The congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Hitchcock, Texas, built their Kingdom Hall down the street from my first pastorate in one day. Pretty impressive. But since our family lived in the parsonage next to the church, we subsequently became the target of numerous visits from fervent JWs. That experience gave me an idea. I could converse (read argue) with JWs well. (And yes, it is appropriate to argue when truth is at stake – Acts 18:4.) But I knew most of my congregants couldn’t. I also knew that all of them would eventually start getting these same visits. So I came up with a plan.
I asked for some volunteers in the church to form a JW SWAT team. They would be the cult experts who would be ready to respond 24/7 to anyone in our church who received a visit from JWs or any other cult. We told our members that when someone from these churches came to their door, invite them in to talk, offer them something to drink, and then call the SWAT team to join them.
That approach actually worked well. In fact, in my second pastorate in Quincy, Illinois, our church faced a similar problem. Only this time it was Mormons. The cult team we formed there became so effective, the local Mormon church started warning its members about us.
Cult SWAT teams are just a thought. I’m wondering if any of my readers attend churches that have their own strategy for confronting error with truth. If so, leave a comment.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
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