Conversion & Calling, Student Workbook, SW01

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C O N V E R S I O N A N D C A L L I N G

“sin” is merely the idea of certain religious groups putting their narrow morality on the rest of us. No one can claim that something is sinful, since “sin” only means something within a context of a religious group. What would you counsel this young social worker regarding the idea of “sin” here?

Whose Righteousness Is Most Righteous?

After a long and heated conversation with a Jehovah’s Witness, one of your church members found himself stumped at one of the arguments given against the Church. In comparing the level of quality of life of the Jehovah’s Witness to average church goers, the Witness suggested that “Although there is much talk about righteousness in the Church, for the most part, you can do whatever you want and still be okay. As a matter of fact, I used to attend a church where the musicians fooled around sexually, one of the deacons exploded and cussed out the pastor in a business meeting, and the youth minister was separated from his wife. Nobody said anything about these situations, either. Since I have been a Jehovah’s Witness, though, we actually live righteous among each other, and won’t tolerate anyone living unrighteously.” Your church member knew of situations like this, and was really thrown back by the argument. How would you advise him to answer arguments like this in the future, when he encounters such claims about righteousness? Recently, you have just been appointed Superintendent of the Sunday School for the church, and you are in the process of selecting teachers for the various age level classes you offer. You have looked back over the last year and one half of teaching and found there to be no one subject that the classes focus or concentrate on. All kinds of issues and subjects are being discussed at the various age levels, and none of them seem too interested in focusing on abstract, theological subjects. Most of the teachers select topics like, “Managing Your Money,” or “Living Pure before God,” or “Getting a Better Prayer Life.” You are concerned that very little teaching about Jesus Christ and his work is being done, and you want to have a meeting with the teachers to cover how to do that. How might you approach this issue with your teachers, without creating in them a sense of guilt over the other topics and approaches they are accustomed to? Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

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