Sligo22: Mission on the Doors

Glynis Matchett is on the staff team at Willowfield Church.  She has a heart for people to encounter the presence of God in a life-changing way and to see people equipped to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit. Her seminar at New Wine in Sligo asked, “How can we bring the good news to people who might never consider coming to church?” Notes taken in week A

Seminars on evangelism don’t usually attract large crowds.  I am head of prayer ministry at New Wine Ireland and I am an evangelist with Willowfield.  I’ve done the two year Evangelism Course.

My background is relevant to the kind of demographic we are trying to reach with the gospel.  I grew in an East Belfast on a housing estate near the local parish church. I remember when I was a little girl, we would have people call at the door. Sometimes they were from the local church at other times they were Mormons or JWs. Mummy and Daddy would say, “Don’t answer the door.”  I haven’t forgotten what that feels like. It helped me in my approach.  I had a sense that nobody should do door to door work. The irony being is that it is one of the things I really love to do and there are amazing opportunities.

It is an amazing way to share the gospel to people who genuinely wouldn’t think or even consider coming into a church building. For those who catch this, there is a real opportunity to reach the ones we don’t get to reach in any other way.

In my late teens, when I had come to faith and I had found a church, their evangelism was “door to door” on a Monday night. We went street by street in the houses around the church. You would have introduced yourself from the local church and ask something like, “If you were to die today, how do you know for sure you are going to heaven?”  I did that outreach team for just over a year and in that time, I led two people to Jesus on the doors with a cold contact kind of question and it works.  Most people either wanted to know or didn’t want to know. The questions were a bit strong.

In 2015, Bishop Harold Miller called a year of mission in Down and Dromore. In Willowfield, we decided we would do door to door outreach and my heart sank.  It seems an awful lot of output for not a lot of fruit.  I was nervous because I wasn’t sure what to expect.  We thought we would visit 8,000 homes in that year.  Some of our team had visited Causeway Coast Vineyard.  They were using this approach in street work and we thought we would adapt it and use it as our door to door strategy.  When someone comes to the door we ask: 

1)    Would you have time to answer three questions?

2)    If God could do a miracle for you today, what would you ask him to do? Can we pray for you about that now? 

We have the chance to listen to people’s heart and gives us a chance to pray.  We would keep our prayers short and to the point and ask Jesus to come and meet that person in their need. Once we have prayed for people, we often find that their whole demeanour changes. Suddenly there is more of an openness. Several times God has done something supernatural right then and there.  All this opens up the conversation for the final question.

3)    What do you say was the greatest miracle that God has ever done?  That gave us an opening to talk about Jesus.

We have found year on year that 13 or 14 people came to faith on the doors.  We are not here for big discussions. We are just here to witness to the reality of Jesus in our lives and to share with other people that he is there for them.

It is a helpful approach.  Prayer opens the door. Very few people say no to that. Most people are very keen for us to pray.  We had to get over ourselves a bit. You never know what’s on the other side of the door. WE had some funny things happened as well.

The first day we went out we had several pairs of people on the street.  In that first time, we led two people to the Lord. By the second one I was saying, “This can’t be this easy.” At one time we were doing door to door three times a week. Covid put a stop to some of that but we are back again.

We would usually meet to pray before we go out. This ministry doesn’t usually attract a lot of people. We ask the Lord to lead us to the right people in the right street and that we would be filled with the spirit. 

 We take a paperback new testament, Bible reading notes and a copy of the “Why Jesus” booklets.  For some people we could signpost them to Alpha.  And we also had a response card from the church. If they want they can fill out a card to link in with church. All this fits neatly into a clear polythene bag. The first day I was out, we ran out of packs.  I couldn’t believe it. We have little badges in case someone is a bit nervous, especially vulnerable people. And really that is all it is.

Your biggest resource is a few people on your team in the power of the Holy Spirit.  For those who come to faith, we would do a visit quite soon afterwards to offer help and connect them in to church.  Some people have gone on to other churches.  We have others who are still at Willowfield.

 The Holy Spirit is a competent evangelist. He doesn’t really need us but He loves to use us. If we trust the Holy Spirit to lead people to Jesus, then all we have to do is knock a door.  We don’t have to have all the answers.

Most of the time, people need to know that real people have had an encounter with the living God. And being pleasant. We are always trying to leave a pleasant “aroma”.  If people are annoyed, we would say, “I’m so sorry for disturbing you.”  We don’t try to stick our feet in the door. It is their home, so we have to be really respectful.

We are always reliant on the Holy Spirit and we encourage people to do Prayer Ministry training.  If you are interested, you could contact me at New Wine Ireland to find out more.

I am really sorry…

One day in inner city East Belfast, we called at the door of a man in his senior years.  When we said we were from the local church, he said, “You don’t believe that nonsense do you?” And he went off on a tirade. He was not happy. As the person I was with was trying to share, I felt that the Holy Spirit put something into my mind. I felt like the Holy Spirit showed me something.

 We always want to leave people in a better place. The other person shook his hand.  And then the gentleman went to shake my hand.  I held onto his hand and I said, “I am really sorry for what had happened to you when you were in Sunday School.”  He said, “I hated it.”  And I replied, “You know what, I think God hated it too.”  It was as if God’s peace had come over the whole area. As we were about to move on, the door opened again and he invited us in. We chatted some more and we shared something about Jesus with him.

One summer evening, we were out. Some people had left their front door open.  This woman came out very irate. Some people have a very poor understanding of church. Her language was colourful and she was very loud. “I don’t want anything to do with you and your church. A few years ago, I went around and put the Rectory windows in.”

I noticed that she was walking with a limp and so I asked about that.   She said, “I have terrible sciatica”  I said, “Would you sit on your stairs because I would love to pray for you.”  She sat on the stairs, I prayed for her and to her amazement, she stood up and the pain was gone. She was thrilled about it. I told her that this is Jesus who is doing this.

Then we heard a voice from the living room.  The mother was there and she had a sore leg.  We knelt on the carpet and prayed and she got healed as well.  Although they didn’t come to faith, we were able to signpost them to a practical ministry where they could get further help.

She was expecting us

As a member of the welcome team at Sligo22, Stuart called into the seminar to share his experience of getting involved in Door to Door ministry at Willowfield Church:

“At one of our staff meetings we had a whole morning about evangelism but then at the end there was a call to action. For me that was a real catalyst where God called me into something a bit more uncomfortable.  Coming out of Covid, I felt God said, ‘I want you to get used to stepping out.’ I was very nervous.  I just didn’t know what to expect. I was afraid of what people would ask or say. On that first time, Glynis shared that we do not go in our own power or strength. I need to hand it up the ladder to God. I prayed, ‘I don’t know what to expect but I trust that you are so much bigger and better. 

“Recently, I was frustrated because after 40 minutes nothing was happening.  Right at the end of the street at our last door, a woman answered the door and it was as if she was expecting us.  Immediately, she invited us in.  She shared her story. Only the day before, someone in her family was speaking to her about Jesus and then suddenly we turned up.  That lady did come to faith that day. I went back to visit. Her sister is a Christian and she has been going to that church with her sister.  I felt, everything is so worth it. God is preparing those people. All we have to do is show up and be faithful. My fear is slowly decreasing.  God is so much greater than our fears.” 

She realised God is real

Glynis continued:  There was another funny time. We called at a house and as soon as the door opened the smell of cannabis filled the street and about six dogs came running out. And then a taxi pulled up with more people.  I said, “we are just here from the local church.” One of the girls said, “I love Jesus and I know Jesus.”  She said, she said she had a tatoo with a bible verse on it and she asked if we knew the Hillsong song “oceans.”  Another girl came out of the house and she said, “I don’t believe any of this.”

I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me and I asked, “If God could do something for you, what would you ask him to do.” She said, “I’d really like a baby.” As I started to pray I felt the Holy Spirit speak. I said, “The relationship that you are in is a problem.” Tears were rolling down her face, so I asked, “Did that mean something to you?”  At that moment she realised God is real.

There are people out there that the Holy Spirit wants to bring the love of Jesus to. Expectation is important.  We gathered one night as a team and as we went out, I just had a funny thought to do with Star Wars.  We called at several houses on the street and I’d kind of finished the section. Across the road, all of a sudden this cat jumped out of nowhere and one of our team members ran off. I ended up having to join this guy at the last door. The man in the house didn’t want to talk about God because he is an atheist. Suddenly, something dropped, “You don’t have a star wars poster do you,” I asked.  It turned out that he had bought one recently.  I asked, “are you a software analyst?”  And when he said, “Yes” I told him,  “The God you don’t believe in knows everything about you and He loves you.”  I was able to invite him to come along to the Alpha course. 

We also do prayer ministry on the streets and we have found that incredibly useful. Not only do people get healed but some also give their lives to Jesus.

Sometimes we want everybody to come into church in the building and that works for some. Alpha is one of those things. But this is a way of taking the gospel out.. streets, shops, houses, all sorts of places. It is being open to what the Holy Spirit wants to do anywhere.  There are times I have no clue what I’m going to say next.

One lady I met on the streets. There was a lady walked down the road and we asked if we could pray with her.  But as she left I felt we should do more. Thankfully she was not that fast and I managed to catch up with her.  I said, “I just think we should have had a further conversation.”  She started to laugh, “I have friends who have Christians and they said, ‘The Lord is running after you.’”  I said, “the Lord is running after you.  Your friends have been trying to get you to come to church for years. Would you not like to know Jesus yourself?” She said, “Yes… and right there outside Tesco we prayed together.”

A few weeks later we had CAP Sunday.  Quite a young girl got to share her story and shared how CAP had helped her and how she had met Jesus as a result. At the end of that, I was doing prayer ministry. She said, “You don’t know me but you met my nanny on the road. I have been praying for her to come to the Lord because I just needed someone in my family to come to the Lord.”

All those connections are what the Lord does when you are willing to step out. When people see Jesus in your kindness and your boldness at being willing to go and share something of yourself, then things happen.