Rather than Bizarro's "blatant disregard for your privacy" comic interpretation, maybe there is a better reason behind these uninvited visits? "Pay attention to wisdom with your ear, that you may incline your heart to discernment." (Proverbs 2:2)

Primitive Christians were House-to-House Preachers.

There was banging at the gate at my in-law's where I was staying while in the city one morning. I was alone at the house working on an article, but the banging was constant. Who was that persistent individual who wanted my attention?

It was a young humble indigenous lady offering books on credit terms. I politely explained to her that the owner (el señor de la casa) was not home and that she could come back at another time. She understood, thanked me and left.

I watched her with admiration as she systematically covered each and every house down the street. She knew that she would find interested ones if she kept on knocking. (read Matthew 7:7)

That got me to thinking. In Bolivia door-to-door sales is a part of life and it is no different in the city than it is in the rural town where my wife and I lived. People offer fruits and vegetables, merchandise or their services by going, uninvited, to people's homes and getting their attention by either clapping their hands together at the entrance or banging on the gate. It gets the householder's attention as well as their neighbors'.

In the industrialized world, at least in the United States, people have been "trained" by business and religion  to feel persecuted by anyone who dares knock on their door. "If I need a product, there's Walmart; and, if I need religion, I have my own church; thank you very much!", is the general attitude.

Here is the jest of a conversation I had with a lady at work when she found out that I participated in the activity of house-to-house preaching:

Lady: Why do you people come to my house when you know I'm not interested?

Me: If you do not want us to visit your house anymore just ask to be placed on a "do-not-call" list. That way we will know to skip your house when we cover your territory.

Lady: Oh, I have to ask you to stop calling? That's ridiculous! You should know I'm not interested!!

Me: Well, we cannot read your mind; you have to tell us. I'm not able to place you on that list because I go to a Spanish congregation and we have a different territory. You will just have to tell them yourself the next time they come. It is quite simple and takes less than a minute.

Lady: You people keep calling because you don't care! You just don't care! You know what? You people are thieves! In fact you are much worse than thieves! Because you steal from me my most precious asset: MY TIME!

By now the poor lady was hyperventilating, so I politely excused myself.

I remember another lady who was observing our house-to-house ministry for some time, going in and out of her house; looking quite frustrated. When it came time to approach her house, she screamed out to me: "Put one foot on my curb and I will have you arrested for trespassing!"

These instances illustrate the point of just how people in prosperous nations view the lone survivors of the once famous "cold calling" technique. There used to be the Avon lady, the Fuller Brush salesman, the Kirby vacuum dealer coming to your door. But even back in the good old days when a local boy knock at your door to sign you up for his paper route or offer to mow your lawn, your pastor, priest, clergyman rarely, if ever, called at your door, let alone on an individual belonging to another church.

The ladies I mentioned would think nothing of sharing their favorite TV program with commercial interruptions every 10 minutes or less, yet a visit from an occasional stranger will drive them over the edge! They willingly submit to mind-control sermons on what to buy and what to believe issuing from the media or the pulpit, but they are very leery of anyone who tries to engage them in a face-to-face discussion of something that might concern them.

Preaching to strangers, in their homes, without an invitation, was not only the norm among early Christians, it was a requirement! It was to continue as such right up until the end, even with more intensity, in light of such Scriptures as Matthew 24:14 and Matthew 28:19, 20.

Here are Jesus' instructions recorded at Matthew 10:11-15

Into whatever city or village you enter, search out who in it is deserving, and stay there until you leave. When you are entering into the house, greet the household; and if the house is deserving, let the peace you wish it come upon it; but if it is not deserving, let the peace from you return upon you. Wherever anyone does not take you in or listen to your words, on going out of that house or that city shake the dust off your feet.

Searching for the deserving ones as described above meant non-aggressive house-to-house contacts. Whether the householder was responsive or not should not affect the disposition, or peace, of those who endeavored in this work.

This consideration might help some reader reflect on his or her attitude when an uninvited person knocks at one's door to share a Scriptural thought. Sure, these "preachers" might call at your home at an inconvenient time; it's to be expected.  However, it would only take 15 seconds to instruct them when to return so as to give them the needed attention.  Participating in this unpopular activity is actually a Christian requirement and the person who does it views it as part of his worship, his service to God.

In 1982 a man, Eucebio Ribera, who had been a member of a local leftist party, confessed:

"I knew you were true Christians from the beginning because I saw you people preaching from house-to-house. I didn't know much about the Bible, but what I did know was that Jesus and his disciples preached from house-to-house. I saw that you people were the only ones doing it."

Shortly thereafter he withdrew from his political involvement, took up house-to-house preaching and over the years trained more than 40 others in the same work.

Paul stated at 1 Corinthians 9:16:"Woe is me if I did not declare the good news!" And at Acts 20:20 he also wrote: "I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house."

The word "religion" comes from the Hebrew ‛a·boh·dáh literally meaning “service”. Therefore the word "religion" simply means one's "service" to his or her deity. Growing up as a military dependant, I was familiar with "service" referring to serving in the armed forces. It confused me to understand why we went to "service" at the Methodist church because everyone just sat and listened. Today educated people associate religion with fairy tales and myths, labeling all religion in the same category: superstition.

However, it is interesting to note that those who do engage in the preaching activity in all of its various phases (door-to-door, public, phone, writing, etc.) call it "service" because that is how they practice their "religion" and they are the only ones who give the word its true meaning by application! Once an atheist on television, interviewed by the famous Larry King, was asked what he thought about Christianity, and his answer was: "I think it's great! When are they going to put it into practice?" Even atheists and non-Christians realize that Christianity is the perfect "religion" and the only problem with it is that no one is willing to put it into practice, no one, that is, except true Christians.

The next time some uninvited people knock on your door with the purpose of sharing a Scriptural thought, Will you view it as a 'blatant disregard for your personal privacy' (as the above comic strip suggests) or will you recognize as it truly is, the social service that individual may be extending to those who wish to become conscious of their spiritual need? (Matthew 5:3) After all, the only way to find the deserving ones, as Matthew 10:11-15 suggests, is to make uninvited visits free of charge.  Remember, this world is headed for disaster on multiple levels; there are forces that have made this system unsustainable. Our only hope for survival is through God's Kingdom. (Matthew 6:9-10)

"As you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.  ...
You received free, give free." (Matthew 10:7-8)

Here I am, in 2010, teaching fourteen-year-old Jaime Aguayo to read and write in Quechua (his native tongue) and Spanish. By accepting a free home Bible study, he not only became literate, he also found out about God, who has a name, and has a purpose for the earth.
 

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