I attended the International Convention this year (to avoid chaos in family life). The Convention center was right on the middle of downtown St. Louis. The cult members had to stand in line on the public sidewalk before entering the arena. This meant that the JW's could not avoid but listen to what activist were saying while waiting in line.
There were 2 gentlemen each one in different entrances with their megaphones and signs. Once we entered the arena after being searched and screened the JW attendants, the jw's would immediately start asking each other "what was that guy saying?" "What did that sign say," Others would laugh and say the activist were crazy or APOSTATE others would laugh nervously. This happened all 3 days!!
The point I'm making here is JW's DO LISTEN and are INTERESTED in what an activist says even if he's rambling. On average, I would say that each attendee had to wait in line outside for 10-15 minutes before entering! Since the protesters were in a public sidewalk there was no way the JW's could avoid not listening.
The protesters were just rambling on and on about many subjects. None of them had a sign with jwfacts.com (unfortunately). The signs they held said "all JW's willl go to hell unless they accept Jesus". I feel this was a wasted golden opportunity to wake many up or to wet their appetite to start researching the cult.
What would've been efficient?
* Have a sign that said www.jwfacts.com instead of "Jesus saves" or "you're going to hell". These are turn offs to witnesses.
* instead of rambling on and on, use short sweet factual sentences and repeat them 3-4 times before going to the next short and sweet sentence.. Example:
"The Governing Body protects pedophiles".
"The Australian Royal Commission found more than 1000 cases of child sexual abuse in the organization and none were reported to the police".
"The Governing body teaches that Jesus is not your mediator. Research jwfacts.com to verify.
"The organization predicted the end for 1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975 and 2000. Research jwfacts.com to verify."
"The Governing Body is paying millions in lawsuits for covering up child abuse. They lost 35 million in Montana and paid 13.5 million in California to Jose Lopez".
The key here is to use short sentences and repeat them 3-4 times. Too bad these protesters were inefficient. They wasted the opportunity to have literally 10-15 minutes of JW's at their mercy and no where to run but the protesters were not prepared properly.
What a shame! Mighty Casey has struck out!
PS: I am against rude and aggressive activists. However the protesters in St. Louis blew the chance of a lifetime to reach the ears of literally thousands without the need of being rude, aggressive or nasty. A simple and repeated message would've made an impact.