We attended a jehovah witness service

Saturday night we participated in a Jehovah Witness 'annual commemoration of the death of Jesus Christ' service (via zoom). It was a first for us. Most of our encounters with JWs has been limited to hiding behind the curtains when they went house to house knocking on doors.

Now we actually KNOW one though! I was invited by a 20-something bike mechanic that works in my building. She very nervously invited me a couple years ago. This year she actually wrote out a rather lengthy invitation in a card and gave it to me. So I felt we at least owed her this much. Plus I was curious.

It really wasn't much different than a few fundamentalist church services we've been to over the years. All the people we could see were decked out in suits and dresses. They used the Bible, and encouraged people to read along at home. They also sang a hymn and prayed. So it wasn't too strange from that aspect. Although I'm guessing this is a very generic service - much like what "regular" churches do for Christmas and Easter where they encourage members to invite "outsiders."

There were a couple points of interest for me though:

• They took communion, and apparently this is something they only do this one time a year. The speaker gave an explanation about who should participate in communion, but I can't say it helped. He said it is up to God to decide who is worthy. Apparently if we mistakenly do it anyway, he will forgive us. (?)
• He also explained the 144,000 in heaven. I've always heard this was one of the peculiarities of JWs - that heaven would be limited to that number of people. He reasoned that God would choose that many to reside in the new heaven, and the rest would reside in paradise in the new earth. Makes sense to me, and I don't think I'd ever heard that before.

Anyway, while I have no plans to venture any further with them, it wasn't terrible and I'm glad we checked it out. I think there were 95 households logged on. It was a little weird when, at the end, we got switched into a small group and people were saying hi to one another. Haha. I logged out soon after.

I'd say the service lasted just about an hour. There was a "sermon," someone prayed for the bread, and someone else the wine, then someone else led a song. And that was that.

***

Mark 9:38-41

“Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”

“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.