5/15/25

On Monday, Nick and I went to Huntington Beach and, among other things, engaged in prayer, Lectio Divina, and a gnarly conversation with a group of Jehovah's Witnesses! I'm really growing to love my encounters with JWs, but I am continually amazed at the hostility that is often present when challenged - regardless of how gently it is done!

Nick and I began our conversation with a young man who was born and raised under the Watchtower, and, despite an understandable level of discomfort from actual engagement with people, he was quite pleasant to converse with. We explored a few of his beliefs as well as the reasons for those beliefs - primarily listening and asking questions at this point. They had a larger group of JWs that rotated in shifts, and, due to a rotation, a new lady entered into our conversation. I'm still fairly puzzled by this lady's extremely disruptive emotional instability as she asserted that Nick and I were being very rude in our interaction with the young man. Shocked by this - as we were barely even pressing - we asked the man if he had felt that this were the case so that we could apologize and proceed, but he of course denied the accusation. I can't imagine what would have happened if we would've actually been blunt with them...

We awkwardly continued our conversation and began requesting their interpretations of extremely condemning verses for their Christological beliefs (who Jesus is), which quickly struck another nerve with our clearly threatened JW friend. She grew quite upset and expressed her clear disapproval of the structure of our conversation (reasoning about scriptural interpretations), which, again, was pretty awkward as they're the ones standing in a public place claiming to be witnesses for Jehovah... She finally left after we posed triggering verses that she probably didn't have responses to, and we talked with the young man for a little while longer. While I feel that the conversation had potential initially, all it took to derail any rational conversation was this woman's insecurity in her beliefs being expressed in anger and accusation. I'm not just here to bash this woman's response to confrontation, but I think that it stands as a valuable example for the follower of Jesus who desires to follow Him into evangelism. I am grateful that this woman made it as far as she did in trying to do evangelism (though for a heretical cult), but any witness that she intended to display was uprooted by her complete insecurity in her beliefs and inability to consider that she might be wrong. I can tell you with certainty that you don't need to know all of the answers when engaging in evangelism, but the heart of a listening learner will take you miles. Don't get me wrong, you need to know SOMETHING, but certainly not everything! The great thing is that those pursuing truth have no fear of being challenged in their belief - at worst, you get closer to your goal. However, when we allow our fear of currently being wrong to guide our emotional interactions with others, we lose both our positive witness and our opportunity to learn.

You can watch and read countless resources with apologetics, but, while they can be helpful, simple conversations will tell you exactly where you need to study. In one of my first conversations with JWs in my neighborhood, I was posed with a hard question that I couldn't respond to - if Jesus was the firstborn of creation (Col 1:15), how can you claim that He is eternal? The crucial moment is how you respond to this. You can be grateful for the opportunity to engage with someone in a hard question by researching and coming back, or you can allow your fear to rule your interaction. I would suggest the first option - it's much more peaceful, internally and externally. Technology is a wonderful thing (sometimes), and it makes it very easy to maintain communication with people while you look into their hard questions! Get their contact information, study their question, buy them a coffee, and share what you've learned - being ready to hear and write down their new objections.

While there are many morals of this story, one is how crucial it is for those desiring to become like Jesus (disciples) to engage in inter-faith dialogues with soft hearts filled with peace and assurance as well as a willingness to study and respond to the concerns and objections of non-believers! I must say, the more you have these conversations, the better it gets!

Please pray for the people that Nick and I get to engage with - that their ears would hear and eyes would see the truth presented in God's word and the power of the Gospel!