Are there any books on door to door soulwinning before the IFB movement?

[Anon1379]

Independent Fundamental Baptist make it seem like door to door soulwinning was the norm back to the time of acts and the Apostles, but did anybody write books or talk about the subject up until today? I'm not as familiar with the early church and church history as I should, but I have found a suspicious lack of books on door to door soulwinning. Anyone know of any books on the subject that predate John R Rice and Hyles?

 

[illinoisguy]

The novel "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens, published in 1853, contains a  chapter describing door-to-door-soulwinning activities of evangelical Christians in inner-city London.  It sounds similar to what is done by fundamentalists today, and Dickens portrayed it in a rather unflattering manner.  (Later on in the book Dickens sneered at what he referred to as "Right Reverends and Wrong Reverends," but I don't know if he was thoroughly anti-clerical).
Many years ago I was in a church where the pastor talked all the time about how D.L. Moody would go door-to-door and invite the urchins to ride to his church on his horse and wagon, so I guess it was being done in Chicago in the late 19th Century.  I participated in the door-to-door soulwinning at my church because it was expected, but we never saw any results, other than cajoling a few people into praying a rote "salvation prayer" but then they never came to church. 
In theory, all of us are supposed to be out there knocking on doors of complete strangers to ask them, "If you died tonight, where would you go?" If there are individuals and churches who find this approach to be effective, that's great, but having been involved doing it myself and seeing no results, I am skeptical as to the efficacy of this type of ministry.  Can anyone on the forum give us a testimony indicating that door-to-door soulwinning is actually working  for their church and getting results for them?  (And cite books published about it before Rice and Hyles).

 

[ALAYMAN]

Door to door is a vestige of an era within the IFB world of a time when such methods worked with greater effect.  There are PLENTY of other Christian adherents (ie, Southern Baptists) that still practice (with success) this mode of evangelism.  You shouldn't blame or discourage people for trying to get the gospel out, however they choose to do so.  The apostle Paul said he would be happy if people spread the gospel in any way, even in strife.  If the folk you are referring to are claiming that door-to-door is the ONLY (legitimate) way of spreading the gospel then I understand and agree with your complaint.

 

[illinoisguy]

No complaints here about door-to-door soulwinning - if there are those who find it to be effective, or have a desire to serve the Lord in this manner regardless of the results or lack thereof, then I am all for it.  Many years ago I moved to an IFB church where door-to-door soulwinning was not practiced, and since my personal experience was that I did not seem to have the gift for that, I instead began leaving tracts at doors instead without knocking on the doors.  After hundreds of thousands of tracts passed out in that manner, that didn't get results either, but I don't regret attempting to serve the Lord in that manner.
Let everyone be persuaded in his own mind - I wonder if our outreach would be more effective if we relied more on direct mail, tract distribution, web sites (which many churches still don't have), Facebook, and various social media, YouTube videos, maybe a radio broadcast, and then concentrated on follow-up with those who respond and express interest based on these types of contacts, as opposed to random knocking on doors of complete strangers who have not expressed any interest.
Meanwhile, the most effective form of outreach continues to be that people join a church because they have friends, neighbors and relatives there, people who they know and who care about them.

 

[Ransom]

The novel "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens, published in 1853, contains a  chapter describing door-to-door-soulwinning activities of evangelical Christians in inner-city London.  It sounds similar to what is done by fundamentalists today, and Dickens portrayed it in a rather unflattering manner.  (Later on in the book Dickens sneered at what he referred to as "Right Reverends and Wrong Reverends," but I don't know if he was thoroughly anti-clerical).

Dickens had a certain amount of skepticism toward organized religion, which he thought stifled true practice of Christianity. He wasn't always theologically consistent, and he may have held some sympathies toward Unitarianism. However, he was an Anglican, so he wouldn't have been entirely anti-clerical. He wasn't too sympathetic toward Roman Catholics or Evangelicals, whom he regarded as extremists.

 

[sword]

It's my understanding in the late 1800's, J.C, Ryle proposed the growth of ministry must focus on expanding the number of workers, not expanding the size of buildings. He felt the most effective method for ministry was through door to door evangelism and teaching converts to evangelize themselves. He also believed this could be accomplished best through small local ministries not large Cathedrals.
 

 

[fishinnut]

Independent Fundamental Baptist make it seem like door to door soulwinning was the norm back to the time of acts and the Apostles, but did anybody write books or talk about the subject up until today? I'm not as familiar with the early church and church history as I should, but I have found a suspicious lack of books on door to door soulwinning. Anyone know of any books on the subject that predate John R Rice and Hyles?

Look up a book entitled The Bible. Acts 5:42.

 

[sword]

If I recall R.A. Torrey and D.L. Moody both promoted the biblical door to door, highways & byways method of evangelism.

 

[Anon1379]

That was not door to door soulwinning. Unless you also take they knocked on temple doors, it was church services

 

[16KJV11]

When we go soulwinning, we don't look at it as a way to get 'results', per/se'...But at as a way to get the Gospel out, obeying the great commission, planting, watering and harvesting.  When I go out door knocking, I talk to people as one who wants to get outside of the doors of the church, into the community, meeting people, inviting them to church.  If people engage in conversation with me, I look for an opportunity to witness.  Usually, I'll ask, "If I can show how you can know for sure you can go to heaven, would you be open to that?"  If they say yes, I proceed with the Gospel, if they say no, I politely thank them for their time and let them know if they ever need a minister for any reason, to please give me a call.  I have to admit, we don't get much 'results' from this, as in people coming to church, but I believe that at the very least, we are getting the Gospel out into the community, by either spoken or written word.  I encourage God's people to come soul-winning and to be a witness where they live and at their jobs. 
Most people in our church don't come soul-winning, and I hear very little of anyone witnessing where they work or live. 
The lack of visitors to our church from either is testimony to that.

So, what do you do?

 

[Ransom]

Look up a book entitled The Bible. Acts 5:42.

"House to house" is where Christians gathered, other than the temple. There weren't purpose-built church buildings for another three centuries, so they met in homes. They preached and taught Jesus publicly in the temple, and privately in the houses.

 

[fishinnut]

That was not door to door soulwinning. Unless you also take they knocked on temple doors, it was church services

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk

You were very quick to dismiss & sweep that verse away rather than studying it's meaning.
II Tim. 2:15 

 

[fishinnut]

When we go soulwinning, we don't look at it as a way to get 'results', per/se'...But at as a way to get the Gospel out, obeying the great commission, planting, watering and harvesting.  When I go out door knocking, I talk to people as one who wants to get outside of the doors of the church, into the community, meeting people, inviting them to church.  If people engage in conversation with me, I look for an opportunity to witness.  Usually, I'll ask, "If I can show how you can know for sure you can go to heaven, would you be open to that?"  If they say yes, I proceed with the Gospel, if they say no, I politely thank them for their time and let them know if they ever need a minister for any reason, to please give me a call.  I have to admit, we don't get much 'results' from this, as in people coming to church, but I believe that at the very least, we are getting the Gospel out into the community, by either spoken or written word.  I encourage God's people to come soul-winning and to be a witness where they live and at their jobs. 
Most people in our church don't come soul-winning, and I hear very little of anyone witnessing where they work or live. 
The lack of visitors to our church from either is testimony to that.

So, what do you do?

Our culture & crime has made answering the door somewhat a thing of the past. My wife never answers the door. We use a RING doorbell to answer now. It's safer.

But teaching the importance of personally sharing the gospel with others and encouraging believers to invite others to church should never become a thing of the past for believers.

 

[Ransom]

You were very quick to dismiss & sweep that verse away rather than studying it's meaning.
II Tim. 2:15

Um . . . "Study" also doesn't mean what you think it means: to be eager.

Also, I did study the passage. Anon was correct. Acts 5:42 doesn't imply door-knocking.

 

[fishinnut]

But I have a hard time believing that "every house" in Jerusalem was full of believers.

Words like "every" and "all" have a scope. You are assuming that the scope of "every house" is the entire city of Jerusalem. What do you base that assumption on?

 

[Ransom]

Crud! Sorry, fishinnut, I didn't mean to clobber your post. Unfortunately, my browser didn't cache the original, or I'd have put it back the way it was. Feel free to fix it.

SMF really needs some "Are you sure?" prompts for those with moderator power, or maybe it should make the page background hot pink when you're modifying someone else's post. It's too easy not to see the difference.

 

[fishinnut]

Crud! Sorry, fishinnut, I didn't mean to clobber your post. Unfortunately, my browser didn't cache the original, or I'd have put it back the way it was. Feel free to fix it.

SMF really needs some "Are you sure?" prompts for those with moderator power, or maybe it should make the page background hot pink when you're modifying someone else's post. It's too easy not to see the difference.

Yeah...clobber.......it was deleted.

 

[Ransom]

Just to expand on the point fishinnut was making: To paraphrase his argument, the Bible says believers were teaching and preaching Jesus (and he gave the Strong's definitions of "teach" and "preach") "in every house." It's hard to believe that every house in Jerusalem had believers in it, and hence they must have been sharing the gospel with non-Christians at their homes as well.

Obviously it's true that not every Jerusalem household was a Christian one. But the argument assumes that the scope of "every" is universal, and the author has every private residence in the city of Jerusalem in mind. But the scope of words like "every" or "all" is limited by the context. For example, suppose I am at the mall and it starts to rain. I give the car keys to my son and tell him to go out and "roll up all the windows." Obviously, I mean the windows in our car, not all the windows in all the cars in the parking lot.

The Greek phrase kat oikon can validly be translated as "in every home," but also "in each home" or "from house to house," and the latter don't necessarily imply all the houses in Jerusalem. A more limited scope fits the context: the early Christians met publicly in the temple, and privately in their houses.

The same phrase is used in Acts 2:46: "they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house [kat oikon], did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart." Were the Christians "with one accord" with unbelievers? Were they breaking bread in the houses of unbelievers with "singleness of heart"? No, this verse (like 5:42) is describing the early church's habit of meeting together in public and in private.

One last example: "Saul . . . made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison" (Acts 8:3). Was Saul arresting Christians in every house in Jerusalem? Of course not. He was raiding the houses of Christians. It wasn't really all the Christian homes, either, since obviously some Christians were spared from arrest and imprisonment. We can probably chalk this one up to an unfortunate translation choice: something like "entering house after house" is probably closer to the intended meaning.

Maybe there were Christians doing door-to-door evangelism. The Bible doesn't say there weren't, and I'm sure it occurred to someone that it might be an effective evangelistic strategy. But the practice isn't going to get support from Acts. That's simply not what "in every house" meant. Again, Luke is describing their habit of meeting together privately in house churches as well as publicly in the temple. I would personally imagine that was where a lot of evangelism went on. The Bible is rather explicit that the apostles practiced open-air preaching wherever there were crowds.

 

[Ransom]

Yeah...clobber.......it was deleted.

Yeah, unfortunately. Again, my apologies.

If you can't get back into your original post to rewrite it, just PM me with what it originally said, or as close as you can make it, and I'll fix it myself.

 

[ALAYMAN]

No complaints here about door-to-door soulwinning -...

Yeah, my fault on the lack of contextual quoting, as my post was more directed at the OP.  I don't have any problem with anything you've written.

When we go soulwinning, we don't look at it as a way to get 'results', per/se'...But at as a way to get the Gospel out, obeying the great commission, planting, watering and harvesting.  When I go out door knocking, I talk to people as one who wants to get outside of the doors of the church, into the community, meeting people, inviting them to church.  If people engage in conversation with me, I look for an opportunity to witness.  Usually, I'll ask, "If I can show how you can know for sure you can go to heaven, would you be open to that?"  If they say yes, I proceed with the Gospel, if they say no, I politely thank them for their time and let them know if they ever need a minister for any reason, to please give me a call.  I have to admit, we don't get much 'results' from this, as in people coming to church, but I believe that at the very least, we are getting the Gospel out into the community, by either spoken or written word.  I encourage God's people to come soul-winning and to be a witness where they live and at their jobs. 

This is identical to what my pastor teaches.  We don't get sucked into the vortex of the pragmatic philosophy of letting "what works" be the initial and primary driving force behind our ministry methods.  If we only talk to people we know about the gospel then that is certainly leaving a large demographic of humanity out of the picture of the scope of the gospel.