Jehover's Witness question

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

Is it ALL visits you want to stop, or are you okay if they only come when they're doing the street?

First one: You could ring, but I'm pretty sure they'll send a brother out to speak to you, mainly to make sure its not because you've had a very bad experience. From then on, 2 brothers will visit you once a year to see if you would like us to start visiting again or not.

Second one: If you just want the one-on-one visits to stop, you're going to have to tell the people who are regularly visiting. Don't worry, they won't be upset, it'll be fine! They would be more upset to find out they've been 'pushing' literature on you when you didn't want it!

[Lisa]

I agree with SG.
We used to have JW's come witnessing where I used to live. I would thank them for their time but tell them I am not religious and that they didn't need to visit me anymore as I would seek out religion in my own time. Because there are loads of different groups that would witness (not the same people everytime) I had to do this a few times but eventually they stopped coming.
I really dislike door to door anything... TBH, anything that invades on my homelife I find annoying, as like you Nic, I am most likely to answer the door in my PJ's with bed hair.

[aussienic]

SG: honestly I would want all visits to stop.. I am just not interested..

If you don't mind me asking.. why do you go door to door?

Lisa: I want to say that but I just can't.. I don;t know why because the ladies that do come by are so nice and I know they would ask why I don't want to be religeous anything but the answer is simply just don't want to... and I guess some people have a hard time understanding that

[Lisa]

I know Nic... at first I would give in and listen to their speil... eventually I realised I was spending time with kids fighting in the background listening to something I was in no way interested in. I actually decided I needed to keep firm in my beliefs and do what I felt was right and tell them I was not interested... I would feel bad because they would send the oldest, most sweetest people who would have to climb the stairs at my house, only to have me turn them away. When they tried to ask me my stance on religion etc I would apologise and tell them I was definitely not interested in anything religious, once again thank them for their time and close the door. I do the same thing to anyone who comes trying to sell me things at my door. If I am interested in something, I will seek it out in my own time.

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

If thats how you feel aussienic, you need to either ring your local Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, or wait until someone comes to your door again, and tell them you would like to be on their 'Do Not Call' list. From then on, you will get an annual visit to check that you still would like to be left alone

The reason we go door to door is because Jesus commanded us to. Matthew 28:19,20 - "Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you. And, look! I am with you all the days until the conclusion of the system of things." We feel we have a message that will mean the difference between life and death, and we have been instructed to tell as many people as possible. Going from door-to-door used to be the most effective way to meet people, but for a while now I have found that most people aren't home. We also do other forms of preaching, like public transport, business, and shopping centre witnessing.
There are of course other scriptures that go in to more detail, such as Luke 10:1-12, where Jesus first teaches his apostles how to preach. I don't want to go into too much detail here unless asked to, I would prefer to answer question privately, so as not to inadvertantly upset anyone.

[Lulu]

I saw a wonderful doco on JW a few months ago. It really gave alot of insight and information, especially on the door to door thing.

I didn't understand it myself before and I would never be rude to them when they came to the door but now - well I really admire their commitment and it seems they just wanna share the joy they have found themselves.

If they repeat the doco (think it was SBS), I'll let you know, its worth watching.

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

I saw a wonderful doco on JW a few months ago. It really gave alot of insight and information, especially on the door to door thing.
If they repeat the doco (think it was SBS), I'll let you know, its worth watching.

This doco is called 'Knocking' and you can buy it from ABC shops. I found it fascinating as well - despite being fairly well known, there's a LOT of weird stories about JW's, so it was refreshing to have the story told correctly. I think people also appreciated both sides being shown, with the grandmother who wasn't a JW telling her experience of when her daughter became a JW.

[HotI]

If thats how you feel aussienic, you need to either ring your local Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, or wait until someone comes to your door again, and tell them you would like to be on their 'Do Not Call' list. From then on, you will get an annual visit to check that you still would like to be left alone

So, how do you get out of the annual visit, without being rude?

I think some churches who do door to door are just working on people who do not want to be rude, and the weak and vulnerable who are unable to say no.

I would not want to 'convert' someone through pressure (and i see even an annual visit as pressure), because i would question the reason's for a person's conversion.

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

So, how do you get out of the annual visit, without being rude?

I think some churches who do door to door are just working on people who do not want to be rude, and the weak and vulnerable who are unable to say no.

I would not want to 'convert' someone through pressure (and i see even an annual visit as pressure), because i would question the reason's for a person's conversion.

The annual visit is to see if your stand is still the same. Circumstances change, the person may have moved, or had some event over the past year that has made them rethink their stand. It's not a huge visit, all you have to say is that you're still not interested, and you have no more visits for another year.

I'm curious as to why you view one visit a year as pressure? Our instruction is only to preach to people, not to convert, because only Jehovah can do that. I'm sorry if in the past you've had bad experiences with JW's, but we certainly don't go out with the intention of converting people through pressure.

*Everything said with the best of intentions and no offence intended - please don't hurt me!*