Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Religion feature: Jehovah's Witnesses turn to other methods of communication

PORTALES - When Jehovah's Witnesses first approached the Portales City Council about building their Kingdom Hall in 2002, a council member shared concerns door knockings would disproportionately impact latchkey kids from the three public schools closest to the proposed Third Street location.

The response was simple, and disarming. It didn't matter where the church was located; members planed to knock on every door in the community.

"Jesus talked about going from village to village and city to city," said national Jehovah's Witnesses spokesman Robert Hendrics. "We're following the example of first-century Christians. Its effectiveness is undeniable. If a corporation had enough boots on the ground to knock on every single door in the world, they would do it. But nobody has that ability. There's just no substitute for face to face interaction with your neighbor."

Door knocking has been the tried and true method for Jehovah's Witnesses for more than a century. But the COVID-19 pandemic changed that, as going door-to-door with a virus spread through asymptomatic people couldn't be the path going forward.

The organization decided last March 20 that all 13,000 of its congregations, including those in Clovis and Portales, must suspend all personal visits and public witnessing until further notice.

But it's taken an obstacle and created an opportunity.

Meetings and services have since gone online, and members have gone to phone calls and letter writing.

"We reached out to people we knew, and we reached out to people we'd already spoken to as well," said Jason Sweeney, a local spokesman and elder for Portales' Kingdom Hall. "When it came to finding an audience, it was about writing letters to everybody we can. There are ones who are very appreciative of us reaching out. Everything is very positive, very uplifting and directly from the Bible. It's had really good feedback."

The organization, which has established the right to do its public preaching through dozens of Supreme Court victories, has known for decades it couldn't survive on door knocking alone. Hendrics said it's not unusual to hit nothing but empty homes for two hours on a Saturday because every family is at a soccer game or a ballet recital or a grocery store run or something else.

They're finding letter writing works because it might be easier to read a letter or get a phone call from a neighbor than to open your house for a 10:30 a.m. visit.

Despite the lure of the Internet's reach, Hendrics said, there is a priority for members to specifically engage only the people in their communities to make those important connections.

"As tragic as the timing of the pandemic has been," Hendrics said, "there couldn't have been a better time for us to go to a virtual format. There are so many tools available. We can learn a lot about our neighbors from simple Internet tools. And when you learn about your neighbors, you can empathize with your neighbors and send them a meaningful communication. It reaches their hearts."

Hendrics said it's tough to tell how successful the new approach has been in particular areas, but on a nationwide scale 250,000 people were baptized as Jehovah's Witnesses in 2020, on par with average years for the last decade.

At some point, the organization will resume door knocking. In an average month before the pandemic, Sweeney said Jehovah's Witnesses knocked on 2,000 doors a month in the Clovis-Portales area. He can't imagine that remaining at zero forever.

"People like to have conversations," Sweeney said. "It's strayed away, having a nice conversation. It actually helps a lot when you put a face with a voice. And people are happy when you take time out of your day just to share something."

When and if that will resume is anybody's guess.

"I think every Jehovah's Witness you talk to will tell you, 'We hope so,'" Hendrics said. "But I don't think anybody can tell you what we will actually do. We don't have an end to this crisis. We recognize vaccines are effective, but we don't know for how long. We don't know how much vaccinated people can be asymptomatic spreaders. We don't know how communities will feel. There are going to be a number of issues we'll have to work through to make that decision."