Why Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Preach?
In asking the above question as to why Witnesses preach, I’m not looking for the usual answer that Witnesses typically repeat verbatim: “Because Jesus did,” or “We are only following Jesus’ example.” Yes yes…
Allow me to share a recollection about a certain Jehovah’s Witness friend of mine who served as a regular pioneer. Roxanne[1] was one of the first friends I made in the congregation when I was still ‘in.’ She regular pioneered for years straight out of high school. She also worked part-time in order to ensure she could remain in the full-time service.
Her one ambition (if I may call it that) was that she wanted to go to bethel. At that time, the bethel in South Africa seldom accepted single sisters who applied. However, she did eventually get in – by marrying a bethelite. Then, roughly seven years later, she and her husband left bethel, and she continued pioneering – so far as I know – ’til to this day.
As a person, Roxanne is the sweetest loveliest person I know; she was always looking out for everyone else. In fact, she often had ‘gatherings’ at her house for the youngsters so we could have some fun – supervised of course.
One night, on our way to the meeting, I was sitting with her in the back of the car; I could tell she was exhausted, completely maxed-out. She explained to me how she had been up since early that morning trying to get her field service hours in as it was the end of the service year.[2] During such year, a regular pioneer is required to put in a total of 840 hours – basically 70 hours a month.
Now, since she only had, like, a day left in order to make up her annual hours, she had been doing ‘crazy’ amounts of time in order to reach her goal. I, on the other hand, deprecated my own service, telling her that I only did, like, two hours all month.[3] I recall saying to her that doing all that pioneer time must surely feel amazing. Much to my surprise, instead of agreeing with me, she said – and very honestly – that she thought my two hours that were given to Jehovah in joy and love were surely worth more than her “forced” 70. Quality over quantity, basically.
I was quite surprised at this, because quantity – it seems – is all about being a “good” JW. That is why they have these hour requirements; there is a congregation average (usually about 10 hours a month) that all publishers are encouraged to achieve.
The global preaching work that Witnesses typically engage in.
Now that I am out of the organisation and able to think clearer, her frank comment strikes me even more now. Here was a regular pioneer doing everything that should be causing her to overflow with happiness – that is, according to the JW checklist – and, yet, here she was half envying my happily given preaching hours, “insignificant” as they were.
So it got me thinking, why do Witnesses preach? Put bluntly, because they have to. You cannot be a Witness and not preach, pretty much. If you don’t preach for three months consecutively, you are labelled as ‘inactive.’ You need to hand in a ‘field service report’ every month declaring how much you have done; this is how the congregation elders monitor your ‘spiritual health.’ Point is, if you are doing too little, a follow up may be deemed in order. In fact, I have heard so many stories of how Witnesses would falsify their hours just to keep the elders off of their backs.
Now, imagine if a quarter of a congregation of, say, a hundred members, are handing in fake hours, how much of that annual report is pure fiction then? Are they faking their hours out of malice? Not necessarily. It’s usually out of fear or pressure because they don’t want the elders to start boring their eyes into them wondering what’s wrong.
So, then, the next time a Witness knocks on your door, keep in mind that they may be in a position similar to my friend Roxanne. When you feel that usual (understandable) annoyance when you reach your doorstep, just remember that they are “compelled” to be at your doorstep to complete their service hours, and, of course, to maintain their image of being in ‘good standing.’ Yes, they engage in the preaching work in order to recruit new members for the organization, but, I submit, the overwhelming reason is simply to get their time in.
The new ‘cart witnessing’ bears testament to this, I believe. Think about it, are they talking to anyone? In my observation, most of the time they appear to just stand some distance away and watch, or, in some cases, just sit in their folding chairs all the while keeping an eye on the cart. Hardly the way Jesus preached, no? But, then again, to (really) preach might not have been the motivating factor for being there; this, we must accept, is certainly true for a great number of Witnesses.
#ThinkingWitnesses
(An earlier version of this article was published by the author on April 25, 2016)
[1] Names have been changed.
[2] “Field service” refers to the preaching work. Jehovah’s Witnesses have a ‘service year,’ much like a ‘financial year’ of a company.
[3] At the time, I had heavy responsibilities taking care of my chronically ill mother – I wasn’t just slacking off.
Comments (4)
Asiza,
May I be the first to, not only welcome you, but to thank you for sharing this story with us. This experience really resonates with me, having served as a pioneer myself (the end of the service year gives birth to certain anxieties, I must confess); I believe you’re lending voice to a subject that deserves audience, one that appears to have been confined to the realm of thoughtful whispers.
I look forward to hearing more from you…
Asiza,
Thank you for the insight and example of real life in the ‘hamster wheel’ of the JW ministry.
I recall with displeasure my first time back at my local Kingdom Hall after having been paroled from prison after serving time as a “neutral” conscientious objector. Mind you, I had spent parts of three years away from home, confined, abused, and often exasperated by my ‘choice’ in serving Jehovah by simply doing as I was told. I walked into the Kingdom Hall and was immediately approached–not for a welcome or greeting or inquiry about my well-being–but by my overseer (before the Elder arrangement) with a Pioneer sign-up form in his hand. “Brother Walstrom, I’m SURE you’ll want to get started in the Pioneer work as soon as possible.”
As it turned out, the Overseer’s son had been compelled into full-time work and he needed a companion to goad him. I was to be the goad.
Pioneering was, at best, a form of salesmanship. I’d sold Encyclopedia Brittanica sets door to door when I was in High School. The same feeling pervaded. A certain number of cold calls increased the odds in your favor for a sale. For a JW, the “sale” was having a Bible study. A “bonus” would be coaxing your study into visiting the Kingdom Hall.
In my opinion, Jehovah’s Witnesses have very little reality in their daily lives, living as they do on a steady regimen of fear and promises. The role of Statistics in the Organization is that of bolstering the illusion of effectiveness to the worldwide work.
Corporations are machines pumping out stats. How many widgets manufactured and sold, sales figures, profit and loss, are the life’s blood of corporate vigor and viability.
Watchtower history confirms the experience and sensibility of both Pastor Russell and Judge Rutherford’s early experience. Russell joined a Congregational church after departing from Presbyterianism. His new church was strapped for cash and the young members were sent out into the neighborhoods to solicit donations. Later, when Russell’s Studies in the Scriptures were not selling in regular bookstores, he hired colporteurs (door-to-door salesmen) to get the cash flowing and the sales figures percolating.
Judge Rutherford put himself through Law school through odd jobs earning money for his education. One of those jobs was selling encyclopedias. He promised himself he’d never turn away a book salesman after that experience. Ironically, it was how he came into contact with Russell’s works which led to his indoctrination and assimilation.
This early foundation and sense of personal contact in face to face sales was real to the WatchTower leaders. It was obviously a tangible cause and effect model of progress and subsequent results.
These men gerrymandered scriptures to create a fantasy of early Christian ministry as a template for modern Christians to follow.
The reality of the WatchTower as a Publishing Company is there in the statistics: Corporate survival = sales figures.
In the last decade, we see the business model has drastically shifted away from publishing. The failure of print media to compete in the marketplace with online competition is stark and dramatic. Local newspapers are enfeebled excuses for coupons and advertising disguised as journalism. Every major city in America once sported a minimum of two highly competitive newspapers battling each other for subscribers and pumping up competition for the best writers and stories. Those days are over.
The WatchTower and Awake! magazines are ghosts now, anemic, thin, garish comic book simulacrums hardly more sturdy than pamphlets. Yet, the rank and file JW member must keep alive the old school standard model of door-to-door sales and statistics to justify the existence of the corporation.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses I knew in the 50’s and 60’s were slick, highly-skilled gunslingers of the Word of God, eager for a shootout. We were quick draw artist who could skin back the pages on our little green NWT Bible and nail our householder with a carefully aimed citation before they knew what was happening. We welcomed debates, questions, objections and faced down any religious zealot or opponent with a glint of self-empowerment in our deeds. Today, however, the JW’s are poorly equipped ‘for every good work’ and skittish beyond all reckoning. They cower and tuck tail and run if hit with “apostate objections” gleaned from the proliferation of whistleblower material on the Internet.
What has happened? The illusion of being “Ministers” has hollowed out and faded–but the drive for numbers, stats, hours, baptisms, and Memorial attendance is as vital as ever! There is a crossroads moment coming soon to a Kingdom Hall near you. The illusory bubble is about to burst. The Organization can ill-afford to lose members. So many lawsuits, fines, and payouts are ahead, the big squeeze for contributions is more important than it has ever been before. There must be butts-in-the-folding chairs and pledges for cash or the whole matchstick kingdom will crash and burn.
I never met a long term Pioneer who wasn’t a female with a sturdy heart and mind filled with a noble sense of purpose. The True Believer is the most stalwart of all personality types. The Pioneer racks up the numbers fueled by a beautiful delusion of lifesaving, nurturing, and godliness. However, this sort of human being is the rarest of all rare birds and the WatchTower knows form experience they must capitalize on their efforts by holding them up as the “norm” rather than the exception. Consequently, every publisher is fairly brow-beaten with guilt-trips: “Why can’t you be like Sister So-and-So?”
Most JW’s are truly exhausted, depressed, unhealthy, and at wit’s end to please the Organization. The path toward that end is littered with the corpses of burnt out failures, and DF’d ‘losers’ who collapsed under the burden and guilt and starvation for gratitude and a kind word.
The Statistics of Jehovah’s Witness pretend ministry is a scam and a sham, but it a conceit which keeps their Brand alive. At least, temporarily. Who knows what tomorrow will bring ?
Terry,
How can I put this more eloquently than: “Ghaaa’damn!” 😀
(You should copyright this comment)
Hi Terry, you made some excellent points. Watchtower was a publishing company and since the age of printing has taken a far back seat to digital everything they have had to change their tactics. They look far more like the cult they truly are. I remember ‘back in the day’ when JW’s were seen as very knowledgeable of the bible and able to ‘defend’ their beliefs to anyone and everyone – those days are surely gone.