The thread about the 6 million bible studies reminded me of some things that always bothered me about going door to door.
1. As mentioned in the other thread, there were times that COs and elders would tell us to not identify ourlselves as JWs. Tell them we are "students of the bible" or "concerned neighbors", etc. I always bucked at that. If someone comes to my door selling something or asking for signatures or donations, I want to know who they are and who they represent. If they are not forthcoming with that information, then off my porch they go. I alwasy identified myself as a JW when someone came to the door. I'm on their property, invading their privacy. They have a right to know who and what I am. I got counseled more than once about it but I never changed.
2. Before the "donation arragnement" there were fixed prices on all literature. I remember when I was very young that mags were 5 cents a copy. I think they were .25 by the time of the change. Books went from .25 to a dollar over time. Not very expensive. But, we were selling them. "to cover the cost of printing" was the excuse. At that low, low price, if I was really sincere about helping people learn the "truth" I should have been willing to pay for it myself. Isn't that the whole point of the door to door ministry? To preach and teach? Not trade and sell. At first I praised the donation arrangement. I was so tired of selling books. Now I could give them away to people who really seemed interested. That exuberance quickly died as service meeting after service meeting spent as much time on how to ask for donations as it did on how to use the literature. I was beginning to see the WTS as a book publishing company instead of God's earthly organization.
3. This one bugs me the most. How many times did we respond to the classic householder line, "I have my own religion" with "we understand that most people have their own religion. We are not here to convert peope. We are just sharing a hope from the Bible...." or some such nonsense? We most certainly were there to convert people. I myself spouted that line countless times. And each time I said it, I knew I was lying. My father-in-law loves to tell field ministry experiences. Each time he says that he overcame some objection and each time he tells them that "we aren't trying to convert....". I couldn't help myself one day. I interupted him and said, "yes you are. That's exactly what your're trying to do. That's the whole reason you're there, is to try to get him to study, then come to the hall and then get baptized. To tell him anything is else is a deception".
Wouldn't it be refreshing to hear a JW tell the truth for once and say, "Hello, my name is (insert name here). I'm one of Jehovah's Witnesses. We're calling today to see if you'd be interested in buying some of our literature and converting to our religion."