Wayne and Irene Schultz would rarely go more than a few days without knocking on a door or visiting a Bible student as part of their volunteer ministry. That abruptly changed in the spring of 2020 when Jehovah’s Witnesses suspended their in-person public ministry, meetings and large conventions.
This drastic change greatly affected local congregations. The Belleville Assembly Hall in Van Buren Township — which once received thousands of weekly visitors — has been guest-free for two years. This is also true of the Kingdom Hall on Edgemont Street in the City of Belleville.
Two years later, the retired Romulus residents, who attend the congregation in Belleville, are still busy volunteering but in different ways.
“Sharing good news through letters keeps me focused on good things to come,” said Wayne. Irene added, “I’m doing it. I’m volunteering. I’m getting more and more comfortable with it.”
With this historic change, the number of Jehovah’s Witnesses grew 3% in the United States in 2021 alone, matching the most significant increase for the organization over the past decade and the second-largest percentage increase since 1990.
“Staying active in our ministry while remaining safe has had a powerful preserving effect on our congregants and communities,” said Robert Hendriks, U.S. spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses. “The wise decision not to prematurely resume in-person activities has united us and protected lives while comforting many people in great need. The results speak for themselves.”
For congregants like the Schultzs, the virtual pivot has meant trading bookbags for paper, envelopes, stamps, a landline, a cell phone, and their walking shoes for slippers. Their tools have changed, but their message is the same. They regularly share scriptures with community members and offer to conduct free Bible courses via telephone calls and Zoom video-conferences.
Last year, the international organization reported all-time peaks in the number of people participating in their volunteer preaching work, increased attendance in Zoom meetings and more than 171,000 new believers baptized. In the past two years, more than 400,000 have been baptized worldwide.
The official website of Jehovah’s Witnesses, translated into more than 1,000 languages, has also leveraged the organization’s outreach.
After starting a free self-paced Bible course on jw.org in December 2019, Lisa Owen requested a free, interactive Bible study over Zoom. She was one of nearly 20,000 baptized as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses last year in the United States in private settings, including backyard swimming pools, tubs and even rivers.
“JW.ORG gave me somewhere to learn, somewhere to land, and to start living the way God wants me to. It taught me so much,” said Owen of Moriarty, NM.
To start an online Bible study course, receive a visit or attend a virtual meeting locally, visit jw.org .
Tom Maroulitsas