Not wanting to be outdone by the Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses, fundamentalists have long been fans of door-to-door outreach programs. Thursday evenings or Saturday mornings will find any number of fundamentalists about town giving a gospel soft-sell pitch.
“Hi, my name is Rufus! We’re here from Lighthouse Completely and Totally Separated Baptist Temple and we were just wondering if you go to church anywhere.”
These are not randomly chosen words. The training for door-to-door outreach is very specific about the words used to draw the net around a potential convert. The spiel is tried and proven; the clothes are picked with care; even the number of times to knock on the door is carefully planned. If it’s good enough for encyclopedia salesmen, it’s good enough for the fundies.
It doesn’t matter whether or not door-to-door is culturally acceptable any more or even if anybody bothers to listen — just get out there every week and knock on those doors. 13 million Mormons can’t be wrong.
“You’re Catholic? That’s wonderful! It’s not often we meet people who still go to church these days. We’re not trying to take people from their churches. Before I go, could I just ask you one important question?”
true story: We had trainers come to us from a CERTAIN church in Indiana, and they taught us, “Don’t give them an opportunity to say no!”
*gets college visitation flashbacks*
🙁
I’m not in that college anymore and don’t go to the church soulwinning, just because of the robotics involved. The same spiel, every.single.time.
“Don’t give them an opportunity to say no!â€
They’re acting like they’re salesmen. Like how sales associates in a clothing store will try anything to convince you to buy that one extra item just to make their sales goal (I say that, not to offend, but because I worked in retail for a short time); only with these guys, they try to push people to accept the gospel so they can have another notch on their belt. Their product is the Gospel and, like any good saleman, they attempt to sell it through any means necessary. Soulwinning salesmen. 🙁
(I’m not against leading people to the Lord; I’m just against being pushy about it)
Our church was so separated that they could not use any outside, already-published curriculum for door-to-door training. Our full-time visitation pastor wrote his own curriculum. It was uncannily similar to E.E. I wonder what was so objectionable about E.E.? If you’re fundy, you wouldn’t be caught dead learning your soul-winning tactics from a Presbyterian
an aquaintance of mine claimed that he once used a unique way of dealing with a couple of well-suited young Jehovah’s Witnesses. His house was at the end of a long drive-way and he happed to see them coming. When the JW’s arrived, he appeared at the door, naked, holding a large tub of Vaseline. He claimed the Witnesses didn’t stay around very long for a theological discussion, and he was never bothered again. Would that work with Fundies?
Oh man, the bible college flashbacks. Even then it felt so very wrong. I remember being paired with old men who were “great soulwinners” so i could learn from their skill. I then tagged along and watched their carefully planned pitch guide people to say a few words with their head bowed. Great victories were claimed and I was utterly convinced those people had no clue what they just participated in. It makes me angry today to think about it.