Door-to-door evangelism is the practice of going from house to house to share a religious message and seek converts, most strongly associated with Jehovah's Witnesses but practised also by Latter-day Saint missionaries and various evangelical groups. For Jehovah's Witnesses the ministry is a defining and obligatory activity, understood as obedience to Jesus's command to preach the good news of God's kingdom throughout the world before the end comes, and modelled on the early Christians who are described as teaching "from house to house." Witnesses devote regular hours to the work, keep records of their activity, and offer literature and Bible discussion at the door, regarding the ministry as both a duty and a means by which the householder is given opportunity to respond before the coming judgment.
The practice has repeatedly tested the legal boundaries of religious freedom, and Jehovah's Witnesses in particular have brought a series of landmark cases, especially before the United States Supreme Court in the mid-twentieth century, that established important protections for door-to-door religious canvassing, distributing literature and refusing to be silenced by local ordinances, decisions that broadened free-speech and free-exercise rights for everyone. The ministry is also a frequent source of friction, unwelcome to many who are approached, and the groups that practise it have developed their own norms of politeness and persistence. It expresses a conviction, shared across the missionary faiths, that the message they carry is urgent and universal, and that it must be brought directly to people rather than waiting for them to seek it out.