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Knock, knock.

Homeowners may do nothing more than pretend not to be home to deter Jehovah's Witnesses at their door, but Stratton, Ohio took it a step further.

The village passed an ordinance in 1998 that requires canvassers to get permission from the mayor's office before approaching homes. The city says the measure is to protect security and prevent annoyance of homeowners. The Jehovah's Witnesses, however, say it "disregards a speaker's First Amendment right."

In February the case went to the Supreme Court. While the official ruling has not been delivered, comments from the bench make a ruling against the ordinance appear likely. A headline from American Lawyer Media says, "High Court Ridicules Ohio Limits on Solicitation."

The expected ruling will be good news to those who evangelize through cold-call door-to-door visits, like the Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons.

But do evangelical Christians still knock on doors?

"There's no question there has been a decline," says Timothy K. Beougher, Billy Graham professor of evangelism and church growth at Southern Seminary. "But as Twain said, the reports of its death are greatly exaggerated."

Questions of effectiveness, changes in culture, and the emergence of other evangelical methods have contributed to a decrease in what is known as visitation evangelism. But there are healthy programs. While neighborhood canvassing is still practiced, successful strategies have changed with the times and added new components to the traditional model of home visitation.

"Visitation evangelism has to be more than cold knocking on random doors," says John Ewert, associate dean of integrated learning at Southern Seminary. "With new incarnations, it can take on a whole new light."

Perhaps no name is more commonly associated with visitation evangelism than D. James Kennedy. In 1961, he established a lay-witness training program at his 17-member Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Members would go door-to-door asking residents such questions as "Do you know for sure that you are going to be with God in Heaven?"

In 1967 Evangelism Explosion (EE) saw 800 commitments to Christ; by 1969 the church had grown to 1,600 members. EE quickly spread across the country and went international in 1978. EE has now reached every nation and every territory in the world. This year, 760 weeklong clinics will be held worldwide to train more than 5,000 people in lay witnessing.

Kennedy told Christianity Today that within the first five or six years of EE, the program moved away from cold calling. "We try not to knock on doors helter-skelter," he said. "The best approach is having members bring visitors to church and then we follow it up with a visit."

Kennedy said that visiting someone's home has to be handled carefully, even when the person has been a visitor or referred by friends. "We live in a lot more violent culture. Opening your door is scary," he said.

Visitation teams are always sent in groups of three: one woman and two men. Homeowners are more willing to let a woman into their home, he says, so the woman is always placed nearest the door.

Kennedy also teaches visitation teams to show visitor cards when the door is opened. "I always tell people to hold it right up under their chin so the person can see their own handwriting and remember visiting us," he said.

Evangelism Explosion still has a cold survey component, but it is administered in public at beaches, malls, or on the street. Kennedy says this method is less intrusive and more effective than approaching a home.

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April (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46