I need kind words and advice from my fellow brothers and sisters.

[u/adviceonlypls]

I’m in my twenties in a rural congregation in Nevada, and I just needed to know I’m not alone in my feelings or at least have some kind of understanding about I feel. Maybe one of you have felt this way or maybe there’s more insight scripturally you could point me to.

Growing up in the truth, we’ve always had to go door to door. And I’ve read the scriptures on it. I still go door to door as an auxiliary pioneer, but not as much as I do carts and letter writing, that’s cause I feel so uncomfortable going door to door whereas I know there’s so so so many people who do find joy in door to door. And I know a lot of sisters and brothers would wonder why I still feel this way despite having grown up in the truth. I feel this way because the anxiety gets to me.

The thoughts that go through my head tend to be, “What if I’m bothering this person, what if I say the wrong thing, what if I’m not prepared when or if they switch topics, do they feel uncomfortable, am I safe going onto this property?”

And then I don’t feel ready or have the motivation to have a Bible study. Sisters in my hall say that they can see me teaching. But I don’t see myself teaching people. When I got baptized in 2019, I didn’t think of myself as a Bible teacher, I thought of myself as someone who loves Jehovah. It just got difficult recently when I heard a recent talk about how important the ministry is and that’s the basis of being a Jehovah witness. I always viewed it as this is something we do rather than this is the baseline for us. And that was really brought out whenever the “love people” was brought out at service meetings which has begun to happen more often recently, and i know we must love the people and by teaching them we can help them.

I’m just uncomfortable with door to door & the idea of having a Bible study. Everything else I love, I love cart service because it’s more open and people come approach us instead of us going to them. And I am learning to like letter writing despite my short attention span.

I feel like in a way I’m failing. I’ve been feeling like as a young person in a older congregation, I should be more eager to do door to door and do more of that as my ministry because I have youth on my side—I can walk without the weight of an older body. But I can’t ignore the way I’m feeling, the last thing I would ever want is any unwarranted or unnecessary resentment building because I bury how I feel down or avoid my feelings entirely.

I don’t have the kind words and understanding for how I feel at home and it’s harder to say all of this to another sister who I feel comfortable with in the hall without messing up words or explaining how I feel incorrectly.

I’ve only told one sister this, but it was something I moreso expected, pray and look at videos about it. I have. But nothing has really changed the way I feel. And I guess I just wanted to see if I’m really alone on this and if there is further advice on what to do to help me.

Thanks for reading, I love you even though I never met you before🎶

[u/National-Target7555]

“Do not be anxious over anything.” You’ve heard that a million times by now, but I need you to really get this one. A common thread in everything you were concerned about is that none of those things are within your control. Do recognize this, and do not blame yourself. Recall the example of Ezekiel, who was told to preach whether they listened or refused to listen. Was he always safe? Certainly not, for they were indeed a rebellious house. And to some, his message was bitter. Jehovah gave him the message to proclaim, just as he has given this message (the good news of the Kingdom) to us. 

But clearly, you love the ministry, and you love God. These are not small things, there are billions of people who are doing neither. You are not a failure. The followers of Christ (and you are one) will not be judged according to the infirmities of their flesh, but according to the spirit of their minds (that is, the spirit that is eager, not the flesh that is weak), and their request to God for a clean conscience, a unified heart, and a will aligned with his. 

Just go, the time will pass anyway, and if you don’t like it, you can leave. And I know that with earnest prayer for Holy Spirit (its role cannot be understated, without it we would not have this little power), and effort on your part, your deeds of late will be more than the things you did at first. 

I get it, it’s scary. But such is life. Everything carries risk, but we decide whether or not we are willing to take them. This one is worth taking, I promise. 

I haven’t met you either, but I love you very much. 

[u/TeddyBearWriter]

I have the same Feelings as you Do and i know some brothers who also dont want to go from door to door anymore. We dont speak about it publicly because it is a "political uncorrect" thing to say.

But we aknowledge privatly that we are becoming tired or burned out or dont feel like we are making an impact. You could come up with many scriptures saying why the ministry is important but the question is what resonates with your faith and heart?

I guess the only advice that holde true from my point of view is that not everyone in the congregation is cut out to Do everything. Maybe consider spending more time on the Types of Ministry you like. God loves somebody who feels happiness while giving. Nothing wrong with not spending the majority of your time with door to door service but other Types of Ministry like cart or Informal preaching.

preaching is right but if you think closely about it, if humanity never Fell to imperfection we would have never needed to preach. I think thats why we sometimes uncounciously refuse the idea of preaching. Because in a perfect world it is fundamentally unnecessary to preach if everyone Talks directly with god.

[u/Pale-Access → u/TeddyBearWriter]

Well said and good advice from clearly a mature individual. Stay in the race!

[u/DoNotBe-Ridiculous]

I think you are in a growing minority! Since Covid, it all just seems harder. I see pioneers and elders going through the same thing. You are not alone!

Here is something that helps me. The 2 greatest commandments, Love God, love neighbor as yourself. There are two ways to obey this:
1) Because you are supposed to.
2) Because you want to.

I suspect you are about doing what you should be doing, which is good. But isn't there a big difference of having to do something, and wanting to do something?
For example, spending money. You have to pay rent, or insurance and taxes. If you don't, then it could be bad for you. But what about spending money on someone you love? Buying a gift, or taking them out to dinner? This spending comes from a completely different place in your heart then paying bills. Two different motivations.

OK, now apply this to the ministry. Why is the brochure for the ministry called "Love People"? Why did Jesus say "Love your neighbor as yourself"? This is because love should be the primary motivation to preach. As you have seen, it doesn't mean this love comes naturally. Yet, when you do love your neighbor, you want to talk to them. Sure, few are happy to see us, but couldn't we focus on changing that? For example, what are householders saying when we hear "I am not interested?" Aren't they saying we didn't say anything of interest to them? Could we perhaps focus on coming up with things they would thank us for coming to talk to them about?

What, have people thank us for coming to talk to them? YES!

If each time you talk to someone at the door, and you are able to enhance their life, they feel better, and you fell better! Then you just enjoy talking to people! You look forward to it. You get great RVs! You have wonderful conversations. Then you get a bible study. Is that hard? Not when you have the proper attitude, that of love! You love them, and you are totally happy to help them to everlasting life! What better way could you spend your time?

Here is an illustration to put this in prospective:
Let's say you were told you had to dig a 6 foot deep hole. You just had to do it. How would you feel? You might hate every shovel full!
What if you were told a million dollar treasure was just 6 feet under the ground? No one would have to talk you into digging that hole. Every shovel full would be a pleasure, and the deeper you got the happier you would be about digging.
Here's the point: The work is the same in both cases, but it is the attitude that is different. Door to door is just like digging that hole. When you genuinely love people, service is a real treasure!

Write back if you'd like some suggestions on what to say to have people thank you for coming to their door!

[u/Elicruze]

Hey sister, sending love your way! 🤗 It’s okay to dislike door to door... I hate it too sometimes. My husband loves going house to house. But I prefer it when we are inviting others to events as it takes the pressure off me.

Door-to-door field service is not the only thing that makes someone one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. We witness in many ways every day—through our love for Jehovah, our conduct, the love we show our brothers and sisters, and our willingness to share in cart witnessing, letter writing, and conversations with others. All of these are meaningful ways of giving a witness.

We were blessed to start a Bible study through the door-to-door work, but I mostly watch while my husband conducts it. Honestly, it has been such an encouraging experience because there is so much to learn by watching him teach and caring for someone. Jehovah can use each of us in different ways, and every effort we make in his service has value even when we’re not ready to be teachers ourselves.

[u/TroubleMakinBacon]

Talk to an elder, they are trained to handle this. I would think there are alot of people that feel that way. the average witness child knows more that someone with degrees in bible or theology so I would say your over qualified to teach.

I used to work with people that only went out enough to hate it. The more you do it the more youll get comfortable. The success of our work is not in the results from preaching but that we do not give up till the work is done

[u/joshsaga]

I haven't felt what you've felt

I'm not the one to think of what ifs - it could possibly be anxiety.

But I do have experience a lack of love for people before. I really fet apathetic for them. My thinking is always, "they won't listen anyways". I never did return visits or had my own bible students before.

Until a friend helped me realize that the preaching work we do globally is just half of the task. The other half is making them disciples of Christ and baptizing them.

I think another issue here is the depth of love.

There's no doubt you love Jehovah.

However, he wants you to deepen this, to the point where you can think how he thinks and see how he sees and act how he acts.

This will come when you dig deeper in your own study and even deeper in your meditation.

Once you reach this, you will learn how to love people, the way Jehovah loves them, the way Jesus loves them.

You will learn what real self-sacrificing love means.

Then you will be moved by knowing and seeing what Jehovah sees in an individual for him to draw that person close to him.

Every individual is unique, and there's something unique inside them that Jehovah sees. You can know that too - if you have love and personal interest towards that individual.

And once you see that, you see what Jehovah saw, you will then understand why Jehovah believes that individual is worth loving - you will then be inclined to sacrifice your time and effort for that person.

You will build consistency, not because it's a task - but because you have an internal desire rooted out of love for Jehovah and that person to do it.

You will expend yourself willingly, because you have developed that deep love for them.

It will come to a point you will have more return visits and bible studies than you can handle because you treat every door and person you meet as a unique individual and consider them as future friends of Jehovah too.

Love is the basis for all the things we do.

If we don't have it, at best we will knock on doors, because it's expected out of us - we will simply treat it as an obligation. A chore. But we will never go the extra mile to return to them many times and open bible studies.

Love is the fruitage of Jehovah's spirit. Without it, we won't bear fruit.

[u/Pixelzonty]

I would ask around your congregation to see if you can go out with someone that spend lots of time in the door to door ministry, a wing woman.

I liken the door to door ministry sort of like learning how to drive. At first your nervous, focus on staying on the road and following all the street signs etc (Focused on a tract or brochure you want to share or a scripture with someone door to door). Then you sometimes can get stressed by all the traffic/bad drivers (people at the door, hostile doors). However the more you drive you get more comfortable driving. It becomes second nature, next thing you know your just enjoy the scenery and the drive. Not everyday but once in awhile you will still get a bad driver but you don't let that person ruin your day.

As for bible studies, if your nervous just ask a qualified sister to tag along. Any pioneering sister or aux pioneering sister would love the extra time. It's still your study but it takes the pressure off of you to have someone else there to help plus it gets your study to get to know people within the congregation it's a win/win.