Transcripts on interview

[Bruceq]

Was wondering if anyone can make a transcript of the amazing video about the future of our meetings and ministry because of covid in this 28 min interview?

 

 

[luisenriquereyes]

9 minutes ago, Bruceq said:

Was wondering if anyone can make a transcript of the amazing video about the future of our meetings and ministry because of covid in this 28 min interview?

 

 

 

hey team style mag totally randy here

now i know you guys are used to watching

your favorite celebrities rocking with

randy but

there are times where i like to get a

little bit more serious and today is one

of those days

march 2021 not only brought back a

plethora of bittersweet memories for us

it also reminded us that life as we knew

it had changed for the foreseeable

future

and for some had changed forever

one thing you may have noticed is the

absence of a knock on your door by a

very familiar group

jehovah's witnesses now jehovah's

witnesses have been knocking on doors

for as long as anyone can remember

in fact their knock knock ministry is so

popular

that they are literally embedded in pop

culture that's via movies

tv and more commonly found in comedies

so where did they go did they stop

preaching

well of course totally randy has you

covered and sitting down with me is the

u.s spokesman for jehovah's witnesses mr

robert hendricks

and we're going to discuss one year

without knocking with him

so tune in okay

thank you so much robert for sitting

down and speaking with us this is

something that

new that we've done for houston style

magazine um

i i didn't even know that jehovah's

witnesses actually sit down

and and speak with publications like

this i mean recently i've kind of seen

that happen a little bit more but

one year without knocking um

gosh i let's dive right into that let's

talk about that so

your organization is worldwide and in

march of 2020

that door-to-door ministry stopped now

did it stop worldwide or

was it centralized here in the united

states was it wherever covet spread can

you just kind of

talk about that a little bit sure march

20th was really when we

in the united states uh stopped our

public preaching work

uh a letter went out to all of our 13

000 congregations in the united states

and it basically said the public

preaching is is suspended for now and

that that includes

not only knocking on doors but it also

includes

being out in houston area out

at the airport we we're at the airport

we're a ubiquitous presence at the

airports in houston

uh we're in the city but all of that has

stopped including in-home visits and

bible studies

and that was a deliberate decision and a

proactive decision because at the time

really the the issue was confined to

south texas

california new york and florida and in

the interior of the country we didn't

really see a lot of outbreak

um but it was very clear that we had to

take proactive action so that all

stopped

just a few weeks later a note went out

to all

branches in the united in the in the

world and and told them to evaluate

their situation and to make decisions

locally and then in june

basically all public ministries stopped

all over the world

until the threat is gone vaccines are

available

and and large gatherings are allowed

uh without restrictions so uh it it has

been

a worldwide suspension of our public

ministry

wow and that's that's been worldwide

since june

of 2020. that's exactly right and you

said until

vaccines are available and you know

large gatherings are being able to be

had we know right now

that's still not possible so we're still

you get you guys are still

suspended yeah and i think you we're

going to be looking

uh further into the future it's very

hard to tell what the future

uh hold because right now as of

yesterday there were 75

000 who were diagnosed with the disease

and that doesn't count the many who

aren't being tested

and so vaccines are having an effect

there's no doubt but we're still

seeing an incline of about 20 over the

last several weeks

and and it is concerning so as we look

ahead

we're going to look for a period of time

when number one the risk is

zero uh or near zero uh theoretically

so that it's not it's no longer in the

pandemic phase

and number two we have to also consider

our communities

because even though we may feel like

it's safe maybe they don't

and so because of uh the principle of

love of neighbor

we must consider how they feel right

now one thing i did not think about um

which you talked about was like bible

studies so

in my mind and a lot of a lot of you

guys out there team style mag in your

mind as well you're probably thinking

when it comes to jehovah's witnesses

them knocking on your door and the

majority slamming it but there are some

people that actually

love your message that wants your

message so when they had to stop

those um in-home bible study like how

has removing that door-to-door ministry

those bible studies all that how has it

affected your overall ministry

well it's affected it dramatically and

it is

um it is sobering that we're in such a

time that we can't go visit our

neighbors

it is sobering that we have to even

restrict visits to our own family

but it also is the right thing to do

because we have to put

bible principles ahead of personal

preference and even though our

preference of course

is to to sit down with our neighbor to

to show

love to to hug them to you know

our friends to put our feet under their

table and have a cup of coffee while

we're

studying the bible with them it really

was not wise and is not wise still

and so that was a big paradigm shift for

all of us because

i think in the beginning march 20th when

when we suspended public ministry and

public meetings

in all of our branch uh it was like okay

yeah

this will be good for a few weeks you

know at the time the the government was

saying

maybe by easter we'll be back um

and and so easter came and gone you know

our memorial came and went

and and it was clear he was just

escalating

and so we kind of hunkered down if you

will and began to look at what are the

positives of this

and and the positives clearly are we can

reach lots of people the positives

clearly are that that we can reach

people where they are

now without putting ourselves or them at

risk through letter writing through

telephone witnessing

through virtual studies and we've gotten

very good at it in fact we had a recent

global campaign

where millions of letters around the

world were sent to government officials

and businesses

to to really tell uh folks that that we

haven't disappeared

we're not knocking our our our our

knocking has gone silent

but our love is still very much alive

right

i i love that so have you seen an

increase

or a decrease in in the ministry

well you know you said before something

that was interesting you said

that uh many people don't want us to

come to the door and it's the truth

we know that there's a percentage of

people who don't but about 20 million

people

come to our memorial every year last

year even during a pandemic just three

weeks after we shut everything down we

held a memorial and there were nearly 18

million people

who attended virtually around the world

this year we believe it's going to be

far more our our conventions typically

are attended by somewhere into 14 to 18

million people

and so there are many people interested

in our message and

and we need to find them and we are

finding them in fact last year alone 240

000 people were baptized as jehovah's

witnesses

and so our work has has continued to to

to be very robust 33 new language

translations of the bible released by

our organization an absolute record

and we expect 38 this year and and

about 51 000 people

uh distinct people contacted us through

our website only in the united states

last year

because they wanted us to contact them

that's 150 people a day

so i think the the work that we're doing

is having quite

uh of an effect wow that's amazing and i

you know

i know that you're speaking from um a

u.s

kind of a broad kind of national level

um

is it okay if we bring in your local

representative because i would love to

get some houston stats

on uh what's been happening in houston

is that okay oh that

please do he would know best awesome

let's bring on a rodney

hi rodney how are you happy to be here

thank you for having us

no thank you for joining so i was

talking to robert he was talking from a

national standpoint gave some

really amazing um numbers at how you

guys

are reaching people um things that have

happened during the pandemic and i kind

of wanted to just talk to you and

get a more centralized houston area so

have you seen um an increase or or a

decrease

in the houston area when it came to the

door-to-door ministry stopping

well in the houston area we have

absolutely seen an

interest of you know an increase of

interest

um it is true with the pandemic

uh it has as long as well as the

recent winter storms devastated texas

and what we found is that it's left

people asking

for questions asking for answers to

their questions

really searching for god and the

witnesses

are really happy to answer those

questions from the bible

just in the houston area there are 156

congregations

with about 18 700 witnesses and they're

all part of this work um chances are

your viewers have received a letter or

phone call from one of these witnesses

with a comforting message

in one of our recent meetings of our

memorial

uh we noticed on some uh meetings that

there was an increase of 16 percent

meaning

there were 16 percent of individuals

that were in attendance

they were there for the first time that

was amazing

that's amazing and one last question for

you um robert talked about

um the conventions in houston

it every single year channel 39

channel 11 um isaiah carey

like they always covered coco dominguez

fox 26 they always

cover the conventions that take place

here because it's in the reliant

it's huge you have thousands of people

that come out

how was that transition last year um we

we saw it was kind of

it was it was weird for a lot of people

having weddings on zoom and other

streaming platforms and

how was that for you you guys and what

challenges did you face and how did you

overcome that

yes it was certainly different um as

you recall in 2019 we had a large

convention here

over a hundred thousand people visiting

from

other lands and delegates that were all

a part of these conventions in a

two-part series

and uh from that to 2020

where it shocked everyone we planned on

maybe not such a large gathering a

convention but we planned

on several thousand attending that

convention

uh we had to change of course we could

not meet as

robert mentioned earlier and so here

as well as globally we took part of

those conventions

virtually conventions were held in over

500 languages

we know houston itself is a very diverse

a very diverse city right and with the

languages that are spoken

directly by the witnesses there are 14

congregations

of different languages uh in the houston

area with

many more language groups that support

those who are interested in the bible

having those 500 different translated

conventions simultaneously available

to be viewed was certainly something

that many appreciated and many enjoyed

as they were able to take part in that

and so we can certainly see that with

the adjustment although

not our norm we were able to benefit

from it

that's amazing thank you so much thank

you

now robert jehovah's witnesses are known

and rodney spoke you know he mentioned

this your local representative kind of

talked to

um your extensive reach you know

500 languages the convention was held in

500

500 languages um you guys not only

reach people who speak a different

language but you reach the hearing

impaired

uh those who are blind on foreign lands

that are hard to

access how have those areas been

affected

um when you took away the door-to-door

ministry

well i think we've all been affected

very similarly but

but especially um there have been

populations there have been brothers and

sisters in pockets

that have been seriously affected so for

example in

some other lands even some caribbean

islands uh

in in africa we have brothers and

sisters who really don't have access to

the internet

and so we've had to to work out

solutions for that

one is our memorial and our special

meetings have been broadcast right

through the right through the broadcast

airways

so that has been a change and it has

helped tremendously

we also have a a a really cool invention

called jw box and

that allows for a local area network to

be created

so that recordings can be distributed

but probably one of the most tragic

results

has been for a very small population of

our dear brothers and sisters and that

has been the deaf

and the blind and um

it's very emotional just to think about

it because

some of these brothers and sisters they

relied on touch

and in 2020 touch became taboo

and so not only are they in darkness

not only can't they hear anything

they're alone with their own thoughts

without even being able to touch

and touch is how they they maintained

their their um connection to the

organization

so we have a brother

named james ryan in the massachusetts

area

who suddenly after 30 years

of finding comfort with tactile signing

at his meetings in person

he all of a sudden was left with zoom

and zoomed for him while it

for many who are disabled it was a

godsend a blessing

for him it uh it left him out and so

the brothers and sisters were very

concerned with him and this is not

unusual this has happened all around

our brand's territory they actually in

real time

began interpreting the meanings

through through by by writing to him

and he would get it on his device and he

would

and his device would convert to braille

and and it would almost be an

it would be an audio description or a

visual description in words

through his braille of the meeting what

was going on

and and this is the kind of love that

we've seen

in these times we've seen our brothers

and sisters go to those

90 year olds octogenarians and

septigenerians who

can't handle an ipad or a computer and

teach them how to do it and do this

safely

because we respected the fact that they

were most at risk

um and so throughout this pandemic we've

seen

acts of love that i think have been

something we could have anticipated you

know if you don't know the problem

if you can't anticipate the problem you

can't anticipate a solution

but when the problem arises and when

love is involved

you find a solution you find a way and

we're finding a way to reach the most

vulnerable

those who have been left out in some way

and and i think in some cases and in

many cases

uh that they're being affected

in a more profound way than any of us

and

and and we are finding a way to to meet

their needs it's a beautiful thing

that's why the congregation is so

important as an organization

we're very large but having local small

congregations

um having 13 000 in the united states

those congregations that are then broken

up into small pastoral groups

are taking care of our brothers and

sisters

uh whatever they need is being cared for

in in

its faith strength and we're going to

come out of this as individuals and

as an organization i think far stronger

i love that and i you know that was a

perfect

because i was going to ask you for a a

beautiful example

or experience you can share and that was

the perfect experience

because that was my thought right um

obviously people who are able

they're able maybe they're disabled in

in physical form

like they can't walk or things of that

sort but if you can't

see or or hear then

you know like you said touch would be

you know how you know

just imagine the the the effect

that it has on you to not be able to to

touch

or to feel someone's care and love for

you so thank you for sharing that with

me

um what what what's your biggest

takeaway um as far as jehovah's

witnesses are concerned what

what is the biggest lesson that you guys

as an organization have learned

from navigating through this pandemic in

regards to your ministry

and how will that effect affect your

future

i think that we're we're just

the end right now of a long line

of christians who have turned obstacles

into opportunities

you know in the first century when when

they were spread around and they didn't

have

full copies of the bible they couldn't

take from door to door

from city to city all of the the copies

of their scrolls so they invented

the codex which is the modern day book

you know when when the bible couldn't be

translated

uh gutenberg invented the press and just

go on and on and on

and even in the turn of the century when

this organization

put on one of the first color movies um

the

the photo drama of creation to to really

uplift god and his creative abilities

and what he's done for us

well today what we have seen is that

that the modern issues that we're facing

of isolation

really exist existed pre-pandemic we

would go

to a street in houston or somewhere in

texas or in this country

and we would spend a couple hours in the

morning on a saturday and knock on doors

and there have been times and i've

i've been there where i have knocked on

50

60 doors and nobody has answered

and so we knew that was an issue we knew

that even though the door-to-door

ministry cannot be

replaced because face-to-face

interaction with your neighbors is

is vital but we also knew there needed

to be another way to reach them

we were all forced into it i mean the

organization has for years taught us how

to do it they've taught us that'll

write letters they've taught us how to

telephone witness

but many of us like myself to be very

perfectly honest i've been doing this

since i was knocking on doors since i

was

old enough to walk six years old i've

been talking at doors

and and that's where my comfort level

was believe it or not

but talking on a phone or writing a

letter wasn't my comfort

level but now we have established

that ministry that we used to call

alternative now it's mainstream

and i think if we ever get back to the

door-to-door ministry if we ever get

back to our cart witnessing

which we pray we will it will be

combined with these

other avenues of ministry

that will help reach people in the 21st

century

where they are fitting their needs

rather than simply being in our comfort

zone so i think that's a positive no

doubt

right uh you know there was an explosion

um on on social media

where people were like literally posting

their

their letters and i thought to myself

when they were doing this because i did

see a comment that said

um why are you guys posting your letters

jehovah's witnesses have been writing

letters for years

but some another comment was very very

um

it was very eye-opening enlightening

someone said yeah but we all haven't

been at home to receive them

that's funny so so now people

you know we're you know at that time

were like literally

opening their their mail and reading

them because you're

you're at home you're quarantined there

is no rush

you know there is no okay i have to go

to work i'm getting my mail i don't know

what this is i'm going to rip it and

throw it away

and so you saw this explosion of so many

people

that were posting their letters online

talking about phone calls just talking

about the reach

that you guys had when it came to the

the alternative or the the different

types

of uh your ministry

yeah i think i think honestly it's been

it's been a learning experience for us

i think a year ago you might find our

letters to be very vanilla

you know very kind of generic but as the

as the weeks went on and months went on

we realized that we had to really

personalize our letters and

frankly there's a lot available on the

internet about people

and so we walk down the street we knock

on doors well we can

you can walk down the street virtually

what's the house look like how many cars

are there what

what what what what are the folks going

through here what kind of neighborhood

is it

and speaking to the area perhaps the

news that uh perhaps uh

affected that area all of those things

um have made our letters more effective

and more personal and really

have expressed what we feel that we love

our neighbors

and we want to reach their heart even

though we can't

touch them on a personal basis and see

them

right that's that's pretty awesome now i

know you did speak to it earlier we

talked about it

um that currently there is no

uh plans to return to the door-to-door

ministry

that you guys are going to still do the

kind of alternative the letter writing

the phone calls

um the the virtual

have there been any discussions about

creating a hybrid ministry meaning

leaving some of these

these uh avenues in place

for for those that may just may not be

that comfortable going back out door to

door when

you know it is safe to do so yeah

there's no doubt

um first of all uh just so that you know

um

every congregation in the united states

branch territory which includes 26

countries including the caribbean

every congregation received an

announcement that basically said

all restrictions will remain in place

until further notice and that was just

this week

and also we encouraged all of our

congregants to

to take precautions that even though

precautions perhaps were being lifted

in many places because of economic

reasons and because of pandemic fatigue

don't let your guard down and so we're

we're in this for the long haul

to protect our brothers and sisters and

our neighbors

however when we think about ministry

ministry is very personal

and over the years i think we've all

kind of learned that ministry is very

personal

and so what is my personal ministry what

is my personal ministry going to be in

the future

is it okay if i don't go out from door

to door

anymore because i'm i'm fearful or

because this is more effective or

because i like this better

listen here's the thing um it's it's

your ministry

you know it's our personal ministry and

so

um these avenues are effective

and so we just have to be right with our

creator

and and really do the best that we can

give him our best if we give him our

best and that best is a letter

if that best is a phone call or if later

on that best is

standing on a street corner uh for a

couple of hours and

and and beseeching uh those who walk by

to take a magazine

all good and and i think that when we

look at the future

i really do believe that that there'll

be many more options available

to us both with our meetings

with our bible studies virtually because

we're so

we're so now ensconced and familiar and

comfortable with technology

and also with our our ministry whether

that be letter writing telephone

witnessing virtual studies

uh carte witnessing or the public

ministry from door to door

wow thank you for that and you know

one final question i have for you i hope

you don't feel like i've

just been digging digging digging oh no

this is good no we're good with this

uh but one final question is you know

what do you want our listeners and

anyone that's out there watching

what do you want them to know about

jehovah jehovah's witnesses

your ministry what do you want them to

know

[Music]

first of all that we love them and

and we mean that we don't go from door

to door because we want to push our

religion on people

we go from door to door or we did and we

we write letters and we

and we reach out because we we have a

message that we think is powerful it's

powerfully afflicted affected our lives

individually

it's given us a beautiful organization

that is a global brotherhood like no

other

and that and and we want them to be a

part of it or at least be exposed to it

at least be exposed to the fact that the

bible

not only can change lives but can

sustain lives

in such a way that it can make you a

better husband father

a wife daughter um employee

and and and we we have that message and

we want to share it with others

and it is out of love and secondly that

that

the creator loves you that god god loves

you he gave his son

on behalf of mankind because he loves

mankind and

it's up to each of us to take full

advantage of that

and there are avenues to do that um

rodney talked about our website as an

example

and that's an example of love there's no

pay wall

all volunteers are working on it and

it's in one thousand twenty nine

languages

mayor fester often wants to wants to say

that

houston is the most diverse city in the

world

he loves to say that right well guess

what this website was built for houston

it was built for the most diverse place

on earth

and and it uniquely can fill the needs

of all in this city and and we're hoping

that that message gets out to all

robert thank you so much for talking

with houston style magazine thank you

for taking

time out of your very busy day to sit

down and speak with me

if you guys out there watching if you

want to learn more about jehovah's

witnesses you want to learn about their

ministry you just want to talk to one of

them you can visit their website

www.jw.org

thank you so much robert you're welcome

thanks for having us

 

Edited April 29, 2021 by luisenriquereyes

[Bruceq]

thank you