Thousands to Go Door to Door to Poll Americans on Their Beliefs

Thousands of members of evangelical churches will join in a nationwide door-to-door campaign Sunday to “share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the people,” organizers say.

The ambitious evangelism campaign, called “Win Our City to Jesus,” is part of the National Evangelistic Census, an organization formed by Charles Hunter, a nationally known Pentecostal evangelist and faith-healing practitioner from Texas. Organizers estimate that more than 60,000 churches across the country will participate.

Prominent supporters include the Billy Graham Crusade, Pat and Shirley Boone, Bill Bright, founder of the Campus Crusade for Christ, as well as a number of Christian radio and television stations.

Hunter “felt the Lord spoke to him to take a census of the world,” said Karen Proctor, project coordinator. The first census was conducted in 1991 in Honduras, and the second in Panama last year. Coordinators hope to cover South America next.

The goal now is to “present Jesus Christ to the people of the United States,” Proctor said. The participants will distribute evangelical material from their local churches. In addition, they ask each household to respond to four questions, taken partially from a recent Gallup Poll on religion in America.

The questions are whether people believe in God, pray, believe they have had a prayer answered or have had a “life-changing experience with Jesus Christ.”

The Gallup Poll found that 93% of Americans believe in God, 90% pray, and 76% believe they have had a prayer answered. Seventy-four percent reported that a belief in Jesus had brought about a life-changing experience, according to a separate poll taken by the evangelistic community.

The questions are to determine America’s belief in God, says Dave Lagore, coordinator of the project for California and Arizona.

“If they say yes to (question) No. 4, we encourage them to get together with their neighbors,” Lagore said. “If they say no, we pray with them.”

Proctor says she expects many people to be receptive to the evangelists.

“We are not going to be pushy in any way. If people do not want to hear, we will not force ourselves on them,” she said. “In this day and age, people are searching for something in their lives. We believe what’s missing is Jesus Christ--he’s the answer for situations we face every day.”

Some religious leaders consider the evangelism campaign extreme and say the sponsoring group is small and outside the mainstream of the Christian community. Some Christian leaders said they were unaware of the event.

“I haven’t heard anything about it,” said David Breemer, interim director of the Southern California Ecumenical Council. “The idea of just going and knocking on doors is a practice that’s followed only by a small segment of people that consider themselves to be Christians.

“To me, Christianity is best communicated through ongoing relationships between people,” Breemer said. “It’s difficult to establish a significant relationship in a few moments at the door.”

Lagore, the project’s local coordinator, said Southern Baptist, Greek Orthodox, Methodist and some Episcopal and Catholic churches are participating.

“We have not come up against anyone, no churches or denominations or pastors, who have been against us,” Lagore said.

Lagore said thousands of churches are involved throughout California, though some will delay their participation until Oct. 31 because of scheduling conflicts. Organizers say the names and addresses gathered from the census will stay within the participating local churches, who will later attempt to coordinate follow-up visits.

The Crenshaw Christian Center in Los Angeles is responsible for contacting more than 1 million people from Santa Monica to Palos Verdes, said Lynne Williams, an assistant at the center. Williams said 45 churches from the area have signed up to participate in the day of evangelism.

In Van Nuys, Tim Davis, the assistant pastor at The Church on the Way, plans to cover 70,000 homes on Oct. 31.