It is sometimes much easier to knock on the door of a stranger and tell him that if he doesn’t repent of his sin and accept the Lord Jesus Christ he is on his way to eternal damnation in hell than it is to contact someone we know well. The stranger has no idea whether or not you really believe or understand what you are saying to him. He has no way to know if this truth has made any difference in your life. So it is very difficult to reach someone that way. It is not impossible; it can be done. But our best contacts are our kindred and acquaintances. And that means we must not just tell them the message, we must live it. If we are not careful we will develop the mindset that knocking on doors is the only way to do evangelistic work. We begin to think that telling it is enough; living it doesn’t matter. But we really need both.

Paul W. Downey, More Than Spectators, (Greenville, SC: Ambassador Emerald, 2002), 113.