after lonely older people is very dubious indeed. You are right, I’m sure there are lots of lonely, elderly people out there who would like some company, but random, surprise door-knocking to try and get them along to church is a very poor substitute indeed.
As someone who is mostly housebound due to chronic illness, I would be *thrilled* if someone from a local church letter boxed me explicitly stating they were volunteering their time just to hang out with people who were stuck indoors (though I’d highly doubt it would be no strings attached, but be that as it may), and I could get in touch via xyz method if I was interested. But how often does that happen? It’s more polite, more convenient (I might be out, asleep, busy, not hear the knock on the door etc), more honest, and more loving if they follow through with the effort.
Much better than a surprise door-knock and ambush ‘Do you know about Jesus?’ question.
The experiences I had were overwhelmingly positive. No-one seemed at all annoyed by the fact that we were door-knocking. And three people spent extensive amounts of time talking to us.
I think one of the keys is respect. Although not everyone agrees with this, by asking at the start if they have time to chat, I’m letting them know that I’ll stay only as long as I am welcome. I think this puts people at ease.
I think you made good points about the flyer. The only problem is that a flyer is something that is easily chucked away, whereas a good, solid business card is something people might hang on to. People seemed really positive when I said, “Is it ok to leave you our card?” I think it made them feel they were doing something nice for us, even though they didn’t have time to chat. So it ended the interaction on a “win-win” sort of feeling.
As far as people being converted from this sort of cold contact evangelism...well, on Tuesday our team met a lady in the street and invited her to Introducing God that night. She turned up and had a good time. We’ll see where it leads...please pray!
Regarding JWs, I have no problem with them coming to my door, so long as they leave when I ask them to. The only door to door salesmen who annoy me are those that try and trap me into talking with some clever opening line. I don’t like that, and that’s why I don’t do it to other people either…
@Bob, yeah if it’s the local minister doing it that’s different I think, you know what he’s about, where he is, why he’s there etc, it’s better than some randoms on your door.
In reply to Andrew’s edits/additions (and can I just say, who’s being aggressive? Everyone’s free to share their view!)
Andrew Barry - 07 August 2008 05:30 PM
This discussion is about how best to do door-knocking. Can I suggest that you two be wet blankets somewhere else and let this discussion be useful?
If annoying people is such a crime. Why do it on these forums? If you don’t want to door knock - fine. That’s clear. Let others get on with the job and talking about how do best do it.
Sheesh, why so sensitive and defensive? Craig asked for people’s thoughts on door-knocking in general, not their top 10 tips for successful door-knocking, and people such as myself and Sheldon are sharing our thoughts, nothing wrong with that.
Everyone’s free to express a view without being called ‘wet blankets’ and told to shut up. If you can’t handle people expressing views different to your own, and find that annoying, I’d suggest you’re not going to get much joy out of these forums.,,
Also, as far as I can tell, most syd ang door knocking efforts aren’t about providing some company to lonely people, it’s about drumming up interest in whatever event/mission their running and trying to get them into a gospel conversation within 60 seconds of meeting them. To equate mission-driven door-knocking to looking after lonely older people is very dubious indeed. You are right, I’m sure there are lots of lonely, elderly people out there who would like some company, but random, surprise door-knocking to try and get them along to church is a very poor substitute indeed.
Luke
This is pretty strong criticism based on your impressions of “most syd ang door knocking efforts”. Have you experienced most of them? And in any case, Andrew never said that the purpose of the visit was to provide companionship to lonely, elderly people. He said that many are happy to have someone come to their door. If they are happy for us to do so, and in doing so we can offer them the life-saving gospel or at least one small step towards them hearing it, then it is indeed a ‘win-win’. As Andrew said, if you don’t want to do it, don’t. But don’t knock all door knocking simply because your own limited experience of it hasn’t been overwhelmingly positive.
Bob
PS Pun [knock all door knocking] unintended!
I can appreciate that some people don’t mind strangers door-knocking, but I personally find it annoying (though marginally less so if I’m forewarned). I also find cold telephone calling annoying. Both are disruptive and intrusive and I’ve never once found these contacts beneficial, at least that I can recall. Surely there are better ways to “connect” like inviting your neighbours around for a meal (though probably not all at once).
PS: I just remembered that the local member of parliament cold called once which didn’t bother me, so there was one time I at least didn’t mind. I can see if the local church minister (of any denomination) cold called I’d be sympathetic to him (her) too but that’d probably be about it.
Are you looking for a specific resource but can’t find it? Do you have a resource or an idea that you’d like to share? Connect09 would like to hear from you.
You may be already using a tool, program or outreach event that could be of use to other Christians. Or maybe you have thought of something new and would like to get some feedback.
Use these fields to post your suggestion on our Ideas Page, view current ideas.
