omigod, a post! Yay!
ohgeez, will she ever shut up about Obama?! Boo!
Part of my new job description focuses on evangelism. It seems that my main tasks are to educate people about what that word means and doesn’t mean, and to help Suburban Pres learn how to be welcoming, hospitable and even inviting in a way that is authentic and that has integrity. For us, it will not be heavy-handed door-to-door tactics.
Ironically, however, I learned a lot about evangelism while going door to door during the presidential campaign. In fact, I learned much more about evangelism during that experience than I ever learned in seminary or in 5+ years of ministry. Here’s what I have so far:
Evangelists don’t work out of obligation, but out of excitement. A sense of urgency is even better.
I’m writing this in a busy coffee shop, where a stranger just came up to me asking about the gelaskin on my laptop. I was enthusiastic in sharing where she could get one, the ease of application, the advantages, and so forth. I don’t have any vested interest in her getting one. I just couldn’t help sharing information about this little thing that makes my life easier and lovelier.
Say what you will about the annoying zeal of Obama’s supporters—and there is much to lampoon there—those folks were wholly committed to sharing their passion for the skinny guy with the funny name. The looming deadline of November 4 as well as the ginormous problems we face as a country provided us with an added sense of urgency.
People will eagerly share book recommendations, restaurant reviews, movie suggestions with others. We don’t target people; our enthusiasm bubbles over. Why not the good news of what our churches are doing? I know there is a long history of coercive evangelism that can and should temper our efforts, but honestly, I think it’s more that our churches aren’t offering that much that inspires enthusiasm. Why put yourself out there to invite people to something that’s just ho-hum, or something we do just because we’ve done it our whole lives? Where’s the urgency in that?
The most evangelistic ministry in our congregation is the one in which there is palpable energy and excitement. There is no coordinated program of evangelism. People simply can’t help but invite their friends to it.
It’s not worship, by the way.
Send ‘em out two by two.
When I was first called to canvass, I knew I had to put my actions where my heart was, but the thought of knocking on doors freaked me out. The organizer assured me that he’d pair me with someone else, which made it easier. I’m pretty sure Jesus recommended a similar approach.
Focus on undecideds.
Why waste your precious time with people who have a McCain sign in their yard? They’ve got something that works for them. Respect that, even if you disagree with it. Instead, focus your energies on people who just aren’t sure, who need more information, who might require just a nudge to give someone a second look. There’s plenty enough of them to keep you busy. It’s also less intimidating to talk to people who may be open to what you have to say. I saw a lot of nervous first-time volunteers look relieved when they heard that the strong Republicans had been mostly weeded out of their canvass and call lists.
Leaders do it, too.
The field organizer who called me to canvass was always out knocking on doors with us. We can only lead as far as we’ve gone ourselves.
It can be done gently.
A dear friend took a direct but gracious approach. Whenever she’d find herself in conversation throughout her day—with the grocery store clerk or a repairperson—she would say, “You know… I don’t know if you have decided whom to vote for this time around, but if not, I hope that you will give Barack Obama a look.” And then left it at that. Sometimes a conversation opened up, sometimes not.
Who knows what myriad factors work together to lead someone to consider a faith community… or a candidate? We’re not salespeople who won’t get our commissions unless we close the deal. We plant seeds.
Neighbor to neighbor is most effective. It comes out of relationship.
Our calling and canvassing “scripts” had us identify ourselves as neighbors. The “staging locations” were local homes, not remote campaign offices. Neighbors speak to their neighbors with more authenticity than trucked-in volunteers do (though they played a key role too).
One gratifying experience I had while canvassing was registering a couple to vote. They had little kids and I could share some information about the local elementary school where their children would soon attend (it’s also the polling location).
And a simple sign in my yard prompted some good conversations with a neighbor—a Catholic, life-long Republican and military spouse—who was leaning toward Obama but who needed to process her decision.
Get off script.
We received talking points, but were encouraged to put things in our own words. I heard many variations of the spiel while phonebanking. People who read from the script sounded insincere. People who spoke from the heart, even if it was less polished, came off much better.
Just keep going.
I didn’t have any truly nasty people. I had a couple of people hang up on me, and a brusque person or two at the door. Still, the work can be discouraging. I eventually learned not to dwell on the negative experiences. I just had to shake off the dust and move on. I think Jesus had something to say about that too.
The return on effort is low… or high, depending on how you look at it.
I can’t remember the percentage of people who are more likely to vote for a candidate after having been contacted personally by his/her campaign, but it’s comparatively small. (Though large enough to sway an election—just ask Al Franken and Norm Coleman how important Get Out the Vote is.) And in my canvassing and phonebanking experience, “Not Home” always won in a landslide. So on one level it felt like an extravagant waste of time. Why do it?
Some time ago I read about a pastor who asked a Mormon friend why they sent their young people out for two years to practice evangelism. Did they ever actually convince anyone to convert? Very rarely, maybe one person a year. “But,” the person said, “at the end of that experience, the young people are absolutely devoted to their faith.”
McCain supporters and others have somewhat gleefully predicted the mass disillusionment that will come when our “Messiah” is not able to solve everything that plagues us. These people have completely missed the point. My job is not over. Rather than feeling like my work is done, I am more committed to further involvement. That’s what it’s going to take. We do this work because it transforms our own lives.
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What a great post. I can relate to much of it. I didn’t do much to actively support the obama campaign, but I did a lot of effortless “campaigning” just by using the positive energy I had for him and what he stood for.
But I see this in all other issues I support. I feel that people are naturally good and they want to see goodness work. So when you are on the side of goodness, they can’t seem to help but see it in you and become interested.
Isn’t absolute devotion to faith one of the biggest problems we face in the 21st century?
I don’t know about you, but my prescription for a better world starts with less certainty, not more. If “I could be wrong” isn’t right up in there, the whole thing is, in my opinion, on balance, all things taken together, bottom line, at the end of the day, essentially toxic.
I, for one, can’t get enough posts about the Hopey Change Guy. And I love the fact that you have posted your thoughts about your experience this fall working for him. It was much the same as I felt too. I love being a part of this movement and I love the fact that the DC for Obama group is sending out almost as many emails now as they were before the election. Real Obama supporters get it. This was just not a moment in time, but time for a movement in our country to right the ship.
This post is ingenious in every way. When was the last time most of our people were so pumped about Jesus?
We got a request to have 35 at-risk 5th graders sleep on our church basement floor for MLK/Inauguration weekend in January (with 7 adults I should add) and everyone was so excited to do this. Not a single comment about how much water they’ll use.
It was all about this great opportunity we have to share The Good News of Happy American History with them.
> Isn’t absolute devotion to faith one of the biggest problems we face in the 21st century?
Depends on what kind of faith you’re absolutely devoted to.
Certainty and devotion are not the same thing. I know a great many people who are extremely, even wholly, devoted to a belief system that includes a sense of reverence, mystery and humility.
I know that the Mormon example is a fraught one for a lot of reasons, not least because of what they did in California with Prop 8. I used them not because I want to applaud their politics or any sense of certainty they might have about matters of faith. Instead I want to make the point that when we put ourselves out there to engage in vigorous conversations about what we believe, when we have to listen, reflect and explain ourselves to people who don’t get it or who are suspicious, our faith sinks into our bones in a way it doesn’t without this sense of confrontation.
If I may get personal about it, conversing with you over the years has had that effect on me… some things I used to adhere to I’ve actually let go of. But what’s left is much stronger and, to use a word I personally find distasteful but oddly works here: purer. It’s not more certain though.
Well, and conversing with you and RLP has helped me think about things too, and to change some of my views and reactions.
Certainty and devotion aren’t the same thing, I agree, but the word “absolute” was in there. That doesn’t make me think lovingkindness; it makes me think Dianetics, which sends its young people out to be abused by strangers, thus making them more resistant to change.
I don’t know. I’m not going to pretend certainty myself on this–but the Obama evangelizing was done in the service of a contest that everyone knew they were part of, and that they knew would have a zero-sum outcome on November 4: Winner, loser.
What those Mormons say to me is they’re the winners, and if I don’t join them, I’m the loser. The Orthodox Jews who ask on the street if I’m Jewish every year offend me too. What chance does anyone have of enjoying respect whose deeply held belief is “This is not your business?”
Yes. And I am stretching the analogy to its limits… as well as inviting the ire and ridicule of people who will make this out to be some Obama=Jesus thing.
I see what you mean about the word “absolute” in the comment (which of course I was paraphrasing). I heard it/meant it more as an intensive (definition #1 here) than as a descriptor of values.
(By the way, at what time of year do the Orthodox Jews do that?)
good post!
i’m still wearing my “got hope?” t-shirt every time it’s clean. in this season of financial uncertainty the hope of a wiser and smarter president does indeed give me great hope!
one thing i loved about helping in the campaign was the instant camaraderie i felt w/ fellow campaigners. on the day before the election i was getting ready to go in to the local headquarters and a stranger who had just come out stopped me, put her hand on my arm, and said, “have you heard yet that his grandmother died?” and on election day those of us who shared in a GOTV effort at a local polling spot became instant family.
finally on the mormon question. the one and only time we actually invited mormon elders into our home to discuss their faith we asked lots of questions. when the 2 young men didn’t have better answers they simply repeated the canned phrase, “we know it to be true.” 37 years later bob and i still use that phrase when we refer to folks who exhibit too much certainty.
anne, your last paragraph reminded me of this post. The author had done an interview with some conservative guy who had put together a poll to prove how informed (or uninformed) Obama voters were.
Read the whole thing, but I thought this paragraph was interesting:
It’s the Lubovitchers on the High Holy Days:
http://www.brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=45932
Anne, I wouldn’t be able to hear “We know it to be true” without singing the “Ah ah ah aaaaaah ah” from Spandau Ballet.
Great post on several levels!
And I love the wall-papered car!