Jesus to Every Home

The age-old question in evangelism is, “How do we get people to hear the good news?” Over the years people have come up with a variety of methods and programs all designed to answer this vital question.

In recent times, evangelicals have engaged in an attractional approach to gospel outreach; this method all centres around a special event that is designed to be focused upon the lost and is something which Christians can use to invite their unsaved friends to attend. We see this methodology on display with the crusades and gospel meetings. Personally, I am not opposed to this ‘come and see’ attractional approach to evangelism, so long as the gospel is faithfully proclaimed, and compromise does not take place.

Some churches took the attractional model a step further, and in my opinion, engaged in unbiblical and compromised practices. For instance, the whole ‘seeker sensitive’ approach to church meant that the church stopped focusing upon the people of God, and instead began to focus upon the lost. While I commend the zeal of these churches, I do believe they have a faulty understanding of the church, and often times the danger with the ‘seeker sensitive’ approach is that entertainment becomes the driving factor in drawing a crowd. Instead of realising that God alone is the seeker, these churches have a misunderstanding of human nature, so they think by putting on a show that the lost will want to be in church. Using fleshly methods will appeal to the sinful flesh, but it won’t create true converts who are broken over their sin, and who then flee to Jesus for rescue. It creates entertained sinners, but not contrite sinners.

With the current COVID-19 epidemic the attractional model to evangelism has ceased to work. Churches have tried to arrange online gospel events, but when you are competing with the latest drama on Netflix, the unbeliever (unless God is working on them) will always decide not to attend to their spiritual needs. So, the question remains, “How do we get people to hear the good news?”

I would suggest that one of the ways we can effectively reach the lost today is by rediscovering an apostolic method of evangelism. It is popular in today’s church to talk about ‘getting back to the Book of Acts,’ yet when it has come to evangelism, we don’t seem to want to do that. In Acts we see several effective methods of evangelism, but the one I wish to focus upon in this article is that of door-to-door witnessing.

In Acts 5:42 we read, “And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.” Here we have a prime example of Holy Spirit inspired apostolic evangelism – the gospel going from house to house.

In the Western World today, there are many people who don’t know a Christian, so the attractional model isn’t going to work for them. If you are relying on Christians inviting their friends to an event, then what happens if a sinner doesn’t have any saved friends?

With COVID many things have moved online, people are now doing all their shopping via the internet, so the need to go out shopping or to visit the high streets has diminished; this means that open-air evangelism (which I love!) isn’t going to reach everyone either. So, how can we reach every person in our community?

Well, every lost person lives somewhere. If they aren’t going to come to us to hear the gospel, then we need to follow in the footsteps of the Apostles and take the gospel to them. I personally find door-to-door evangelism to be hard and scary, but I have also found it to be extremely encouraging. By being in the community and meeting people in their gardens, and on their doorstep, I have found that as a Pastor I’ve been able to better minister to people in our town. There have been numerous times that I’ve been able to pray with someone who is facing a challenge, and to invite people along to the church; but better than all of that we have been able to give the gospel to people who would never darken a chapel door.

Some of the ways we have been engaged in door-to-door evangelism over the past year include:

1) Knocking on Doors: I was extremely doubtful of doing this, but after knocking on doors and chatting to people, I found that most were open to talking and many had good questions which we were able to answer. With COVID the door knocking has slowed down, but we are very much looking forward to spending an afternoon each week sharing the gospel via this method.

2) Literature Distribution: This is a real easy method of evangelism; simply take a gospel tract (with your church details on it), and then put it in someone’s mailbox. In the UK nearly all the doors have a mailbox on it, so each tract we distribute via this method goes straight into the home of people in our community. I am aware that in the USA this method of evangelism is illegal, so I would encourage everyone to know their local laws. For us, we have found this to be a good method to get people involved in evangelism, and we have even had a visitor come along to the chapel as a result of receiving a tract.

3) Gift Bags: Every Christmas and Easter we make up gift bags which contain some sweets, a church invite, and a gospel booklet. We then go knock on doors, when a person answers I will say that I’m from the local Baptist Church, and that we would like to give them a free gift for Easter or Christmas. Most people are very surprised at this offer, they smile and take the bags. It is rare to have people turn down the gift bag.

These are just three of the ways we are trying to get the gospel into the homes of people in our community. If you do engage in house-to-house evangelism, I would encourage you to keep notes of the streets you’ve visited so that you can plan out a campaign to reach the entire community.

Our desire is to see the message of Jesus proclaimed in every home. Let us make much of Jesus by going door-to-door.