While preaching, did you realize that you were also screwing up their lives (page 2)

daystar

Absolutely not! It had been pumelled into my brain that the JW way was the very best way to live, and I believed it.

When I thought that, I stopped talking about JWs/WTS and offering literature. I never invited them to the KH and eventually I just stopped going. Now I do what I can to stop people from getting involved or help them get out.

Blondie

fullofdoubtnow

I thought I was giving people a way to improve their lives, I was so sure about the truth. Now I'm not so sure

Lilycurly

No, but I am very thankful that I was absolutely bad at the doors. I rarely got return calls and seldom gave out magasines, I never had a study either. If someone would have become a JW because of me, I would be sure that they'd be the first one I hunt down today..to tell them about everything that I found lacking.

R6Laser

No, why should I? If someone decides to go to the meetings and become a witness its their choice.

blondie

I would never butt in, R6, but you'd be surprised the number of people who ask about JWs who are not JWs but have a JW spouse or significant other and those who have family who are and are curious or people who are studying with JWs and starting to feel cognitive dissonance.

I think it is fair to share our experiences with them and point them to information on JWs in the WTS own literature that they conceal.

Reefton Jack

No - I honestly thought that I was doing the right thing.

I believed that their reaction to the preaching work was a life and death matter.

Yes, I had swallowed the WTS crap hook, line and sinker!

Jack.

Now What?

Sadly, I also bought the whole thing; hook, line and sinker. I was a loyal pioneer that honestly thought everyone was going to die that rejected 'the message'. I would pray for all those that slammed their doors. Not that they would find christian love mind you. No, no I prayed that they would wake-up to the message of the watchtower. Looking back I now see how incredibly arrogant that was.

I am now thankful that most of my studies are either inactive or want nothing to do with the Witnesses. Oddly enough, they don't hold it against me but rather we take it as a hard won lesson in the power, and dangers, of man-made religious movements.

Narkissos

Not at all.

When I was a pioneer I always got the impression that my "ministry" was not "productive" enough by WT standards; however I started a few "Bible studies" who eventually became JWs after I was assigned a different congregation or eventually went to Bethel.

In my last few months as a pioneer after I resigned from Bethel all my Bible studies were really Bible studies. I submitted study reports in which the "publication studied" was "Gospel of Matthew," "Gospel of John," etc. Of course none of the latter had anything to do with JWs afterwards: I went on visiting them after I was df'd and told them the whole story, which they fully understood. I remember once being at the home of one of those "Bible studies" when JWs called (they had the address). When they saw me they immediately fled.

As for the former "disciples," I tried to contact everyone of them but they all eventually shunned me (most of them did hear me the first time, although they knew I had been df'd, but then the WT indoctrination was stronger). I now feel responsible but I think there's nothing I can do about it.

Afterwards I sometimes brought up the issue with pastors and evangelists: does it occur to you that some people can harm themselves by listening to you? Never got any response to that other than a blank stare. Seems like you cannot do wrong while you're serving the Lord / the right cause etc.

Miss_MG

No I thought I was saving their lives

While preaching, did you realize that you were also screwing up their lives

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