Door to door

[Joe_5859]

It never stops amazing me how Catholics try to sound so much like Protestant Evangelical Christians. More specifically they sound more like a particular group that shall not be named. But they certainly to not sound like the people at my old church. This baffles me.

This door to door knocking thing that JW and Mormons do…the Church of Christ is also known for that kind of thing. What you don’t realize is that they are really telling you’re going to hell if you don’t come to church with us…that’s in essence the message we were giving too. So don’t be so overly motivated just because one group does something you’re not accustomed to. If you do do it…do it politely with a message of peace and joy. Give the invitation and move on. Don’t try to EVANGELIZE…on the spot as if their sould depended upon it righ then and their. That’s what the invitation is for.

I guess I figured that went without saying, but thank you for saying it!

The people I know who have gone door-to-door have done so in such a way as you describe. It’s not so much on-the-spot evangelization as it is extending an invitation to come to some specific event at the parish, or a polite offer to answer any questions they might have. They don’t begin with “Are you saved?”

 

[vocatio]

 

[THutch04]

Oh man do I not like door to door at all. There was one incident where the same group of JW’s came to our house, and it just got to the point that we had to tell them to leave and not come back in an uncharitable way, because being nice about it clearly wasn’t working. Now I won’t even open the door for strangers. I react this way for religious, political, and sales people…I just don’t like door to door. And I get equally annoyed about people who leave things under the windshield wipers of my car…don’t touch my property…

 

[Elizabeth2]

Oh man do I not like door to door at all. There was one incident where the same group of JW’s came to our house, and it just got to the point that we had to tell them to leave and not come back in an uncharitable way, because being nice about it clearly wasn’t working. Now I won’t even open the door for strangers. I react this way for religious, political, and sales people…I just don’t like door to door. And I get equally annoyed about people who leave things under the windshield wipers of my car…don’t touch my property…

It’s a difficult thing today isn’t it, to evangelize? We’re more aware of respecting the beliefs of others. I think whatever you do you should pray about it first, take it to the Lord and ask him to open people’s hearts, and then tread carefully. Don’t assume that you have all the answers and that the other person is dumb. You don’t know how the Lord has been working in that person’s life. I know my husband (he’s not Catholic) once said to me. “You always did think you knew more about religion than I did.” That was turning point in our discussions about God and religion and faith. When I started to respect his beliefs, his history and so on, instead of preaching to him, it changed everything. I have to admit Pope John Paul helped a lot too. He really admired him. People today demand respect, and rightly so. Pope John Paul in the Gospel of Life says:
“By his incarnation the Son of God has united himself in some fashion with every human being” * This saving event reveals to humanity not only the boundless love of God who “so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (Jn 3:16), but also the incomparable value of every human person.
*(Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes) Father Bob Bedard says that God is very respectful, he never uses force, and he says that if you try and force your beliefs on people, it’s like forcing open a door. The door will break. There has to be a balance there between respecting the beliefs of others and Jesus command to evangelize. I think also we should pray for the gift of evangelization, and let the Lord work through us. Small ways are probably the best because most people can only take in so much at a time.
I read somewhere that when people asked a certain man “What’s new” he always said “The mercies of God, they are new every day”. I think that’s a quotation from scripture. Just recently one of my neighbours asked me the same question “What’s new”. I paused and said “The mercies of God”. He looked at me, and was a little taken aback. He didn’t expect it. And then he said, “You know, you’re right, that’s true.” I look on it as sowing seeds. I don’t think we’re necessarily expected to give everyone lots of information, but just give them clues, and ask and expect God to continue the work in them. That’s how I look at it anyway.

 

[shopkeeper]

Here’s a Catholic group that effectively goes door-to-door: youth4missions.com/. It’s Mission Youth and Missionary Family. I do door-to-door missions with them at least once a month now, and I love it!

Missionary Family consists of parents with their kids going door-to-door. Mission Youth is the counterpart for youth only. It’s not aggressive proselytizing, but always charitable. Most of the times it’s just a simple invitation that’s offered, asking for prayer intentions, sowing seeds, just letting them know our parish is there to serve them, leaving an appropriate flyer, or a list of the activities the parish offers. Sometimes cultivation is called for and, yes, even harvesting because someone can be ready “to be harvested” in some way (they ask specific questions ). I love doing this now, although at first I was very nervous eek: ) about this for some of the reasons mentioned throughout this thread. It’s amazing how the Holy Spirit precedes us in this type of work; amazing stories abound! It can be done effectively, if it’s done charitably, thoughtfully, without the negatives that once in a while characterize Mormons and the JW’s. Heck, I love receiving the Mormons and JW’s at the door; it’s a great opportunity to bring the errors of their ways to their attention and speak about the Christ the Catholic Church proclaims (always charitably, of course), which is very different than the Christ these churches/ecclesial communities understand. Look at what JP2 and B16 tell us:

“Do not be afraid to go out into the streets and public places, like the first Apostles who preached Christ and the Good News of salvation in city and village squares. This is not the time to be ashamed of the Gospel. It is the time to preach it from the rooftops.”
— John Paul II, 1993 World Youth Day

“I congratulate you, dear friends, because you have brought the proclamation of God’s love to the streets and to some hospitals and schools of the city… The missionary experience is part of Christian formation and it is important for adolescents and young people to be able to live it personally.”
— Benedict XVI, Rome, October 7, 2007

 

[olivemoeono]

Hello,
Have you heard of The Legion of Mary?They are Catholic and part of the requirements for becoming involved in the Legion of Mary is that you go Door to Door otherwise known as Visitation of the Homes of the People.
There is an official Handbook of the Legion of Mary also known as Legio Mariae. So yes Catholics do go Door to Door.

 

[BibleSteve]

I won’t lie to you on this…I hate door knocking. I’ve done it as a Fundie and try not to mimic my past. A dog ran after me one day and I threw myself at him like I was playing to protect my wife. Fortunately for me he was friendly…HUGE!..but friendly. Husky I think. I’m about 5’10"or a little more His head came up to my the middle of my belly if I remember right.

Anyway, we’re supposed to do this next year…phase I I believe. What “program” are ya’ll using? I’d like to knock on a couple door of my old congregations…especially the elders and preachers.

Your story reminded me of this true experience:

"An Italian Catholic used to get annoyed every time Jehovah’s Witnesses called on him. So when his company transferred him to Singapore, he felt that at last he would not be bothered by them. But to his surprise, the Witnesses were there too. So he obtained two fierce dogs to attack the next Witnesses who came. When two Witnesses called at his home, out jumped those dogs. Terrified, the women ran for their lives, going in different directions at a road junction. As one of the dogs caught up with her, one of the Witnesses desperately grabbed two brochures from her bag and shoved them into the dog’s open mouth. At this, it stopped chasing her, turned around, and trotted home.

The following week, the same two Witnesses were making a return visit at a house across the street. The dogs’ owner was in his garden, and, surprisingly, he greeted the women and invited them into his house. He told them that he had never spoken to Jehovah’s Witnesses or read any of their publications. But he had been amazed to find the brochures in the mouth of one of his dogs. That evening he had read the brochures and was really impressed with them. Although he had been a Catholic all his life, he expressed a desire to study the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Since the man was being transferred back to Italy, arrangements were made for Jehovah’s Witnesses to study with him there."

 

[Fidelis]

Your story reminded me of this true experience:

"An Italian Catholic used to get annoyed every time Jehovah’s Witnesses called on him. So when his company transferred him to Singapore, he felt that at last he would not be bothered by them. But to his surprise, the Witnesses were there too. So he obtained two fierce dogs to attack the next Witnesses who came. When two Witnesses called at his home, out jumped those dogs. Terrified, the women ran for their lives, going in different directions at a road junction. As one of the dogs caught up with her, one of the Witnesses desperately grabbed two brochures from her bag and shoved them into the dog’s open mouth. At this, it stopped chasing her, turned around, and trotted home.

The following week, the same two Witnesses were making a return visit at a house across the street. The dogs’ owner was in his garden, and, surprisingly, he greeted the women and invited them into his house. He told them that he had never spoken to Jehovah’s Witnesses or read any of their publications. But he had been amazed to find the brochures in the mouth of one of his dogs. That evening he had read the brochures and was really impressed with them. Although he had been a Catholic all his life, he expressed a desire to study the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Since the man was being transferred back to Italy, arrangements were made for Jehovah’s Witnesses to study with him there."

How do you like that? JW urban legends.

 

[puzzleannie]

i thought this was a thread about Catholic evangelization, a duty to which every Catholic is called by virtue of their baptism. I don’t do JW threads so I am outa here. by the way, every parish and diocese is required to do a census, that is, go door to door to identify Catholics in their territory and welcome them to participate in parish life. get over it.

 

[lizaanne]

It’s true that Catholics are really not practicing evangelization.

Are you kidding?

Look at the thousands of people who log onto this website and forum every day. Look at the link in my signature and see how many thousands are watching the television and radio shows and podcasts we produce. And this is only two apostolate!! There are more and more out there doing the very same thing, reaching millions of people every single day!! At Saint Michael’s Media we are constantly getting letters and emails from people saying they have returned to the Faith or converted because they have seen what we have to say about the Catholic Church, and I know that Catholic Answers, and the hundreds of other similar apostolates out there, are no different.

THIS is the New Evangelization. Not knocking on doors and being yelled at.

~Liza

 

[CatholicCajun]

To quote St. Francis …“preach the Gospel always and use words only when necessary.” I think more people are attracted more by how you treat them and others than by words tha you may or may not back up with your actions. Anyway just my opinion.

 

[Fidelis]

To quote St. Francis …“preach the Gospel always and use words only when necessary.” I think more people are attracted more by how you treat them and others than by words tha you may or may not back up with your actions. Anyway just my opinion.

1. Above all the Gospel must be proclaimed by witness. Take a Christian or a handful of Christians who, in the midst of their own community, show their capacity for understanding and acceptance, their sharing of life and destiny with other people, their solidarity with the efforts of all for whatever is noble and good. Let us suppose that, in addition, they radiate in an altogether simple and unaffected way their faith in values that go beyond current values, and their hope in something that is not seen and that one would not dare to imagine. Through this wordless witness these Christians stir up irresistible questions in the hearts of those who see how they live: Why are they like this? Why do they live in this way? What or who is it that inspires them? Why are they in our midst? Such a witness is already a silent proclamation of the Good News and a very powerful and effective one. Here we have an initial act of evangelization. The above questions will ask, whether they are people to whom Christ has never been proclaimed, or baptized people who do not practice, or people who live as nominal Christians but according to principles that are in no way Christian, or people who are seeking, and not without suffering, something or someone whom they sense but cannot name. Other questions will arise, deeper and more demanding ones, questions evoked by this witness which involves presence, sharing, solidarity, and which is an essential element, and generally the first one, in evangelization."

All Christians are called to this witness, and in this way they can be real evangelizers…

1. **Nevertheless ***this always remains insufficient, because even the finest witness will prove ineffective in the long run if it is not explained, justified – what Peter called always having “your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have” – and made explicit by a clear and unequivocal proclamation of the Lord Jesus. *The Good News proclaimed by the witness of life sooner or later has to be proclaimed by the word of life. There is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not proclaimed. The history of the Church, from the discourse of Peter on the morning of Pentecost onwards, has been intermingled and identified with the history of this proclamation. At every new phase of human history, the Church, constantly gripped by the desire to evangelize, has but one preoccupation: whom to send to proclaim the mystery of Jesus? In what way is this mystery to be proclaimed? How can one ensure that it will resound and reach all those who should hear it? This proclamation – kerygma, preaching or catechesis – occupies such an important place in evangelization that it has often become synonymous with it; and yet it is only one aspect of evangelization.
   (Pope Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi)
   papalencyclicals.net/Paul06/p6evan.htm

1. We cannot really talk about the “ordinary” life of the Church because all of it is the graced gift of the Holy Spirit. Yet there are familiar ways by which evangelization happens: by the way we live God’s love in our daily life; by the love, example, and support people give each other; by the ways parents pass faith on to their children; in our life as Church, through the proclamation of the Word and the wholehearted celebration of the saving deeds of Jesus; in renewal efforts of local and national scope; in the care we show to those most in need; and in the ways we go about our work, share with our neighbors, and treat the stranger. In daily life, family members evangelize each other; men and women, their future spouses; and workers, their fellow employees, by the simple lives of faith they lead. Through the ordinary patterns of our Catholic life, the Holy Spirit brings about conversion and a new life in Christ.

1. Here, there are two elements at work: witness, which is the simple living of the faith; and sharing, which is spreading the Good News of Jesus in an explicit way.

1. Certainly, our families, parishes, associations, schools, hospitals, charitable works, and institutions give a powerful witness to the faith. But do they share it? Does their living faith lead to the conversion of minds and hearts to Jesus Christ? Does the fire of the Holy Spirit blaze in them? This plan and strategy aims to make Catholics in the United States, individually and as a Church, better sharers of God’s Good News.
   (U.S. Bishops, “Go and Make Disciples”)
   usccb.org/evangelization/goandmake/evangelizationhappens.shtml

Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

 

[someotherguy]

We don’t do door to door evangelism in my church because we’re so far out in the country, it just wouldn’t be practical.

We do, however, go out several times a month to Philadelphia to open air preach and to share the Gospel one on one. I’m leading a group of about forty-five to DC and NYC for about a week.

I’ll be leaving for that in about two hours.

 

[frank_duff]

We do. My Legion of Mary Praesidium visits about 100 homes a week. It is very interesting to knock on a door and encounter a JW in his own home. BTW the mormons and JWs are out in force how us Catholics? JMJ

 

[frank_duff]

This past year in our parish a young family who had fallen away from the Church asked for baptism for their young daughter. They were visited by door to door evangelizers and readily thanked them for their persistance and attributed their request for baptism to the visits. So door to door is not for everyone but it sure was for this little girl.

Peace.