{"id":5126,"date":"2021-05-11T08:15:59","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T05:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/?p=5126"},"modified":"2021-08-18T10:47:38","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T07:47:38","slug":"pandemic-changing-how-jehovahs-witnesses-share-message-of-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/pandemic-changing-how-jehovahs-witnesses-share-message-of-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Pandemic changing how Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses share message of faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been more than a year now since Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses have gone knocking on people\u2019s doors, and according to representatives for the faith group, even after the\u00a0coronavirus pandemic\u00a0ends, they may not resume going door to door \u2014 a longstanding tradition and act of perseverance for which the community is widely known.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jennifer and Kevin Mahard with their daughter, Jillian Mahard in their Whittier, CA, home on Thursday, May 6, 2021. The family of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses is writing letters instead of knocking on doors to spread their faith. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In March 2020, when much of the country\u00a0went into lockdown\u00a0to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the church closed all public meetings at its 13,000 congregations in the U.S., including 1,097 congregations in Southern California serving 150,000 members in 30 different languages.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shut down all public ministry, including going door to door, as well as in-home Bible studies for the first time ever in our church\u2019s history,\u201d said Robert Hendriks, national spokesman for Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses. \u201cThis was the first time ever in the history of our church that we stopped all kinds of public engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

No more door-knocking?<\/h4>\n

The church also canceled 5,600 conventions in 240 countries, something it didn\u2019t do during the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918, which infected about 500 million people worldwide and killed 50 million, Hendriks said.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cWe just wanted to make sure that our meetings, ministries and conventions did not cause the spread of this deadly disease,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s unfathomable for us as a people or organization to be held responsible for the deaths of others. It\u2019s irreconcilable with our Christian values and what we preach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite that knowledge, stopping the door-to-door ministry was a \u201cdisorienting event\u201d for practitioners of the faith because evangelism is an inextricable part of their core belief system, Hendricks said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople like me grew up knocking on doors and I\u2019ve done that since I was old enough to walk,\u201d Hendriks said. But, he added, \u201cwe found we could be effective using other forms of ministry like letter-writing and phone calls. Spirituality is not about a building or being with one another in person. It can still thrive when we\u2019re connected virtually or otherwise. We\u2019re still connecting emotionally, socially and spiritually.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pandemic may leave a permanent mark on Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses by ending door-to-door ministry, even after restrictions ease, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just hard to say if or when that can happen again,\u201d Hendriks said. \u201cThere\u2019s no question that meeting people face to face is the most powerful way to reach hearts. But there are many unknowns. We don\u2019t know how resilient the virus is, how it could mutate and whether we\u2019ll reach herd immunity. Even if the danger of community spread is gone, when will someone be comfortable with someone else knocking on their door again?\u201d<\/p>\n

The art of letter-writing<\/h4>\n

Reaching people through handwritten letters and phone calls seems \u201cdifferent,\u201d even intimidating at first, said Whittier resident Kevin Mahard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s different from speaking in person and reading someone\u2019s body language from which you can get a sense of them and they can see how genuine you are,\u201d he said. \u201cBut then, with door-knocking, sometimes people wouldn\u2019t answer the door. You\u2019d see cars in the driveway, but no one would open the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now Mahard, his wife, Jennifer, and 10-year-old daughter, Jillian, write letters to their neighbors. He says this approach seems effective.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople seem to read hand-written letters addressed to them,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like when I got a postcard from my grandma. It is personal and lets them know that I\u2019m a neighbor with genuine concern for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

They find their neighbors by going online and looking at public records for addresses and phone numbers of people and families in their ZIP code to whom they can reach out.<\/p>\n

Lisa Brown of Anaheim said that this pivot during the pandemic has introduced her sons, Nathan, 14, and Noah, 10, to the long-lost art of letter-writing. Her sons get on Zoom with others in their congregation, and write the letters together, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have to focus on their penmanship and make sure it\u2019s legible,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThey have to identify themselves, their age and the purpose of the letter.\u201d<\/p>\n

They pick from templates that offer different topics such as hope, comfort, dealing with sickness, the pandemic and the loss of a loved one, and connect those topics with a Scripture verse that would bring comfort to someone reading the letter, Brown explained, adding that older recipients appreciate the letters even more because they are personal and uncommon these days.<\/p>\n

Nathan Brown said writing has helped him develop patience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also helps me bond with others,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we\u2019re with our friends (on Zoom) writing letters, it gives us comfort knowing that we\u2019re not the only ones being restricted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Same message, new delivery<\/h4>\n

Other faith groups such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known for their missionary outreach, have stopped knocking on doors and resorted to social media and videoconferencing as a way to communicate with their neighbors.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur social media activity has increased tenfold,\u201d said Marshall McKinnon, president of the church\u2019s San Bernardino Mission. \u201cFor the last year, we\u2019ve not approached anyone in person. Over the last month or so, with restrictions relaxing, some of our members have started approaching people in public locations like parks, but with masks on and socially distanced.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the pandemic, the church has also placed a strong emphasis on acts of community service such as volunteering in food banks or helping neighbors, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pandemic has certainly helped us realize how we can be more effective with social media,\u201d McKinnon said. \u201cDoor-knocking might be out the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though she misses\u00a0the face-to-face communication that comes from door-knocking, Lisa Brown said she doesn\u2019t dwell on what she can\u2019t do or what she may not be able to do in the future because those thoughts can be negative and overwhelming.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try not to think too far ahead,\u201d she said. \u201cI just try to think of today. It\u2019s hard not to meet people in person. But we\u2019re still trying to bring love and comfort in ways that we can. Thinking of today keeps the focus on the benefits and blessings we have right now instead of dwelling on what we don\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ontario resident Hannah Maisel who attends the Mountain View Hindi-speaking congregation in Riverside said she finds writing letters and making phone calls in a language she is still learning \u201cenjoyable.\u201d She\u2019s also been writing letters of comfort to Indian families, many of whom are dealing with the trauma of seeing the coronavirus pandemic ravage the nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just breaks my heart to see what\u2019s happening in India,\u201d Maisel said.<\/p>\n

If the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses stop knocking on doors, that doesn\u2019t mean they stop delivering their message, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we reach more people now because we don\u2019t have to deal with gated communities and barking dogs,\u201d Maisel said. \u201cI\u2019d love to see the door-to-door ministry come back. But if it doesn\u2019t, I\u2019m happy to do what I need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been more than a year now since Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses have gone knocking on people\u2019s doors, and according to representatives for the faith group, even after the\u00a0coronavirus pandemic\u00a0ends, they may not resume going door to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5128,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5126\/revisions\/5128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}