Typical Jehovah's Witness church service?

I am not a JW, but I do occasionally attend meetings at the Kingdom Hall with some Witness friends of mine.

On Sundays, they usually sing an opening song, which is followed by a prayer. Next comes a 30-minute public talk given by either an elder of the congregation or a visiting elder or “overseer.” The talk is usually on applying the Scriptures to a particular area of “Christian” living or service or it is on a particular Bible topic. The talk is followed by another hymn, and after this is a “Watchtower Study.”

During the Watchtower Study, the study article is read paragraph by paragraph, and members of the congregation raise their hands and are called on to answer questions (from the bottom of the page) concerning what was related to them from the paragraph. Members do not ASK questions at this meeting. They only answer those posed by the Watchtower Society from the study article.

A typical hymn (one we sang a couple of weeks ago) is “Move Ahead”:

Move ahead, move ahead to maturity!

It’s the will of our God that we gain ability.

Try your best to improve in your ministry,

Then our God your work will bless.

There’s a place in the service for all.

It’s the work Jesus did, you’ll recall.

Look to God that you thus at no time may fall,

Standing firm for righteousness.

Move ahead, move ahead, boldly witnessing!

Everlasting good news to all sorts of people bring.

Join in praise to Jehovah, our God and King,

As we preach from door to door.

Wicked foes try to cause us to fear.

Don’t shrink back, but let ev’ryone hear

Joyful news that the Kingdom of God is here.

Teach the truth yet more and more.

Move ahead, move ahead, always follow through,

And improve in your skills

for there’s so much work to do.

Let God’s spirit keep on motivating you.

Find the joy that is divine.

Love the people you work hard to find.

Keep returning to reach heart and mind.

And assist all good progress each day to make,

So the light of truth will shine.

I have not been to the Kingdom Hall on Thursday nights, but one friend tells me that after their “Book Study,” which is the same format as the Watchtower study, only from one of their published books, they practice their skills in door to door ministry. One person will play the role of a “householder” while another plays the role of a JW coming to their door. They also work on their skills of refuting traditional Christian doctrine. After that, they have a “Service Meeting.” I’m not sure what all it entails, but it often seems to depress my friend and make her feel like she’s not doing enough work as a Jehovah’s Witness. I can’t imagine many people doing much more than she does. She has several book studies going on right now in people’s homes and she is a “regular pioneer,” meaning she spends a minimum of 70 hours each month in active service.

Jehovah Witness Church Service

Sunday meetings are a 30 minute Public Talk on a Bible subject. Followed by a Watchtower Study which is a question and answer format. It is usually an hour long. So, a typical Sunday meeting would last a hour and a half

Mid week we have a Book Study which is exactly what it sounds like, a study of one of the publications. That lasts 30 minutes.

Then we move onto the Theocratic Ministry School for 30 minutes. Students learn how to research and present Bible info in a public setting. Whether from platform or door step.

Then we move onto the Service Meeting which teaches and encourages us about participating in the public ministry.

Total time for Tues. meeting is an hour and a half.

That is a very rough sketch of what happens. Of course we open and close our meetings with songs and prayer.

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RE:

Typical Jehovah's Witness church service?

I'm researching the Jehovah's Witness denomination & doing a report on it, & I've tried googling a typical Jehovah's Witness church service, & I even tried youtube. Came up with nothing. Do you have anything? or if you're JW, what's your typical service like? Do you call it...

We have five meetings in a week. 1)Bible Discourse 2) Watchtower Study 3) Congregation Bible Study 4) Theocratic Ministry School 5) Sevice Meeting

We start our meetings with song of praises to Jehovah and followed by an opening prayer.

To know what is being discussed in our meetings, you are invited to attend to all of it. It is the best way to know how our Christian meetings are held. Internet sources will more likely give false information about us. There are lots of anti-Jehovah's Witnesses internet sites out there. So to obtain an accurate and first-hand information about our meetings, I strongly recommend attending since you are very much welcome. =)

The kingdom hall where I attend has lots of windows. =)

In general, due to the Bible's stance on it, Men are the ones offering prayer at the meetings, simply as a sign of respect. As I suggested in my other answer, if you come to the Theocratic Ministry School, which is in many areas on Tuesday evenings, you will see persons, young/old, male/female, giving talks, reading scriptures, and giving comments. If anything you see or here raises a question, feel free to ask it.

QUESTION: what's your typical service like?

ANSWER: Song, prayer bible study. The BBC filmed a typical church service for a recent documentary, watching it should give you an idea of what they do.

It'll be extremely hard to find any REAL info on what a typical service looks like, considering how secretive JWs are.

There's a reason that none of their churches have windows. I had a friend who was a JW, and I asked him about that once. He told me that the churches don't have windows so that the "church members don't have to watch while humanity burns."

Everyone is welcome at our meetings and they are open to the public.

Find a Kingdom Hall in your area and sit in on a meeting, you may like it.

And for the record, some Halls do have windows. lol

Steve

If you really want to know how our meetings work the best way is to attend one.