In previous posts, I’ve told you a little about my book, Getting Through to Jehovah’s Witnesses: Approaching Bible Discussions in Unexpected Ways.

Now I’d like to give you a preview of Section 1. In this section I tell you about my early (highly unsuccessful) attempts to share the gospel with Jehovah’s Witnesses. I also share my personal experiences with the Watchtower indoctrination methods. and how I almost got sucked into their religion. Here are short summaries of what each of those chapters includes:

 SECTION 1: ENCOUNTERING JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES

Chapter 1

Here They Come—Now What?

The book begins with an account of my disastrous first attempt to share the gospel with two Jehovah’s Witnesses. Rather than advising Christians to hide behind the curtains or turn Witnesses away with a “Not interested; I have my own religion,” I urge readers to prepare and then to open their doors and share the gospel effectively with Jehovah’s Witnesses. The chapter concludes by casting a positive vision of Jehovah’s Witnesses receiving an effective witness from prepared Christians throughout your community.

Chapter 2

My Study with Jehovah’s Witnesses

The narrative resumes with a description of how I became a passive student in a Watchtower “home Bible study.” I disclose my personal struggle, giving a firsthand account of the Watchtower’s persuasion methods. I explain how you can learn from my mistakes and give specific recommendations for avoiding passivity and for getting the Witnesses to focus on the context of the Bible verses being discussed.

Chapter 3

Encountering the Organizational Mindset

What makes a person a Jehovah’s Witness is devotion to the concept that God works through one and only one organization today—the Watchtower Society. In this chapter, I describe the process by which the Watchtower persuades people of this claim and explain why friends’ warnings often backfire. I conclude the chapter by explaining the importance of helping Witnesses break free from this organizational mindset and by giving advice for doing so without coming across as antagonistic.

Chapter 4

Witnessing Principles I Learned

I bring Section 1 to a close my describing my four-year struggle with Watchtower teachings and by explaining how I broke free. Based on these personal experiences, I then set out in detail five principles for witnessing to Jehovah’s Witnesses and give the reader practical witnessing do’s and don’ts based on these principles. These principles and techniques will apply to all the approaches that are set out later in the book.

I hope this introduction to the book has whetted your appetite to see what else it contains. I’ll discuss Section 2 next week.

The paperback edition is available for $14.99; the Kindle edition is available for $9.99. If you order the paperback, you can get the Kindle version free under Amazon’s Matchbook program.

Here is a link you can use to obtain your copy:  Getting Through to Jehovah’s Witnesses: Approaching Bible Discussions in Unexpected Ways