Door to door? Not needed? Not in the bible? Who said to do that?
05 Jan '22 00:42Not needed? Not in the bible? Who said to do that? Jesus never said that? What a waist......
Will They Preach From Door to Door?
“POPE Sends Preachers Onto Streets of Rome.” That was the title of a news report by Greg Burke. He wrote: “Pope John Paul has urged Catholics in Italy to follow the example of sects like Jehovah’s Witnesses, who have been winning converts in the country, and start preaching door-to-door.
“‘It’s not time to be ashamed of the Gospel, it’s time to preach it from the rooftops,’ the Pope said on Monday to 350 itinerant preachers and religion teachers. . . .
“‘I hope that your project to proclaim the Gospel in the streets . . . brings abundant fruits,’ he told them. ‘You have rediscovered a style of preaching that reaches out even to those who have strayed from the faith.’”
Reporter Burke noted: “Catholic Church attendance has fallen sharply in Italy over the last two decades, and the Pope’s enthusiasm for door-to-door preachers appears to be at least partly a response to the waning of its influence.”
Such exhortation to “start preaching door-to-door” is not entirely new. A previous pope, Paul VI, said that the Catholic Church “exists in order to evangelize.” And the present pope, John Paul II, issued his encyclical Redemptoris Missio in 1991 to alert his church to the need to carry out the command of Jesus to preach publicly.
Roman Catholic writer Peter Hernon posed the question in the London Catholic Herald: “Whatever happened to evangelisation?” He was concerned about the much-touted “decade of evangelisation” that is now several years old. When he asked a bishop about the lack of progress, the bishop responded: “You mustn’t be in a hurry. The Church has only been around for 2000 years.”
No wonder Hernon asked: “Where is the urgency conveyed by Jesus as He despatched His disciples to evangelise the surrounding villages? Or by St Paul: ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel! (1 Co 9:16).’” Indeed, will Catholics imitate early Christians who preached publicly “and from house to house”?—Acts 5:42; 20:20, Douay Version.
Hernon acknowledged that when it comes to door-to-door evangelism, he “can hear the sceptics muttering ‘theoretical, impractical.’ Not so,” Hernon responds. “To justify that claim I need to use a naughty word. I know it is naughty because the last time I used it in a Catholic article the whole section was edited out (though nothing else was altered). The word is Jehovah’s Witness. . . . Each Witness is also taught that, by his very calling, he is necessarily a missionary.”
Though Hernon disagrees with the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses, he concedes that when a person considers their methods of preaching, “it is hard not to be reminded of the early Church as depicted in the acts of the Apostles.”
Jehovah’s Witnesses continue their zealous door-to-door ministry, thus fulfilling in these modern times the command of Jesus Christ: “You will be witnesses of me . . . to the most distant part of the earth.”—Acts 1:8.
Will They Preach From Door to Door?
“POPE Sends Preachers Onto Streets of Rome.” That was the title of a news report by Greg Burke. He wrote: “Pope John Paul has urged Catholics in Italy to follow the example of sects like Jehovah’s Witnesses, who have been winning converts in the country, and start preaching door-to-door.
“‘It’s not time to be ashamed of the Gospel, it’s time to preach it from the rooftops,’ the Pope said on Monday to 350 itinerant preachers and religion teachers. . . .
“‘I hope that your project to proclaim the Gospel in the streets . . . brings abundant fruits,’ he told them. ‘You have rediscovered a style of preaching that reaches out even to those who have strayed from the faith.’”
Reporter Burke noted: “Catholic Church attendance has fallen sharply in Italy over the last two decades, and the Pope’s enthusiasm for door-to-door preachers appears to be at least partly a response to the waning of its influence.”
Such exhortation to “start preaching door-to-door” is not entirely new. A previous pope, Paul VI, said that the Catholic Church “exists in order to evangelize.” And the present pope, John Paul II, issued his encyclical Redemptoris Missio in 1991 to alert his church to the need to carry out the command of Jesus to preach publicly.
Roman Catholic writer Peter Hernon posed the question in the London Catholic Herald: “Whatever happened to evangelisation?” He was concerned about the much-touted “decade of evangelisation” that is now several years old. When he asked a bishop about the lack of progress, the bishop responded: “You mustn’t be in a hurry. The Church has only been around for 2000 years.”
No wonder Hernon asked: “Where is the urgency conveyed by Jesus as He despatched His disciples to evangelise the surrounding villages? Or by St Paul: ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel! (1 Co 9:16).’” Indeed, will Catholics imitate early Christians who preached publicly “and from house to house”?—Acts 5:42; 20:20, Douay Version.
Hernon acknowledged that when it comes to door-to-door evangelism, he “can hear the sceptics muttering ‘theoretical, impractical.’ Not so,” Hernon responds. “To justify that claim I need to use a naughty word. I know it is naughty because the last time I used it in a Catholic article the whole section was edited out (though nothing else was altered). The word is Jehovah’s Witness. . . . Each Witness is also taught that, by his very calling, he is necessarily a missionary.”
Though Hernon disagrees with the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses, he concedes that when a person considers their methods of preaching, “it is hard not to be reminded of the early Church as depicted in the acts of the Apostles.”
Jehovah’s Witnesses continue their zealous door-to-door ministry, thus fulfilling in these modern times the command of Jesus Christ: “You will be witnesses of me . . . to the most distant part of the earth.”—Acts 1:8.
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