Jehovah's Witnesses - Lutz Kingdom Hall

Jehovah's Witnesses Kingdom Hall - Lutz
707 Lutz Lake Fern Rd., Lutz, FL, 33548
(813) 949-2001

Contact: Herb Steiner (Coordinator/Chairmen of the Body of Elders) and Michael Ward (Service Overseer, Chairmen of the Body of Elders)

You can listen to the interview here.

Jehovah's Witnesses. Growing up, it seemed they were the cousins of the LDS (aka Mormon) faith I had grown up in. By now, everyone has probably encountered one, if not through casual contacts then through their evangelical arm. Both the LDS (aka Mormon) faith and the Jehovah's Witnesses are known for their missionaries that go door to door, spreading the word of their gospel. Both religions are known for having their own particular documents they want to spread - the "Book of Mormon" for the LDS crowd, the magazine "The Watchtower" for the Jehovah's Witnesses. Both religions are known for the highly integrated communities of their followers, for their particular lifestyles that set them apart from others.

And, their beliefs are usually misunderstood.

I've actually been trying to get a local Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall (the name of their churches) to allow me to visit and interview their leadership. After the St. Petersburg article about my podcast, I received a few calls and emails asking to visit people's churches. And, luckily for me, I was asked by a Ms. Cyndi Black if I'd like to visit her Jehovah's Witness congregation in Lutz.

Well - yes!

The building the congregation met in was very simple. Hardly any pictures, white walls - clean, neat, everything right in its place. The only ornamentation I noticed was inside the chapel itself, where in gold letters a reference to Acts was displayed from Acts 20:24, "Bear thorough witness to the good news."

The service started with an opening hymn, the songs feeling like something from the late 1800's or so. Not too unusual. In fact, if anything, I noticed how pretty, well, "normal" the service seemed compared to other religions I had visited. Opening song, opening prayer, sermon, closing song, closing prayer. At least for the first half of the service.

There were some differences of course. The primary one that was impossible to miss was how they referred to "God" by the name of either "Jehovah" or sometimes "Jehovah-God". This was certainly different for me - I'm used to most religions doing anything to avoid referring to their divine being by anything than the generic term of "god".

From my time around and speaking with Jehovah's Witnesses, I noticed that there was a focus on two main themes: evangelical work, and a focus on the "New World". The New World of which they speak refers to the belief that when Jesus Christ returns to the world, the Earth will be transformed into paradise for the true believers, and only the righteous will remain.

A lot of focus is put on these two ideas, to the point that I learned that Jehovah's Witnesses don't consider someone a "true" member unless they are actively spreading their faith.

The sermon focused on the idea of the New World to come, and being prepared for it. Having the proper qualifications - in this case, the speaker referred to it in the analogy of a resume. Many of these were things you'd expect from other Christian faiths - fidelity to spouses, honesty, and so on.

What stood out was the level of obedience to these laws that the speaker mentioned. It wasn't enough to just strive for this level of perfect, or to live a "Christian" life. The references and prayers asked that people make themselves "slaves to Jehovah" to be true followers.

The next half of the service was probably the most interesting. This was labeled as "Bible study." The Jehovah's Witnesses put a lot of stock in the Bible, and feel that all beliefs stem from that document and that document alone. If it's not to be found there, then don't believe it. If it's there, then it's a valid belief.

The Bible Study used references from a Watchtower study guide. The leader of the study would read from the study guide out loud, then ask the congregation questions listed in the book. For example, "What qualities of Jesus made him effective as a leader?"

Two young men moved through the congregation with a microphone, and people would offer the answers - usually found in the recently read text or from pointing out what the Bible being studied said. Then the Bible study leader would point out the Bible reference to validate the answers.

The whole process went "Read from the Watchtower study guide, ask questions of the congregation, do the answers match what's in the Bible, let's look up these scriptures - No Way, the Bible totally validates what we just said!"

All of their beliefs seem to be validated this way. They showed me a database that contains all of the Watchtower articles in a searchable system. Answers it seems to every questions for Jehovah's Witnesses could be found in those documents, and each answer offered by the Watchtower is backed up by the Bible.

From talking to them, they clearly believe that the world is broken, and that only God can fix it. They believe they have the only correct answers to the questions for humankind based on the Bible, and that full obedience to the scriptures is necessary to be qualified for the New World that God will install.