Outlaw - No more Discrimination in the Congregation because you Don`t have a Weinie!
That has got to be the most enlightened comment you have ever made, and hilarious.
Nov 2013 KM Question Box. Head coverings on Doorstep bible studies
by BroMac 73 Replies latest watchtower bible
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jwfacts
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RubaDub
In the scenario presented, what if the sister is at the door in a cold climate and is already wearing a hat or hood covering her hair.
Does she need to slip something under the hat to satisfy the head covering rule or does the hat suffice?
Rub a Dub
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Watkins
Religion's nit-picky traditions are nothing but gnat-straining and camel-gulping!
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blondie
First mention I can find of doorstep Bible study...
*** km 5/02 p. 1 par. 1 Are You Using the Require Brochure to Start Studies? ***
Did you realize that if you regularly and systematically have Bible discussions, though brief, with an interested person and cover material in one of the recommended publications, you are conducting a Bible study? Yes, this is true even if the study takes place on the doorstep or over the telephone.
*** km 9/11 p. 3 Question Box ***
Should prayer be offered at a doorstep Bible study?
There are many benefits to opening and closing a Bible study with prayer. By means of prayer, we ask Jehovah for his holy spirit on our discussion. (Luke 11:13) Prayer also emphasizes to our student the seriousness of his Bible study and teaches him how to pray. (Luke 6:40) Therefore, it is good to introduce prayer as soon as possible. However, since circumstances vary, the conductor needs to use discernment in deciding whether to offer prayer at a doorstep Bible study.
One important factor to consider is the setting in which the study is held. If there is a measure of privacy, a brief prayer might be discreetly offered to open and close an established study. However, if doing so would draw the attention of onlookers or make the student feel uncomfortable, it may be better to wait until the study can be held in a setting that affords more privacy. Regardless of where the study is held, we should use good judgment to determine when to introduce prayer.—See the March 2005 Our Kingdom Ministry, page 4.
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steve2
As the Kingdom Ministry says, 'there are many benefits to opening and closing a bible study with prayer'. The chief one is less time spent parroting what's in the Watchtower publications....
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NewYork44M
Do door step bible studies really take place? I cannot imagine how awkward this would be.
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Julia Orwell
Not a great many of them happen. You're supposed to go through one of the little lessons in the middle of the Watchtower, which has about 5 paragraphs on a topic such as "Who is Jehovah" and the really basic JW doctrine. One lesson comes out each month, and in theory you go through it in weekly 15 minute sessions aka 'door step studies'. In practice it doesn't work like that because you know how it is with RVs; they're not home, they've got kids running around and can't stop to talk, they're busy, off to work, or something like that.
It's hard to pin people down at home and if you can get three of these 15 minute sessions over a month with one householder, you count it as a study on your slip. Hence, the number of bible studies seems to have gone out, but most fizzle very quickly and aren't the hour-long sessions of yesteryear.
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Julia Orwell
Gone up, not gone out. Still, it's a matter of quantity over quality.
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steve2
The most reliable - and reportable - eventual indicators of the "success" of a Bible study are, firstly, the student becoming an active publisher him- or herself and second, being baptized. This was the consistent norm among the Witnesses in its growth hey-day from post-World War One through to (and most spectacularly) the late 1960s and early to mid-70s. The period between studying with the Witnesses and becoming an active publisher and then baptized was posibly the shortest in the organization's history.
But that was yesterday...and yesterday's gone...
For several years, particularly in a growing number of "Western" countries and states, two trends are consistently observable with regards to these two indicators of Bible study "success:
First, average numbers of publishers have slowed down, and in more such countries, flat-lined and/or even decreased;
Second, over successive years, worldwide totals of those baptized have fallen from regular highs of more than 300,000 to 250,000 and less.
Thus, there is some substance to the assertion that, despite the numbers of Bible studies steadily increasing year-by-year, the indicators that count do not match the year-by-year increases in Bible studies. Furthermore, there is also a justified question about "where" the future growth of active publishers will come from.
Of course, like virtually all other churches and religious groups, nominalism could increasingly become more common in the organization, as undesirable as that is from the Watchtower's perspective, it is rather the norm for ageing religious groups.
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slimboyfat
In the early 1980s Bible Study numbers increased before the publisher number increase started to trend upwards. There may be a lag, then an increase in publishers in years to come once again.
Or not, as the case may be.