by highdose 18 Replies latest jw friends
I remember asking a uber dub i was on the FS with " if you were the HH would you want to know more after listening to your presentation?" She addmitted that no, she wouldn't have wanted to listen further.
So basicly the FS is really quite useless? The JWs doing it mostly have neither the skills nor interest to make a HH want to listen. Its just an excerise in getting points. 12 hours, 3 mags, 12 RVs 5 books, 1 BS!!!
some presentations are better than others.....
personally I think informal witnessing is far more effective.....because it allows a conversation to develop more naturally versus interupting a person's life via cold call.
don't get me wrong, I can nail any presentation in TMS.... but in actual d2d it is better to just share a scripture, see if the carrot is taken or simple thank them for their time and move on (that is if I actually knock on the door versus leaving tract or standing in silence appearing to be waiting for the HH---- which must seem really creepy from the street by non-jws)
Are you kidding? NONO NO NO NO (capials for emphasis)
All JW's think that their salvation depends on going d2d,
without that field service report your doomed
that slip is your only ticket to paradise
so this means what Jesus did wasn't enough
think about it active witnesses, is what Jesus
sacraficed good enough for you?
Let's put it this way...
The overly-simplistic, menial presentations are meant to reach their intended audience.
Superpunk said it perfectly. When was the last time that someone without some sort of mental illness converted to the Witnesses due exclusively to the d2d ministry? I don't know if I ever met one. Apparently it used to happen in the seventies/early eighties when my parents converted but everyone in my peer group were born-ins. Most of the willing converts I ever met were at least a little "off". This used to really bother me when I was a JW.
I'm speaking here strictly of the U.S. of course. I'm sure it happens more often in third world countries where superstition is rampant and standards of evidence are totally unnecessary when it comes to religious belief.
The presentations were fairly effective in the mid 1980s, before householders got the tools to research things. I myself have placed a few rags, and got a few to read parts of the Suffer Forever book. The beliefs were defendable, if not true, back in those days.
Then, things got worse. The doctrines went from believable to blatantly wrong, and more people would take the rags simply to either get rid of the witlesses or just so they could see what kind of bullsxxx they contain. And they got more tools to cross-reference the religion with the Bible and those who have been through it, often the same day (and sometimes within minutes) they got the littera-trash. Most intelligent people at this point would conclude that the religion is not the truth, and drop out of it. Those with severe mental or emotional problems would be looking for some hope, however false, and would progress.
When I was still going to meetings, there was an experience of person becoming a new study.. The pioneer sister said she had called (phone service) this person for several years and never got a response. One day, the person answered the phone and was all in a panic- instead of going with her presentation the pioneer asked if she could help in any way. She ended up taking the lady to work, picking her up in the evening- and helping somehow with the lady's adult daughter. Now the pioneer drives her to all the meetings, and they are studying.
I remember quite a few years ago at a DC a pioneer said she can do D2D service in deeds, like carrying someones groceries, asking them if they need help or what not... I wonder if she slipped a tract in the boxed goods bag, or used one of those lines 'the reason I was so helpful today, was because I am a JW...'
If I was never involved in religion, I don't know how I would react to a stranger telling me they have the truth at my door.
Now wait a minute Galileo,
I was a convert, when they tried to dumb me down , and tell me independant
thinking was not allowed, that was enough for me, and i don't consider myself
mentally unstable at all. but i do find that the longer one is exposed to this group the more harm it's
likely to cause to one's mental stability.
It seems to me that most JWs want the householder to be polite but dread the responsibility of having to actually conduct a study. That's why so few of them ever try to improve their sales technique. They don't mind people taking the mags but having to go back every week, week after week? That would suck.
