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South Hanover Kingdom Hall

by Jason Gatts 

A Meeting with the Jehovah’s Witness 

Last Wednesday evening I went to a class at the South Hanover Kingdom Hall. The local Jehovah’s Witnesses meet here every Sunday and Wednesday evening. A man who introduced himself as “Brother Kelvin” took me around to each room of the building, giving me a brief description of it’s purpose. The Main Hall, where I entered, is where they have their Sunday service. He tells me that they have no permanent clergy and that each person takes turns leading the service that day. An interesting fact about this room is that every five seats are equipped with a “CB” type microphone. Apparently this is because they encourage congressional participation, both questions and comments, during the service. There were two small rooms used for daycare, during the services. They were typical of any church daycare or Sunday school room. The last room that we entered was a small classroom where we would have our class that night. Everyone was given a small book to follow along with and to take notes in and then we were seated in high school type desks. 

Brother Kelvin, who was leading the class that night, opened with prayer to “Father God Jehovah”. Each person then took turns reading that night’s chapter, one paragraph at a time. After each paragraph we would pause for questions and comments. At the end of the chapter there were five questions about the readings that we answered and added comments to aloud. 

After class I spent ten minutes with Brother Kelvin discussing some basic Jehovah’s Witness beliefs. A few that were mentioned were the belief that the human Jesus was in reality the angel Michael, he was crucified on a stake not a cross, he is greater than any other of God’s creation, but he is not God, God is One --- there is no Trinity, and perhaps most importantly the Jehovah’s Witnesses are God’s chosen people of today (just as the Jews were in ancient times). 

I admire their dedication and the fact that most Jehovah’s Witnesses, including children, know more about the Bible than most “typical” Christians I know. I am amazed at how well organized they are and found them to be very polite and hospitable people. I do not agree with how much emphasis they put on seemingly non-essential doctrines, but I respect the fact that they at least know and study to better understand what they believe. 

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