Mostly I agree with Luke.
I think the whole door knocking thing is a royal pain, my lady really hates it. I sometimes enjoy the JW visits but then I am a bit odd. Most folks hate it.
If you feel it’s a good idea, let people you’re going to do it. Put something in the paper, maybe a few times (local rag) so that folks are warned/ prepared. Let em know why you’re doing it. (eg: invite people to s service/ function. help the lonely, reach young mums.... whatever)
Feedback later in the same rag (or local radio) why it was good to do, what the results were, how welcoming the town was etc.
If you can, make sure there are pics of the door knockers so that folks aren’t hiding behind sofas from suspected JW’s.

If you let them know about the process all the way through and don’t do it all the time then they are more likely to understand the process as being local people in a local church doing stuff for local people...as opposed to JW’s who are strange local people doing stuff for that odd mob who don’t do blood transfusions.

Alerting people to your impending visit reminds me of our dear Pastor just after we got married.

He firstly had a leaflet drop to warn people which said:

What are young people coming to today?
Some young people are coming to your house!

He was the same pastor who used to speak of going through the bapters of wartism and who preached a whole sermon on Jesus turning the wine into water.

Though we had a few smiles, I followed him to the theological college where he had studied.

Hi everyone,

I would like to share with you all on my first first doorknocking trip last Saturday morning through a Church a friend of mine goes to out in the Western Suburbs.

With my friend, we went and doorknocked quite a number of houses for over one hour, asking them to participate in completing a Gospel questionnaire with us, inviting/providing them details of the local Anglican Church and giving out the 2 Ways 2 Live Tracts. 

It was nerve racking at first - However, out of all them doors we knocked - only 4 people answered. The first two were instant knockbacks, the 3rd guys was a Catholic who attends mass every week – doesn’t read the Bible at all cause he only does whatever his priest tells him to do and that’s enough for him.  The 4th guy was a former Anglican turned Agnostic who just moved into the area and is going through a divorce.

Both the 3rd and 4th guys were more than happy to get into engage in conversation with us regarding the Gospel of the Lord Jesus as well as accept our literature. They also enquired about what the local church has got to offer - which deeply encouraged me. 

It’s interesting to see that when we introduce ourselves from the Anglican Church – people tend to be relieved by us.  For at the same time we were doorknocking – the JWs were doing their rounds, and the guys we approached were afraid at first we might have been JWs - however, their fears seemed to diminish when we introduced ourselves from the local Anglican Church. 

Out of my first experience, I had to ask myself the question, in all my life I only had the odd JW or Mormon come to my doorstep - but never a Christian Church.  It may have been different for you - however, this is true from my past and with this trip I partook.

Most importantly, this really touched my heart and I really enjoyed just getting to know people in the community, especially where they are at in the community, and those who don’t know the Gospel of God in their lives. 

Blessings

They also enquired about what the local church has got to offer - which deeply encouraged me.

Hi Greg,

Thanks for sharing your experience. Interestingly, two Sundays ago we had a lady turn up at our 10am service who, over morning tea, told me that she had just moved into the area - and decided to attend church because she was looking to have some friends in the area. Upon my enquiring, she revealed that she had only attended church a few times at her previous location - which was about 30 minutes drive-time away.

Upon later reflection on our conversation, it occurred to me that people can come to church for various reasons - which obviously leads to them being exposed to ( and challenged by ) the gospel.  People can indeed arrive at our door just to see “what the local church has to offer”.

Cheers, Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Thank you for your response, this is true when people move into a new area and would want to settle into a home church - they would want to see what the Church has to offer. 

However, there are also people out there in the community who may have lived in the area for 10 years and had no exposure/or never proclaimed the Gospel to - let alone inviting them to come to our church before.

A few years ago I caught up with an old school friend-her husband was a bank manager and they had made it a policy that whenever they had been transferred (which had happened several times in his career) the first thing they did was join the local church. I never thought to ask her about her faith (I was only a new Christian at the time-it was all new to me), but she said that it was a great way to meet people and form friendships.
Regardless of our message, there will always be some people who come for a different reason and they are ripe to hear.