Vera Phillips watched the six modestly-dressed people, Bibles in hand, walk down the block and approach neighboring homes.
“I knew exactly who they were when I saw them, so I just waited,” said Phillips, who lives in Albany but was in town during one of her frequent visits with her daughter and her family in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward.
Once a familiar sight in many neighborhoods, Jehovah’s Witnesses, are now returning to their door-to-door ministry after a 2 1/2 year hiatus due to the pandemic.
It was the first time in more than 100 years that congregants, who number more than 8.6 million around the globe and roughly 51,000 in Georgia, did not travel in organized door-to-door visits.
Credit: Christina Matacotta
Credit: Christina Matacotta
The pandemic caused many changes in the way faith-based groups operated, including holding virtual rather then in-person worship services, taking communion and holding in-person communal prayers, baptisms and weddings, until cases began to fall.
Jehovah’s Witnesses were no exception, but now they are returning to some of their familiar practices.
“Our congregants are really excited,” said Herb Joseph, who grew up in a Baptist household and was baptized a Jehovah’s Witness when he was a student at Georgia Tech.
One recent morning he and his wife, Tanya, joined four others to spread the word about Jehovah, which is another name for God . “We really enjoy the face-to-face, knocking on doors and talking with people in person.”
Joseph, a managing director for an energy company and an elder in the Atlanta-based Highland Congregation, has been ministering door-to-door for 40 years.
Credit: Christina Matacotta
Credit: Christina Matacotta
Phillips, 70, a retired educator, who is Baptist, didn’t mind talking about God or the Bible. She has the Jehovah’s Witnesses website on her computer and is familiar with The Watchtower, one of the denomination’s main magazines.
“I feel comfortable because you’re talking to me about the Bible,” said Phillips. “It better be something you can believe in out here. If you believe in the foolishness out here, you’re in big trouble. You better believe in something bigger than you.”
Much has changed since June 20, 2020 when in-person visits were paused.
Credit: Christina Matacotta
Credit: Christina Matacotta
Like many others, Robert Hendriks, U.S. spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses, didn’t expect the pandemic to last as long as it did. Fortunately, the denomination was already in the process of expanding its reach such as calling people, writing letters or holding Zoom talks. Interested people can also request a visit from a minister (what a baptized Jehovah’s Witness is considered) via the denomination’s website.
The denomination was founded in the 1870s and grew out of the International Bible Student Association.
“We’re really spreading the good news in the Bible,” said Hendriks. “It’s a message of comfort.”
Hendriks doesn’t like using the word evangelize because, he said, in recent years it “means something political to many people. Not Jehovah’s Witnesses. We’re neutral.”
Many also know about Jehovah’s Witnesses because of their stance on refusing blood transfusions which, they believe, are against God’s will according to Scripture.
Famous members included Prince, who was baptized a Jehovah’s Witness as an adult, and Serena Williams, who said she was following the tenets of Jehovah’s Witnesses during a press conference before the U.S. Open in 2018 , explaining why she would not be celebrating her daughter’s first birthday, which Witnesses associate with pagan traditions.
According to Pew Religious Landscape Study conducted in 2014, 65 % of current adult Jehovah’s Witnesses are converts and they were raised in another faith.
Lawson started door-to-door visits when she was two and walked neighborhoods with her parents in DeKalb County, when congregations were segregated, following local and state laws. That was more than 70 years ago and she’s never stopped - until the pandemic.
Credit: Christina Matacotta
Credit: Christina Matacotta
Anthony and Norina Santana live in Valdosta, Ga. and have both been Jehovah’s Witnesses for 37 years.
Anthony Santana described the decision not to go door-to-door during the pandemic as an emotional time, but “it felt like the right thing to do.”
Both wrote letters and called residents.
“It was a beautiful feeling, going back and actually seeing their faces,” said Norina Santana. “After COVID, I think more people are apt to open up their doors and talk to us about the Bible. I think because it changed life...and changed people’s view of life. "
Jehovah’s Witnesses by the numbers:
Georgia
51,000 congregants
445 congregations
United States
1,255,657 congregants
12,163 Congregations
Worldwide
240 nations
8.68 million Jehovah’s Witnesses
119,297 congregations
*Source: Jehovah’s Witnesses denomination
Beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses:
- Blood transfusions: While Jehovah’s Witnesses seek the best possible medical care for themselves and their families, they each make a personal decision not to accept the transfusion of whole blood products. This is a religious issue rather than a medical one, citing interpretations of passages in the Old and New Testaments. Also, God views blood as representing life. So Jehovah’s Witnesses avoid taking blood not only in obedience to God but also out of respect for him as the giver of life.
- Witnesses follow the teachings and example of Jesus Christ and honor him as their Savior and as the Son of God. However, they do not believe He is the Almighty God and there is no Scriptural basis for the holy trinity
- According to Jehovah’s Witnesses beliefs, the Bible does not support the teaching of eternal torment in hell, as many churches teach... Therefore, hell is simply the common grave of mankind where people go when they have fallen asleep in death, just as Jesus did.
- Jehovah’s Witnesses believe marriage is a union of one man and one woman. Adultery, fornication, and homosexual acts are forbidden in the scriptures. In a marriage, sexual immorality is the only valid basis for divorce.
- Witnesses do not venerate the cross or other images like the flag because God rejects worship that uses images or symbols.
- The act of voting is not, in itself, unchristian. However, Jehovah’s Witnesses generally do not vote because they feel it violates their neutrality when it comes to political issues. The feel they must remain neutral on issues of politics, thereby maintaining their unity globally... Jehovah’s Witnesses have pledged their allegiance the Christ’s heavenly kingdom as the only cure for the issues facing the world today.
- Each congregation is overseen by a body of elders, who are unsalaried and not considered clergy. Witnesses do not tithe and collections are not taken at meetings. Activities are supported by anonymous donations.
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