Catholics going door to door?

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ishii

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Hello.

I was wondering what you all think of going door to door as Catholics in order to evangelize. What (if any) experiences do you have, was it a good experience, (or not). Would you consider doing it? Why/why not?

I would like your feedback.

Ishii
 
Never done it but don’t see why not either.
Just be polite, issue an invitation and drop off liturature .
Or - since most people aren’t crazy about door-to-door “evangelizers” you could simply place liturature on their door with an invitation and maybe a phone number or e-mail address.

That would be my suggestion.

Peace
James
 
I believe that going door to door to invite fallen away Catholics back to the church is one of the ministries of The Legion of Mary. Perhaps one of the parishes in your area has a chapter?
 
Haven’t done it yet but thinking about it:

My suggestions based on a technique I read about years ago:

The easiest targets are the lapsed Catholics. Only a small minority are bitter and angry at the Church. The majority have stopped practising for trivial reasons or reasons which no longer exist, and are just waiting for an invitation, or a simple explanation of their difficulties, to come back.
  1. Presuming you are a trusted member of your parish, ask your PP if he would like your help in updating his register/record/census of parish members.
  2. Go in pairs unless you are a confident type. Carry ID and a letter from the PP.
  3. Go to each address on the list. and say “I’m from your local Catholic parish, St X’s. I’m just updating our parish records. Do the Y family still live here?”
    If “yes”
    update the details of family members. Ask if each one is practising. If not, ask for a brief reason why. Ask if they would like an appt with the PP to discuss their concerns. Give a simple leaflet listing parish contact details, Mass times, parish groups and activities etc. then go.
    If “no”
    Ask, are you or anyone here Catholic? If yes, then as above.
    If no,
    “Would you be interested in learning more about the Catholic faith or joining the Catholic Church?”
    If yes, give parish leaflet and simple leaflet explaining the Catholic faith and arrange appt with PP and/or RCIA leader.
    If “no”, say “thanks for your time and sorry to disturb you, goodbye”.
    DON’T try to engage anyone in high-powered apologetics discussion unless you are very knowledgable and confident. You may find that when you turn to go, some of those who said “no” will beg you to come back and talk some more!
 
I suppose it could be viable. I think doing it the way Petergee suggested is a great idea.

The main problem, in my mind, is that door-to-door evangelism is associated in most people’s minds with either JW’s, Mormons, or fundamentalist Protestants. I don’t usually even answer the door for people I don’t know, unless they’re wearing a uniform. It might be hard to get past those preconceptions. Perhaps lots of effort for very little fruit.
 
Personally, I don’t think many people feel comfortable with people at their door. I don’t usually answer the door unless I know who it is and when I was in elementary school I had to collect donations for charity. Standing in front of a store entrance was more effective than going door to door, no one wanted to donate door to door.

I’m not saying this is a bad idea though. I’ve always wondered about what would happen if we went door to door. I like Petergee’s suggestion. 🙂
 
Moscati said:
I suppose it could be viable. I think doing it the way Petergee suggested is a great idea.

The main problem, in my mind, is that door-to-door evangelism is associated in most people’s minds with either JW’s, Mormons, or fundamentalist Protestants. I don’t usually even answer the door for people I don’t know, unless they’re wearing a uniform. It might be hard to get past those preconceptions. Perhaps lots of effort for very little fruit.
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That’s why it would be hilarious to follow them around, knock on each door they do and see the peoples reactions.
 
Weeell, I like the theory, but whenever I see door to doors, all I can think is, the Jehova’s Witnesses are at it again 😉

I’d totally do it though. I’ shy as all hell, but I’m good with public speaking.
 
prodigalson12 said:
That’s why it would be hilarious to follow them around, knock on each door they do and see the peoples reactions.
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Why would that be hilarious? I think most most people just wouldn’t answer.

Do you mean the other proselytizer’s reactions would be funny? (Turf wars, maybe?:))
 
Moscati said:
Why would that be hilarious? I think most most people just wouldn’t answer.

Do you mean the other proselytizer’s reactions would be funny? (Turf wars, maybe?:))
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Turf wars, of sorts, I suppose you could put it that way, but at the same time, expect a dialog going with the ones that go before you, expect logical debate and conversion of these misguided souls. In a place I used to stay at, we had missionaries that “used” to frequent the neighborhood, well, until these young men ran into the likes of me, working on my truck in front of the house, on the side of the street. We talked for about 45 min, the conversation was led into things they had to put in some hard thought upon, I suspect these questions were threatening to their cult, and delivered in a gentle manner it caused quite a stir among them, for they had nothing to counter with, and there frankly is nothing they could get from their elders that was effective enough to eliminate these seeds from growing. They never returned to that neighborhood again, nor were there any replacements, it was too hostile for their intentions, ie. they were afraid of the truth and dared not send anymore of their young men over out of fear of conversion.

The main truths here brought up, and this can be used even by the protestants, was in regard to their book of mormon, compared to simply the bible. The bible itself has been good enough for the angels and saints, people of all walks of life for over 2k years, it’s been tried and tested to be true, and if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me, their book is only a recent addition, it doesn’t have the long standing our’s does, there is no point in “praying about it”, it hasn’t stood up to the test of time, it’s still in test mode entirely because it’s so new.
 
I don’t think I would ever choose to do that, mostly because I’m very shy. But also I feel that door-to-door preaching can intimidate people and tends to automatically put people on the defensive. Also, in the UK door-to-door preaching tends to be heavily associated with Jehovah’s Witnesses who tend to be perceived as crazies.
There are ways of doing it without freaking people out though. Some guys came to my dorm a while back and they were from a Christian group at my college and they were just giving out fliers about an event they were having. They weren’t pressuring anyone to go, just inviting us and I think a lot of people responded positively to that.
 
I have such a negative impression of door to door evangelists mostly due to Jehovah Witnesses. We are called to evangelize though, and my parish is starting a program in which there would be some door to door work as part of Catholics come home campaign.

Ishii
 
ishii said:
I have such a negative impression of door to door evangelists mostly due to Jehovah Witnesses. We are called to evangelize though, and my parish is starting a program in which there would be some door to door work as part of Catholics come home campaign.

Ishii
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Good for you. 👍
I think there is a lot of good advise given in the various responses above, especially about reaching out to lapsed catholics.
hopefully you can use some of this to fine tune your project and make it a success.

Peace
James
 
Anybody could do it, even if your shy. All anyone needs, would be some initial training & some courage. Too often we worry how we are going to be received or what the person on the other side of the door will think of us. We have to put that aside & just do it. I know from my personal experience on recruiting duty. It forced me to talk with many types of people in different kinds of situations. After a while, like anything else we practice, the fear & anxiety will go down along with improvement in our ability.
 
Our parish did door to door evangelizing for 10 years. We had an increase in people coming back to Reconciliation after being away for many years, increased enrollment in religion classes for the public school kids, and one person came to RCIA. We found others that needed information on annulments. We had a script we used for our “surveys.” We handed out a brochure and some helpful information, based on the conversation. People were very welcoming and friendly. Many Protestants said they should be doing this too. Most conversations were only five minutes long because we went to every door in the neighborhood.
The question I asked non-Catholics was “Is there anything about the Catholic faith you would like to know more about?” If you don’t know, tell them you will get back to them.
The question I asked Catholics was, “Have you ever thought about coming back to the Catholic Church?” Regardless whether you decide to go door-to-door or not, everyone should memorize these two questions. Once I asked a lapsed Catholic this question at a party. She thanked me a year later after she came back to the Church. She couldn’t remember what I asked her, but she remembered that it was gentle and made her think about it.
The most promising leads were followed up by a personal letter from our deacon inviting them to some program or group in the parish.
 
basenji said:
I believe that going door to door to invite fallen away Catholics back to the church is one of the ministries of The Legion of Mary. Perhaps one of the parishes in your area has a chapter?
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You are correct. The Legion of Mary does this. I did door-to door visits for a while. I enjoyed it. I lived in a village setting where there was a neighborhood church. There were many touching moments and heart warming welcomes. Some tears shed by those that had been away and were moved by the invitation to come and attend Sunday Mass. What we think is a simple invitation anyway.

There were just as many door slams, though they fade from my memory as just blips - but the people I met and those that invited us in for chats were impressive.

I even ran into a gal I went to Catholic high school with, she was my lab partner in Chemistry. The interesting part about it was that we were in a different city.

If the Spirit moves you, look into the Legion of Mary.
 
This technique is long overdue in our modern society. Didn’t Jesus visit the homes of some of those who became his followers, i.e. Zachaeus?

Where I live, almost in the shadow of the parish church, in a community that is nominally 75% Catholic, we get religious solicitors several times a week from the Mormons, JWs, and from new congregations being formed by new ministers of small storefront churches of no particular denomination.

Recently, my godson’s wife has been taken in by JWs who show up three times a week to see her; they crossed out portions of my Bible she was using that they disagree with. She still wears a medal of the Virgin, but they constantly insist that the BVM was not a virgin, and have convinced her to not let a priest, or anyone else, baptise her new infants…there’s no such thing as a “sacrament”, you know.
They send a teenaged “minister” around weekly to teach the 10 year old things that sound like reworking of Jack Chick Comics, and have given her one of their “corrected Bibles” that she is expected to carry with her to school and elsewhere. This morning a man and a woman were allowed to spend an unsupervised hour with the 8-year-old boy, telling him to avoid the “devils” who lead the Catholics and reading to him from the JW Bible.

At least the Mormons who come around are polite and avoid being negative about others’ beliefs.
 
ishii said:
Hello.

I was wondering what you all think of going door to door as Catholics in order to evangelize. What (if any) experiences do you have, was it a good experience, (or not). Would you consider doing it? Why/why not?

I would like your feedback.

Ishii
Click to expand...
yes we do it in this diocese as part of Disciples in Mission. I would not recommend it all unless you have the backing, support and permission of your bishop and pastor, and are prepared for this specific ministry.
 
JRKH said:
Good for you. 👍
I think there is a lot of good advise given in the various responses above, especially about reaching out to lapsed catholics.
hopefully you can use some of this to fine tune your project and make it a success.

Peace
James
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Thanks James. Maybe I should consider this after all. I have felt myself being pulled to evangelize for a while, but wasn’t sure how to go about it. How can one read about the “good thief” and not tell people about it? Jesus said, “today you will be with me in paradise.”

ishii
 
For those thinking about it, if I were to do it myself, I’d simply have a bunch of literature printed out, knock on the door, hand them to who ever answers it, tell them you are from such and such church, they are welcome to drop by at x time/day any time. Shake their hand and say good bye. What a concept, a warm welcome, a small gift, and keeping it short and sweet and promptly leaving, they’ll know you are not a JW or Mormon. This can be done even if you are just shy simply because you aren’t engaging them like the others. Be prepared for smiles as well as frowns guys, it’s not a job all people can handle, yet I feel, most could.
 
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