When I was a Witness (ministerial servant/pioneer), even then I knew of the problems with the organization and the unscriptural things that were being practiced, but I thought that I could rise above it myself and promote a more basic walk with God among the people that I talked to. So in my door-to-door presentations, it was me with no briefcase, just a Bible in my hand. I would approach a householder with the simple objective of offering them something from the Bible that would lift their spirits. Long story short, you would be amazed at how many meaningful conversations I got into with people. When others would go to the door with me, they would say stuff like, "Your presentations are a little different from what the KM suggests." But it worked, and that was the point.
I also did this with public talks. I would use very little of the outline. But the audience was more captivated when I did it this way, and got tons more compliments about how the talk helped them in some way than if I had stayed rigidly with the outline.
One time I gave the public talk at a congregation about an hour away from my home, and after the meeting was over, the public talk coordinator for that congregation came up to me with a stern look on his face and said, "Which outline were you using?" And then I showed him the actual outline and he said, "Yes, I was following along with my copy of the outline and it didn't seem like you were using it." But right about then some lady came up to me and was sooooooo gracious toward me for coming to give the talk and explained how she loved it and that pretty much ended the other conversation.
I am convinced that the leadership of the JW's are the modern-day Pharisees.
