2. There is not one instance in the Bible where Jesus Himself is said to have gone from house to house. If this were such an indispensable feature of Christian ministry, one would think it would be explicitly stated that the Lord Himself had done so. Telling His disciples to go to people's homes is not the same thing as commanding them to engage in door-to-door evangelism - of course they would go to people's homes to instruct them in an age where there was no TV, radio, Internet, printed Bibles or literature or other means of mass communication. Going to people’s homes does not equate to knocking randomly at the doors of strangers.
Wow. The disciples didn't preach door to door but they would preach from private home to private home. Actually, it is explicitly stated (at least three times) that the disciples preached from house to house, under direction from Jesus Christ himself. Again, let's look at Jesus' instructions to his disciples at Matthew 10:11
"11 “Into whatever city or village YOU enter, search out who in it is deserving, and stay there until YOU leave. 12 When YOU are entering into the house, greet the household; 13 and if the house is deserving, let the peace YOU wish it come upon it; but if it is not deserving, let the peace from YOU return upon YOU. 14 WHEREVER ANYONE DOES NOT TAKE YOU IN OR LISTEN TO YOUR WORDS, on going out of that HOUSE or that city shake the dust off YOUR feet. 15 Truly I say to YOU, It will be more endurable for the land of Sod′om and Go·mor′rah on Judgment Day than for that city."
Let's put our thinking caps on. How are the disciples to search out in a city who is deserving and who is not? How can Jesus say the entire city will be judged on Judgement Day if the disciples only went to talk to a few people here and there in private homes? Also, notice that Jesus says "wherever anyone does not listen to YOUR words...on going out of THAT HOUSE". Now if Jesus' disciples are just teaching people in their private homes, why would the people they are teaching not listen to their words? Again, why is the entire city/village going to be judged on Judgement Day if all the disciples are doing is teaching/preaching in private homes?
3. The Greek term translated "from house to house" in Acts 20:20 can also be translated "in private homes," and the context indicates that it is much better translated that way there. Paul was not talking about some sort of door to door evangelism program in those verses, he was talking about how he instructed the ELDERS of the Ephesian church. Again, it's not surprising that he would go to their private homes in order to instruct them. The way JWs try to use that verse, we would have to understand that Paul went up and down the streets of Ephesus, randomly knocking on doors until he found an elder of the church, then would go in and instruct him. Doesn't make nearly as much sense.
No it does not. Paul is summarizing events that haven take place over a period of three years. That is why Paul says "YOU well know how from the first day that I stepped into the [district of] Asia I was with you the whole time.." Now if Paul is talking about his preaching to the elders, this statement must be false. On Paul's first day in the district of Asia there were no disciples. There was no congregation. There were no elders. How could Paul have been with the elders, preaching to them in their private homes from the first day he came into Asia? Also, why does Paul mention opposition from the Jews regarding his preaching. How were the Jews opposing and setting plots against Paul if he was simply going to the private homes of the elders? It is very obvious whose interpretation doesn't make nearly as much sense.
4. The only verse in the NT that could possibly be used in support of door to door type evangelism by any early Christians would be Acts 5:42, but the same Greek phrase could as easily also be translated there as "in private homes," and would make just as much sense. In the absence of other evidence for early Christian door to door preaching, we cannot assert this text as sole proof, since its meaning in this matter is not conclusive. We would have to be reading our idea of door to door evangelism into the verse rather than drawing it out. Even if the early Christians did use this method of evangelizing, it would not necessarily mean that such a method is required for Christians today, since there are much more effective methods of reaching large numbers of people that don't carry the negative social implications associated today with making uninvited visits to the homes of strangers. There is no command anywhere in Scripture to preach specifically from house to house; the concept is imposed on the text by JWs, not drawn from the text.
If it so easily translated and understood to also mean "in private homes" why do most translations render it "from house to house". Why does a literal translation of the Greek words read "TO houses" and not "IN houses"? We CAN assert this as conclusive because we have clear instructions from Jesus to his disciples about searching out who is deserving in a city/village. "If anyone does not take you in or listen to your words..on going out of THAT HOUSE.." There is nothing ambiguous about these instructions. These weren't instructions to go and preach to people in private homes, they were to search the entire city for deserving ones. How could this be done if they did not go door to door? Then we later have corroborating evidence that this was a Christian practice since the disciples are doing so in Acts 5:42 and Paul and his missionary companions are still doing so in Acts 20.
5. As far as the effectiveness of such door to door ministry, it is actually very ineffective. If you divide their hours spent in "field service" by the number of baptisms for (for example) the year 2011 (as reported in their Yearbook), you find that 5,451 hours had to be spent in their ministry for every new baptism that occurred, and that's not taking into consideration that the majority of those baptisms were probably of young people who had been raised as JWs. That doesn't sound like a very effective method of spreading the word to me. A cynical mind (such as mine) might conclude that the purpose of the door-knocking work for JWs is to keep them so busy that they don't have time to ask questions, rather than to effectively spread their message.
1950--1 in 5000 attended the memorial
2001--1 in 400 attended the memorial
1950--1 JW for 7000 people
2000--1 JW for 1000 people
Wow, the door to door work without a doubt, statistically, is effective. But then again Jesus, Paul, and the early Christians knew they best way to spread their message.