The Quiet Canvas
When Pastor Steven Bunkoff and the Congregational church decided to canvass every home in their small town of Savannah, New York, they printed no brochures or newsletters. They ordered no tracts. They didn't even ring a single doorbell.
All they did was pray.
Street by street, week after week from July through to the end of the year, they asked God to touch the lives of those who lived (or worked) on each of the town's 40 streets. Bunkoff used a red marker to highlight each week's target on a map mounted at the front of the sanctuary. Occasionally he grouped short or sparsely populated streets, so that the entire town was covered in about 25 weeks. Each Sunday morning, he led the congregation in prayer and urged them to continue throughout the week, not naming individuals but only the street.
Did anything happen?
"People began visiting our church, and there was no 'natural' explanation—other than that we prayed," says the pastor. "One Sunday four families from one street came after our week of praying for them. Two of those have continued to attend the church, one becoming very involved."
When Bunkoff first presented the idea to the church board, there was lengthy discussion about whether to have face-to-face calling, too. "We finally decided to go with strictly prayer," Bunkoff says. "I think some of our people were genuinely surprised at the results. They supported the canvass, but they were still amazed when visitors began showing up.
"Actually, we didn't pray that people would necessarily come to our church. We only prayed that God would touch their lives. And he has."
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