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Primitive Christians were House-to-House Preachers.

There was a knock at the gate at my inlaw's where I was staying while in the city, one morning. I was all alone in the house, working on an article, but the banging was constant; frankly, it initially irritated me, so I finally got up to see who that persistant individual was.

It was a young humble indigenous lady offering books (cooking, children's, etc) on credit terms. I politely explained to her that I had no need for them and that the owners of the house were not in but she could come back at another time. She understood and left. I watched her with admiration as she systematically covered each and every house down the street. She knows that she will find interested ones if she keeps on knocking. (read Matthew 7:7)

Here in Bolivia, with door-to-door sales, life is no different in the city than it is in the rurals where my wife and I live. People offer fruits and vegatables, merchandise and offer services by either clamping their hands together at the entrance or banging on the gate (that is, if you are rich enough to have one).

In the industrialized world, however, at least in the United States, people have been "trained" by their local Wal-Mart and their church to feel persecuted by anyone who dares knock on their door for any reason, and especially so if it envolves conveying a Scriptural message. "If I want soap, I'll go to Wal-Mart and if I want religion, I'll go to my church", is the general attitude.

If one reads the Bible, he or she will note that preaching to strangers in their homes, without an invitation, was the norm for Christianity in the beginning and it was to continue as such in the 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 means house-to-house contacts, in a non-agressive manner of course. Whether the householder is responsive or not, should not affect the disposition of those who endeavor in this work.

Maybe this consideration will help some reader to reflect on his or her attitude in the future when an uninvited person knocks on your door to share a Scriptural thought. It might even prick his or her conscious into wondering why he or she is not participating in this unpopular activity.

In 1982 a man, Eucebio Ribera, who had been a member of the local Communist party, told me: "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. And I saw that you people were the only ones doing it." Shortly after making that statement, he abandoned his political involvement and took up the house-to-house preaching activity, eventually training 40 others in the same work.

Today 99.9% of self-proclaimed Christians do NOT preach to strangers, and especially not from house-to-house.
Paul, however, 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 next time some uninvited person knocks 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 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 needs? (Matthew 5:3)
After all, the only way to find the deserving ones, as Matthew 10:11-15 suggests, is to make uninvited vists.
"As you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.’ ... You received free, give free." (Matthew 10:7-8)