We are slowly moving away from that kind of preaching work

by oppostate 46 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  oppostate

  John Hoyle--JWs go knocking on strangers’ doors and try to get inside homes to preach.

  WT rep--“We are slowly moving away from that kind of preaching work,”
  “We do more preaching by using literature carts and personal telephone calls.”

  The above quote is from John Hoyle's website:
  http://insidethewatchtower.com/doctrine/phone-calls-to-bethel-jw-org-email-and-contacts/

  It's interesting, isn't it? They are moving away from the house to house, not-at-home-to-not-at-home witnessing work. And the focus of the preaching work is moving towards using literature carts and phone calls.

  This change would defintely be a big change in the way the WT operates.

  How would you feel this change would affect the WT/JW organization?
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  Crazyguy

  That's hilarious because they always made it as though they were the truth because they were the only ones going house to house. Probably stopping this kinda of work do to the pedophile problem. They also don't want followers exposed to ttatt or any other message that may wake them up. The cart witnessing is to keep them busy but they don't talk to people anymore. They know they don't get new ones in thier just trying to keep ones from leaving and indoctrination the kids.
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  joe134cd

  Very insightful that article and the 2 telephone calls that were made to them. I totally understand what he's saying about the problems with contacting them, commenting etc. Deep down I think Wt knows it (well they would be fools if they didnt). It kind of leaves me scratching my head how they will spend millions of dollars and countless man hours knocking on doors, to find an interested person. Then when someone dose take an interest in the religion they have no means of contact and no one replies to them.
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  Finkelstein

  Yes I can see that since this is the way the first apostles preached out on the streets with literature carts.
  
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  oppostate

  Yeah, and it's kind of don't contact us, we'll contact you attitude through their web site presence.
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  Finkelstein

  It would appear that street work isn't effective as calling on people's homes so if they go to this direction they're in for an unfortunate surprise.
  
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  oppostate

  It would appear that street work isn't effective as calling on people's homes so if they go to this direction they're in for an unfortunate surprise.

  Uhuh, yup! Which as stated above by Crazyguy, has probably more to do with shielding themselves from lawsuits than the effectiveness of making disciples.
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  OneEyedJoe

  Hmmm...I seem to remember that every part about informal/street/phone/whatever witnessing s always had the disclaimer "while our house-to-house work will always be our primary means of contacting interested ones..." What happened to that? I wonder if this statement is more of a PR thing to explain why JWs are less present these days (couldn't possibly be declining numbers or apathy!). Something tells me that a r/f jw would still claim the d2d work as the primary preaching work - my wife certainly would.
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  freemindfade

  me too oneeyedjoe, more shifting.
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  punkofnice

  sorry....this is a bit old now but hey ho.....