Door-to-Door
In answer to prayer and at the urgings of a young man in our congregation, last night our church began door-to-door visitation. We plan to do this throughout the summer. With two of my daughters in tow, I enjoyed the interactions with people. One encouragement was meeting a young family who had just moved into the area and seemed genuinely interested in the information. One humorous moment came when we met a door-to-door security salesman coming down the street from the other direction. We exchanged notes on houses (the people in the next house had just returned from Bible study at a faithful church in the community so we just passed it by!) and we continued on.
Throughout the history of our congregation we have had periods of doing door-to-door work. Though it has not been exceedingly fruitful and people often think you are either a cult member, politician, or a salesman like our new friend last night, we have seen some fruit. Certainly it has Biblical support (Acts 5:42). Also, I find that by having "banner raising" events where we are being more intentional in our outreach, Christ blesses the church with greater boldness in non-intentional settings as well. In other words, start thinking about what you are going to say in an unfamiliar neighborhood to people you do not know, and you are more likely to speak up to the people in your neighborhood you do know.
This summer we are seizing upon all the attention Harold Camping's failed predictions received last month to encourage people to come to church to hear God's Word. I thought some of you might be interested in the short questionnaire we prepared. It generated some interesting discussions last night, as everyone I talked to had heard about this.
_1. Hi my name is ____ and this is _____, and we are from Sycamore Reformed Presbyterian Church. Did you hear about the prediction that the world was coming to an end on May 21st by Harold Camping? Did it concern you at all? We don’t think the Bible teaches that you can know the exact time of the Lord’s coming.
_ _2. Did you know Harold Camping made another prediction on May 21, 1988, that everyone should leave the church because they all have turned away from God? Do you think people should go to church? Do you go to church?
3. Though we do not know when Christ is coming back, He will one day. We would like to invite you to our church this Sunday so you can always be ready for Christ’s return. Here is a card with the information including a website and blog. Any questions or anything we can do to serve you? Thank you!