The value of "Gate Banging".

On her KiwiMormon blog, Gina Colvin gives an overview of the 'Work of Salvation' church broadcast, detailing changes in the missionary program.  See The Work of Salvation Broadcast: An Antipodean Summary.


-- Outward Benefits of the Change

Gina writes of the changes approvingly, stating, "It has been clear for many years that gate banging isn't really a quality use of time". The unwritten assumption behind "quality" in this phrase "low-quality use of time" is an economy of effort that solely directed outwards FROM the missionary TO those he serves. The benefits are those to others.

To name a few:

• Golden Contacts per hour of "gate banging" is lower than referrals per hour of "Obtaining Member Referrals". 

(Aside: Gina mentions that "gate-banging"can be annoying to the gate's owners and their families. I'll point out Extracting Member Referrals can in some context be just as much "an irritation for unsuspecting working families" as "gate banging". Of course members must be willing to endure this, never mind that sometimes it can feel more like arm-twisting, especially if the "build relationships of trust" phase is glossed over so quickly that it feels the missionaries have little real interest in the family itself, and only interest in guilt-tripping said family into doing their proper christian duty and "naming names".)

• Converts per hour of "gate banging" is much lower than converts per hour of following up on member referrals.

• Reactivations per hour of "gate banging" is much lower than reactivations per hour of knocking doors of pre-identified less active members.

• Strengthened members (recently-joined or longtime) per hour of "gate banging" is much lower than strengthened members per hour of targeted member visits.

I agree with these benefits of this change in focus.  More "Key Results" per hour is a good thing!

-- Inward Benefits of Knocking Doors

However, I would advocate, that "gate banging" not be eliminated entirely, as I see at least two key areas of benefit that could be missed if this sometimes excruciatingly uncomfortable activity is done away with. These two benefits are found from an inward directed perspective of the benefits to the missionary

1. Led-by-the spirit experiences.
   There are wonderful returned missionary experiences of having been led by the spirit to knock the right door at the right time, and indeed I have my own such powerful experience of being dragged by the spirit (nearly "kicking and screaming") to the house of a less active member, knocking right as he was praying fervently for direction from God. There needs to still be room for these experiences to occur. They build faith. If they didn't, we wouldn't have to listen to return missionaries share these experiences time and again.  These experiences clearly can build faith in the missionary.
   
2. Sacrifice builds faith.
   Gate Banging is NOT FUN. Being an uninvited door-to-door salesman is not fun. It's uncomfortable. It's awkward  It feels anti-social. You get rejected. It draws attention. There is a pitifully low ration of Golden Contacts to Just-Leave-Me-Alone-And-Don't-Come-Back responses.  And yet... it can help build faith.

-- Dedication and Leadership Techniques

There is a document titled Dedications and Leadership Techniques by Douglas Hyde, (found free here) which is a transcript of a five-day seminar held in 1962, "to discuss aspects of Communist Party training that could be adapted by Catholic activists, especially missionaries". Douglas Hyde was "the highest-level Western Communist ever to abandon the Communist Party and join the Catholic Church", and "a leading trainer of British Communists in the 1930s and 1940s.". The focus of the seminar was on the level of dedication maintained by Communists from 1917 to 1960.  One of the themes which Hyde discusses is that of the important role of sacrifice in fostering dedication. He harps on this theme again and again throughout. For example,

"if you make mean little demands upon people, you will get a mean little response. If you make big demands upon them, you will get an heroic response."

This sounds familiar. It resonates with a well-know statement by Joseph Smith,

"A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation."

Notice how it is the sacrifice that produces the faith.

This theme is sprinkled throughout Hyde's lectures. As he speaks of how the Communist party trained up leaders, he points out how they would put someone up on the street corner, or in the marketplace, agitating for communism and propagandizing. And then twenty years later this trained leader was still agitating and propagandizing.  Why?  Part of it is that it's uncomfortable to agitate and propagandize (which is an alternative word for prosylitize). So, someone who is willing to stand on the corner and do something so uncomfortable and unpopular gets some experience that most people don't get.  Sure, it's a stepping stone in his path of growth as a leader. But even more importantly that being a starting step, which would weed out many not willing to do it, requires such dedication that often one who at first only begrudgingly submits will gain tremendous faith that will sustain him and keep him dedicated through later trials. The same trial which makes him a leader, makes him a life-long committed 'agitator' for gospel.

If these techniques of building dedicated leaders worked for building life-long fervor for the ideology the communist party, how much more effective can they be in building life-long fervor for the gospel?

It is no surprise that missions build leaders, and life-long converts. One of the essential elements of that is to get the missionary "agitating and propagandizing", in a very uncomfortable way, to build endurance and dedication. "Gate banging", however low-quality it may be with regards to outward oriented results per hour, is an effective character-building activity that can be extremely high-quality use of time with regards to inward growth.
-ChssAddct