The mere mention of doorknocking strikes fear into the heart of the average Christian.
It’s one thing to know from Matthew’s Gospel that we are meant to make disciples of all nations, but quite another for most of us to rock up to the front doors of people we don’t know to offer them the hope of the gospel.
However, not everyone finds this method of evangelism so difficult. Bob Doran, from Padstow Anglican, began a weekly doorknocking ministry 15 years ago – in response to the Sydney Diocese’s Connect09 mission – and at 85 he is still going, although age and health have reduced his pavement pounding to once a fortnight.
“Every time you’ve got time and opportunity to do it is a time and an opportunity which, if you don’t do it, is lost forever, because you can never take back yesterday,” Mr Doran says. “If we capitalise on every opportunity, we know we’ve done what we could do for the Lord in that particular time. And you get to like it after a while and feel rotten if you don’t go!”
If we capitalise on every opportunity, we know we’ve done what we could do for the Lord in that particular time.
Mr Doran knocked on doors solo in Padstow for many years, occasionally putting a call out to local rectors for more copies of The Essential Jesus reprinting of Luke’s Gospel. One of these calls put him in touch with the rector of Revesby, the Rev Andrew Lim, who not only had spare copies to give, but responded to the invitation to join Bob – this time in Mr Lim’s own patch.
“I don’t think I’m a natural doorknocking evangelist,” Mr Lim says. “I think, like most people, I struggle with it every single time, before I go. Yet every single time we had gospel conversations, we were mutually encouraged, and we were encouraged by God’s work in the lives of people, and then we say, ‘This is so great, we’ve got to do this again!’
“Bob also goes out in all weathers, unless it’s ridiculous bucketing rain. We had a heatwave in Sydney a few summers back, but he still went out. It just doesn’t faze him. It’s hugely encouraging to me, the fact that he just goes and does it.”
Mr Doran’s current doorknocking partner is Huy Nguyen, a university student from Mr Lim’s church, who says he has been learning a lot from watching his older partner in action and seeing how people react to it.
“The other thing I’m learning from Bob is that it’s more of a faithfulness thing as well,” Mr Nguyen says. “I do get anxious, and it does feel weird and unnatural to do it, but when Bob and I pray at the start there’s always a phrase in his prayers about it being a privilege, and that it’s a good and wonderful thing that we’re doing. So that’s been a really helpful thing for me to understand – that this is a privilege, even though you’re nervous.”
Lessons from over a decade of door-knocking
One thing Mr Doran has learned over the years is to come prepared. He always brings along a bag filled with tracts in 20 different languages, as well as a range of New Testaments. That way, if he meets someone who doesn’t speak good English, he can often produce a presentation of the gospel in their heart language.
He also has a considered response to whatever people might say at their front door, and spends time rereading these before he goes out, so he doesn’t draw a blank if challenged.
“I say that I’m from the local church and that we’re trying to connect with people who might like to hear the good news about Jesus, and most people are polite – even if they say, ‘I’m not interested’,” he says. “But even then, you can ask them a second question and that will often start them talking.
“Sometimes you strike a person in distress, and you can give them the right message to help them. It might not solve their physical or material problems but it might help them spiritually, and in some cases they can receive the Lord.”
Mr Doran admits that, when he began doorknocking, there was “a lot of barriers to break through” as he learned how best to speak to people, what to say and if it was appropriate to pay a return visit. But he says that God has been with him all the way, giving him what he needs – and “in the end it’s God’s work, not your own”.
Adds Mr Nguyen: “Yes, you might be anxious [about doorknocking] but in the end you’re just pressing a doorbell, waiting for someone to come out and having a chat with them. It’s not anything that’s that scary. The worst you’ll get is a ‘No, thanks’ and that’s fine and you can move on.”
