An apocryphal story that I believe: You might not, but I do because it was told by someone I consider trustworthy and who was there:
Sometime during the 1980s there were “high-level” discussions at Bethel over, of all things, is it necessary for all Christians to preach.
It only took 40 years to reveal that the answer is no.
You wouldn’t think it necessary to qualify “necessary.” But it is. Is it “necessary” to obey the speed limit signs? ‘Only if a cop is around’ will be the answer of many.
So it is with taking part in the ministry of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Is it “necessary?” Check a box saying you have taken some part in it within the month and you are done. The answer is effectively no, from a human point of view. The answer may be yes from God’s point of view, but it is left for each individual to call it as he sees it. Human-wise, the answer is no. I don’t expect Witness HQ ever to say it, but de facto the answer is no, even though it be yes from God. Practically speaking, anything not backed up by human discipline becomes a no.
That’s why the 2005 book ‘The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience’ said that, to their shame, church members in general live no different from the world. Most of them know it should not be that way. But without human discipline to buttress good intentions, conduct of the two groups, Christians and the overall world, soon becomes indistinguishable.
The preaching activity is no longer a topic of “discipline.” It’s not for one house servant to monitor that activity of another, is the thinking—to his own master he stands or falls. Check a box at month’s end that you engaged in some from of the ministry and the deal is done. You could lie and nobody would know. Probably some PIMOs do lie, but the overall ministry keeps going strong.
Change is okay. You look like an old fart when you start crying about how it’s not like it used to be. When cart-witnessing proliferates, by default, door-to-door will diminish. It’s all good. Every time there’s any change of any sort, the crazies cheering for downfall point to it as proof that the Witnesses are going down. Instead, they just adapt to the times.
Recently, a certain sprawling apartment complex in our territory converted their contact system to make it impossible for Witnesses, or anyone else, to contact residents. Good riddance, as far as I’m concerned. It had become a horrible nuisance, with loud aggravating buzzers, tenants stoked by friends whose zeal and thoroughness, in some cases, outweighed common sense. Good riddance. That’s what the cart work is for, where people interested can approach the Witnesses, and people not are not annoyed.
I don’t see that overall ministry activity among Witnesses has decreased. It has changed, with many making cart work their new favorite, and some letter-writing. But I think the overall ministry remains steady, even if morphed to adapt to changing times. As for me, I take part regularly in the door-to-door ministry, not much in the cart work, and I think the ministry unimpeded by the new non-counting policy.
Unlike Covid, which did impede and from which full recovery has not taken place. That began people writing letters, formerly the method of the elderly and infirm, but during Covid everyone switched to the method, it being one of the few available, and some didn’t come back. I started a few letters then, too, but every time I did I came to reflect I could put something online instead and receive quick feedback, rather than send something into the great void and never hear of it again.
Door-to-door and the Bible study work is still the gold standard. That point was made abundantly clear at the recent convention, but there are now various supplementary methods.
****** The bookstore
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