Re PTC Mission 2010 again, one of the candidates compiled statistics for the week.

Door Knocking

Out of 878 doors we knocked on, 555 were not home (63%), 240 said no thanks (74% of those who were home), and 83 conversations were held. In other words, about 1 in 10 spoke to us. Of the 83 conversations, 56 answered the questionnaire, and 27 included discussion of the Gospel. I’m not quite sure how those stats work, but I suspect that the 27 also answered the questionnaire (so that 83 actually did the questionnaire in total). Bit confused.

Conclusions: there is in doorknocking some useful community contact, but it would probalby need to be done with some regularity to have any extensive exposure. I think the candidates quickly discovered what I had found from my own experience – door knocking can be frustrating just from the sheer number of people not home.

Busstopping

I found the stats for busstopping more confusing, but I think the gist of it is that there were 148 conversations held, which includes the answering of the questionnaire 130 times, and 55 Gospel discussions. We didn’t collect stats for how many said no thanks, but anecdotally it seemed that more people were willing to talk to us at the busstop than in their homes.

I confess that I forgot to tell the stats man my figures for the last day (sorry, Adam), and by the time I remembered I had forgotten, the stats had already been published. I didn’t have the heart to tell Adam, so I thought I’d confess to it on the internet.

Conclusions: busstopping gave much better contact than doorknocking. It was interesting that on the first day of the mission, almost no-one put their hand to go to the busstops. Doorknocking was seen to be the much safer option. However, one we tried both, most did not want to go back to doorknocking. Busstopping actually provides a more encouraging experience, and provides for more personal, one on one conversations, on neutral territory.

Totals

Combining doorknocking and busstopping, 186 questionairres were completed, 231 conversations were held, and 82 Gospel discussions were held. No, I haven’t checked if all the figures add up.

Conclusions

Do we like the idea of keeping stats? Are they accurate? Do they measure what we are really hoping to achieve? Do they tell us anything we didn’t already know?

I think doorknocking has a significance that the stats do not show, but perhaps for a busy pastor who is looking for a way to speak directly with his community, grab an elder or the minister from the adjacent parish, and go to your local bus stops.