Many Utah County residents are familiar with the visits Jehovah’s Witnesses have made, going door-to-door sharing their beliefs and handing out the popular Watchtower and Awake publications.

The COVID-19 pandemic put those visits in a holding pattern — until now. It was recently announced that Jehovah’s Witnesses will resume their trademark door-to-door ministry beginning Thursday, Sept. 1. The two-and-a-half-year suspension of the work will end just in time for the launch of a global campaign featuring an interactive program for Bible study, according a press release.

The decision to resume their door-to-door ministry marks the complete restoration of all pre-pandemic, in-person activities for the nearly 1.3 million Jehovah’s Witnesses spread across 12,000 congregations in the United States.

Houses of worship, like those in Utah County, were reopened on April 1, witnessing in public places resumed on May 31 and in-person conventions are planned for 2023.

“We are looking forward to having face-to-face conversations with our neighbors,” said Pleasant Grove resident Raif Huggins, whose family will be heading out to the neighborhood in the coming weeks. “Although we have reached many with letter writing and phone calls, nothing compares with knocking on doors and visiting in person.”

The suspension of the public ministry was a proactive response by the organization to keep communities and congregants safe. The move was also unprecedented. Jehovah’s Witnesses had been preaching from house to house without interruption for more than 100 years, but COVID-19 demanded a different response, the release noted.

“We believe that the early decision to shut down all in-person activities for more than two years has saved many lives,” said Robert Hendriks, U.S. spokesperson for Jehovah’s Witnesses. “We’re now ready and eager to reconnect with our neighbors once again – person-to-person, face-to-face. It’s not the only way that we preach, but it has historically been the most effective way to deliver our message of comfort and hope.”

The return to an in-person ministry coincides with a global campaign to offer an interactive Bible study program, available in hundreds of languages and offered at no cost.

The course comes in the form of a printed book, online publication or as an embedded feature within the organization’s free mobile application, JW Library.

Released in late 2020, the interactive study platform combines text, videos, illustrations and digital worksheets to help learners of all ages.

“This study program is designed to match the learning style of the 21st-century student,” Hendriks said. “We’re excited to begin sharing it with our neighbors as we return to making personal visits.”

The pandemic forced Jehovah’s Witnesses to pivot quickly to virtual meetings and conventions while conducting their ministry exclusively through letters, phone calls and virtual Bible studies. This has led to growth in meeting attendance and the number of congregants, with more than 400,000 newly baptized Jehovah’s Witnesses joining the ranks of 120,000 congregations globally in the first two years of the pandemic.

Utah resident Kimberly Robles is one of those newly baptized. “It was like therapy, writing it and putting it there in my own words,” she said of sending letters to her neighbors about the Bible’s message of hope. As she anticipates knocking on doors for the first time, she knows what she wants to share.

“There’s a better life ahead of you and it’s not just what this world offers,” she said.

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