Door to Door

I-follow-the-narrow-path

Just wondering... what do you think about the JW going door to door? Do you like it or dislike it? why? My view is ( weather something is false or not) I think it is great someone shares what they love with someone else. Yes, they are pushy, but anyone would be if they are dedicated to something. Any religious person... would tell you they are right. People get into fights... debating who is right too. Door to Door service I think is great... and other religions should do it. If you are passionate about what you do.. would YOU not ant to share it?

BizzyBee

No.

DanTheMan

Few JW's are really passionate about it, most are just going through the motions. Have you ever really read the magazines they leave? Oftentimes they're really quite stupid and shallow, and anything dealing with the JW theology is so filled with buzzwords and catch phrases and JW-lingo that most people would have no idea what the article is about. The Awake! magazine titled "Health for Arthritis Sufferers" from 2001 was one of the last straws for me. I thought, "God's gonna kill people at the big A because they weren't interested when a JW came to their door and mumbled some presentation and offered them a magazine with a cover story about... arthritis????" The cognitive dissonance was just too much.

I-follow-the-narrow-path

oh of course I have read.. I go to the Kingdom Hall and have bible study. I am just getting more opinons before I get to involved or something. I don't think they are "stupid"-- I see them as study guides for the answers I have. :)

Narkissos

I see them as study guides for the answers I have.

More than you think perhaps. The Watchtower's "study guides" provide you with:

(1) The Watchtower's questions

(2) The Watchtower's answers

(3) The Watchtower's prooftexts

(4) The Watchtower's dismissal of diverging opinions and prooftexts.

If you follow such a "study guide", you have to be very bright not to conclude that the Watchtower is right.

Now if you are really interested in the Bible, you don't need questions and answers. All you need is pick up one good recent translation, or several, and read the texts as they are (not one verse here and there). It is not that hard, unless you have a preconceived idea of "what the Bible teaches," which is exactly what the Watchtower tries to inculcate to you before you have an opportunity to read for yourself and make your own mind.

Dr Jekyll

Jehovah's witnesses destroyed my family, they tore it apart with their teachings and nearly drove me to suicide.

Elizabeth, please don't do this.

peacefulpete

If you ever sat in the car and observed the activity you would not have suggested it was merely sharing something you love but rather the condemning of what others love. Most JWs have no clue about other faiths and much less about religious history. Going to people uninvited and telling them their religious and political views are wrong without trying to understand them is egocentric. And I'm sure someone already mentioned the obvious, JWs don't go door to door because they like the idea but because the WTS tells them they must do it to please God. The majority would MUCH prefer the WT magazines to be available by subscription and advertized through normal marketing methods.

under_believer

Look, here's the deal Elizabeth.
Going door to door to share your faith? I think that's fine. If the "spirit moves you," or whatever, and it's what you really want to do, more power to you. There are some Witnesses that really enjoy it and get into lots of good conversations all the time and brighten people's days. Honestly there are.
However, here is what I have a problem with:
* Making people keep track of how much time they spend doing it
* requireing them to report that time
* Sending that report with your name on it to a corporation in New York where it will be put into a file
* Making little kids do it
* Teaching that people who don't do it or who do it less somehow have less standing before God
* Treating those same people worse that other people who do it more
* Requiring people to pass out non-Bible literature instead of working from the Bible alone
* Having a whole heirarchical system of ranks based on it (publisher, auxiliary pioneer, pioneer, special pioneer, missionary)
* Saying that Jesus himself commanded his servants specifically to go door to door for all time, both back then and 2000 years later, and that Witnesses are simply following Jesus' command to go door to door
Does that make sense? It's not the door to door ministry itself that is bad, it's the way the Witnesses do it.

itsallgoodnow

Ah, another one.

Kenneson

Going door to door was not the preferred method of evangelization performed by Jesus and his disciples. Rather, they went to where people were already gathered (crowds). Both Jesus and his disciples preached in the synagogues. Jesus preached to the crowds (sermon on the mount), also when he fed the 5,000, etc. But, to get those crowds interested often required someone being healed. The only time we are told he went to individual houses was by invitation. When Jesus sent the 72 out to preach, he told them to go into a village and seek out someone worthy there. This they did by either preaching in the synagogues or in the market place. They were not to go from house to house, but to stay in that house, using it as a base, until they considered their work done. See Luke 10:1-11 If the people were not hospitable they were to move on to another village. How does that compare with the Watchtower Society, who will sue a township (like Stratton, Ohio) if it doesn't want Witnesses to preach there?

What about Paul? His method was the same. He preached in the synagogues (Acts 19:8) and the market places (Acts 17:17) or where there were crowds (Acts. 16:13-15 and Acts 17:23-34). He didn't go from door to door. Yes, he did preach and teach in houses because that is where the believers met. See, for instance, Acts 2:1-2; Acts 20:7-12; Romans 16:5. When it says Paul taught from house to house does not mean he went from door to door. Acts 20:18, 20 He taught them publicly in the synagogues or elsewhere and in their house congregations. See also 1 Cor. 16:9 which shows there were several house churches or congregations in Asia; remember those are the people he's talking about in Acts 20:20.

Door to door is not the method of preaching advocated by the Bible. And neither Jesus and his disciples nor Paul ever needed to "place" Bible aids. That is the method of the Watchtower Society, not of the Bible.

Door to Door

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