Trying to enjoy services

[B.H.]

I'm impressed, BH. Such a good little cofc boy!!! I have to admit that never in my entire cofc career did I knock doors.
Wait. Did I knock doors once with you, Moogy? I might have gone with Moogy once.

Ivy, I have no recollection of ever knocking doors for the COC, either with you or without you. The only outreach I did was passing out flyers for gospel meetings. I did that several times. I would always drop it in the mailbox or stick it on the door, hoping to avoid any actual contact with real people.
While passing out flyers early one Sunday morning, a guy drove up and asked for a copy. I approached his car and invited him to services, only to discover he had lured me closer so he could expose his private man parts to me without getting out of his car. Boy do I wish you had been with me then. I freaked out and walked away, quickly, and when l looked back to try to get his license plate number, he was backing away from me,and the front plate had been removed. I did call the cops. I even missed Bible Class due to the discussion with the police officer. I think I called to let someone know my little kid's class would need a substitute teacher that morning. I think I got an excused absence.

That is nasty. I hope he ran into the wrong person and something bad happened to those private parts.

[KLP]

Moogy!!! Did you never watch that old Johnny Tremain movie? You can't be out working on Sunday!!! I have never heard of passing out flyers on Sunday morning. It was always on Saturday, that is the authorized day for such activities.

[margin overa]

I have never heard of passing out flyers on Sunday morning. It was always on Saturday, that is the authorized day for such activities.

When I did doorknocking and flyer-passing-out, it was almost always attached to a particular campaign or a gospel meeting, and it would often go for 4 or 5 days in advance, including Saturday. I did that throughout junior high up through college.

Even then, it didn't take a hardcore commitment to realize the futility of such campaigns. I can count on one hand the actual number of people we contacted then who either came to the gospel meeting or otherwise visited the congregation. Rightfully so...I always felt I was being invasive by going door-to-door in hopes of engaging some poor victim (read: "potential convert") in learning tha Trooth. I always smiled when people flipped the script and told us we should come to their Baptist or Presbyterian or Adventist church instead. I always prayed I didn't get invited into some zealot's house to debate the Bible with them!

[cathym]

I think the last time I went door knocking was 5th or 6th grade. Probably for VBS or a singing workshop, but it's been too long to recall. Most folks in that area were either Baptist or Methodist with little interest in changing, especially since we were too small to have the useful social connections.

[Struggler]

I passed out flyers a couple of times. Only once did I go on a door-knocking campaign. Four guys from a preaching school (later deemed "liberal") came to help the speaker and our church do the canvassing. Even then, it seemed strange to knock on doors and solicit like that. We didn't like when the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and others did it, so why should they like it when we did?

What I remember from that effort was that we got to eat lunch at McDonald's, something we hardly ever did; and one of the guys gave me a coin with a Bible verse on it and engraved my name at the top. I don't recall anyone coming as a result of the canvassing, although a few may have. However, I do recall our church getting several calls afterward from people the speaker had visited. He had told them, so they claimed, that the church would buy them groceries or help with bills. My father suggested to the elders that we forward all those requests to the speaker, and let him help the people he promised.

[Ivy]

I'm impressed, BH. Such a good little cofc boy!!! I have to admit that never in my entire cofc career did I knock doors.
Wait. Did I knock doors once with you, Moogy? I might have gone with Moogy once.

Ivy, I have no recollection of ever knocking doors for the COC, either with you or without you. The only outreach I did was passing out flyers for gospel meetings. I did that several times. I would always drop it in the mailbox or stick it on the door, hoping to avoid any actual contact with real people.
While passing out flyers early one Sunday morning, a guy drove up and asked for a copy. I approached his car and invited him to services, only to discover he had lured me closer so he could expose his private man parts to me without getting out of his car. Boy do I wish you had been with me then. I freaked out and walked away, quickly, and when l looked back to try to get his license plate number, he was backing away from me,and the front plate had been removed. I did call the cops. I even missed Bible Class due to the discussion with the police officer. I think I called to let someone know my little kid's class would need a substitute teacher that morning. I think I got an excused absence.

Moogy, I do remember the story about the perve you encountered. What a creep. I hope you weren't traumatized.

[margin overa]

...it seemed strange to knock on doors and solicit like that. We didn't like when the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and others did it, so why should they like it when we did?

Exactly. I remember my parents' irritation when the JWs or Mormons showed up at our door, often on a Saturday morning. Of course, they would have responded, if asked why they should be irritated when other denominations showed up canvassing, that the difference was that the canvassers represented false denominations, and when we went doorknocking, it was an act of mercy to try to get people into the real, true Lord's Church.

[Melanie]

Hated. HATED. H-A-T-E-D door knocking. And visitation. At least with door knocking, you could just quickly spit out your little spiel, shove a pamphlet in their hand and leave. With visitation, you showed up actually expecting to be invited in. AWKWARD!

[margin overa]

Hated. HATED. H-A-T-E-D door knocking. And visitation. At least with door knocking, you could just quickly spit out your little spiel, shove a pamphlet in their hand and leave. With visitation, you showed up actually expecting to be invited in. AWKWARD!

Ending those stupid visitations was one of the most sensible ideas my old home congregation ever had. "Folks just don't want you showing up at their front doors anymore," the elders said, shaking their heads. I'm sure everyone had a sigh of relief in the aisles. I always thought it was rude, anyway, just showing up at peoples' homes unannounced, knocking and with the expectation of being asked into someone's house.

[cathym]

If JWs or Mormons came to our door when Dad was home, he'd invite then in and try to convert them.