Yesterday, we had the chuggers down our street. I was grateful that, on opening the door, seeing who they were and immediately saying (as politely as possible) I wasn’t interested, they smiled and said ‘no worries’ and moved on. I don’t mind them knocking if that’s the response when I say we aren’t in the market for their pitch. Nothing ventured and all that on their part and the right to politely, but quickly, save us all time on my side is all good.

I am less pleased when I get the pitch regardless. If I still end up saying ‘I’m not interested’ at the end of it, there comes the inevitable guilt trip. If I don’t want to support their particular charity, I must justify myself to them; a stranger I don’t know from Adam and to whom I owe nothing. If I say I support charities already, they demand to know who as if it’s any of their business. Even if I didn’t support any, it isn’t clear what difference that makes as to whether I should support this one. If I am still so obstinate as to not donate there is often a little snide remark about ‘not caring about children’ or ‘starving people’ or those with some disease I’ve never heard of. All of this rankles when I know if they weren’t being paid they wouldn’t be at my door, which certainly isn’t altruism and doesn’t scream care and investment. If nothing else, it makes the guilt trip all the more irritating if and when it comes.

But whenever they knocked on my door, I am always taken back to the days when I used to get dragged round go door-to-door with my dad for the purpose of evangelism. I am reminded of how difficult it can be to have a job you are compelled to do knowing most people don’t want what you’re selling. I am well aware of how hard it is to knock on strangers doors when you know they would really rather you didn’t knock on at all. I was always grateful for the polite people – whether they were interested or not – and try to be similarly polite whether or not I am minded to listen to the entire spiel. But the chuggers knocking on my door – which, if I’m honest, I never welcome – always causes me to think of both the case for and the case against evangelistic door-to-door.

The big case in favour is made pretty clearly by the paid chuggers. Clearly it is worthwhile enough for the charities to pay people to go out knocking doors. For as many people say no and get irritated by them, there is clearly a reasonable number who sign up. Fine, they might not do very well at my house. At best, I might take a leaflet or a website address and look it up later if I’m bothered (but I’m usually not bothered enough as our giving is largely allocated elsewhere). But clearly enough people do sign up to make paying people to trog the streets and ask everyone if they’re willing to donate entirely worth it.

By the same token, a case can be made for the evangelistic attrition rate of knocking on 100 doors to find the one who shows a great deal of interest. Door-to-door advocates will tell you that they usually have one or two pretty decent conversations with people when they go out. Sure, they might knock on hundreds of doors to find one or two worthwhile conversations. But that is considered worthwhile. If those sorts of conversations can be found and we can follow up with people meaningfully, the rejections might be considered worthwhile.

Over and against that, the chuggers make a pretty good case for not doing door-to-door evangelism too. Because most houses in the community are much like mine: not interested. Indeed, most people think if they wanted to learn about Save the Children or the British Heart Foundation or whichever other charity is knocking at your door, they could easily have googled it and found out. The reason they aren’t yet giving is because they simply don’t want to give. To have somebody come up and knock on your door and – as a perfect stranger – start examining your bank account and questioning your motives is, by most people’s standards, not very welcome.

The worst thing you can do to a British person is make them feel awkward and little is more awkward than having to say no to some worthy cause, ultimately because you don’t want to (for whatever reason). Many are aware of this and actively feed on the awkwardness, knowing that many will cave because it is too awkward to say upfront what we really feel. It is not uncommon for people to sign up on the door step only to cancel their instructions to their bank 5 minutes later. Most Brits would just rather avoid the conversation altogether because, in British culture, if you ask me a question that might put me in the awkward position of having to say no, you are the one who has been rude (even if your question was a genuine and honest one).

In the same way, evangelistic door-to-door may well find one or two good conversations. Unfortunately, along the way, we may have hundreds of largely, but rarely exclusively, polite rejections. For all the joy of finding the one or two keen to talk, we must factor in the potential to get the backs up of the hundreds of others who were (ironically) praying we wouldn’t knock. Not only do we discover they are not for talking, we also link in their minds the irritation and/or awkwardness of having a stranger knock on their door and begin to ask them questions that, it turns out, quite a lot of people often haven’t really delved into with quite significant people in their lives with the only thing they now associate with our church. Rather than making us seem warm, welcoming and somewhere they might like to come it more likely makes us look like pushy strangers who – having asked them quite bold and stark questions on their doorstep when we don’t know them from Adam – might well accost them like that again should they ever come near our church. In the bid to find the one or two good conversations, we may put extra barriers in the way of a significant number of people.

That is the prima facie case both for and against evangelistic door-to-door work. Its very strength is precisely its weakness. It is almost never a neutral experience for anyone. For every person who enters into a really valuable conversation there are dozens more whose backs we put up just by knocking who, approached another way, might have given us a warmer reception. When thinking about doing it, we have to weigh up both the potential positives and the inevitable negatives before deciding what to do.

The other thing that I am often reminded of when the chuggers come round is that most people who support charities tend to have a reason to do so. Either they have suffered from this thing themselves and see the value of the charity for people in the same position. Otherwise, they have benefited from the charity themselves when they were struggling in some way. Otherwise, it may have helped a friend of relative of theirs. But usually there is a specific reason people want to support and it is typically because of relationships to the charity itself.

The same is largely true of people who come to Christ. All the best stats tell us that the overwhelming majority of people who come to faith in Jesus do so through relationships of one sort or another. Often family relationships but similarly through friends and colleagues with whom there is an ongoing conversation and a high degree of trust. In a lesser, but still significant number of cases, people come to faith because of difficulties or situations they are facing and actively seek out the church because they have a reason to do so. This largely mirrors most people’s reasons for getting involved with particular charities. They see the benefit and value of the gospel and/or they are predominantly drawn to it because of personal relationships with people it has affected.

So far as door-to-door is concerned then – if that is true – it is going to be most valuable if and when it is tied to something relational. For the most part, knocking on doors and speaking to people cold – with no real means of follow up or further engagement – is not going to develop the kind of relationship that is likely to lead someone to Christ. Saying, ‘we knocked on the door once and shared the gospel’ is unlikely to lead to much fruit. However, door-to-door work focused on developing relationships with people – whether focusing on inviting people to something that will lead to ongoing, meaningful contact or simply offering to do bible studies with people – is more likely to be fruitful. The key is not the door knocking of itself, but the relationships you might be able to spin out of it.

Which means, if you are wondering whether to do door-to-door work you need to ask yourself a few key questions:

1. Are we likely to get any fruitful conversations here?
2. Do the few fruitful conversations we might get outweigh the (potential) problems that come from the much larger number of rejections we’ll inevitably get?
3. Will this meaningfully lead to ongoing relational opportunities for the gospel of not?

These seem to be the key issues concerning door-to-door work. They’re important questions to answer otherwise we may find that we are largely viewed much the same way as the chuggers, which is unlikely to be to our church’s benefit.