Well expressed, Terry.
Jehovah's Witnesses seldom do as the TMS Guidebook suggests: Maintain common ground. As you suggested in another thread, their modus operandi is to dismantle another's beliefs. Of course, that almost NEVER works.
Imagine a householder graciously inviting a witness into their home and saying "I've always wondered what you people actually believe. I have a half hour. Please tell me your basic message, your core beliefs." The average JW would not have a coherent, polished, well-reasoned approach. It would not be as easy as reaching for the current "Awake!" on "What Is Happening to Our Coral Reefs?" or falling back into the current KM suggested Topic for Conversation. It would not be an epic moment like Stephen's testimony or Paul's before the Antioch synagogue, the Areopogus or Gallio.
As you think back on it, we were poorly trained for the work we attempted to do. Most of what we learned or practiced in meetings was impractical, unworkable. A typical meeting for service involved trying to harmonize a scripture text with a nearly irrelevant "Watchtower" paragraph, then assigning cargroups with careful allowance for cliques, feuds, breakers and non-breakers, the in and the out crowds, etc. In the field JW's were simply an early morning annoyance at the door, a lingering mid-morning annoyance at McDonald's, breathing a collective sigh of relief as the clock neared the noon hour. An impotent educational work to say the least.
tms
