Service Meeting Schedule
Week Starting January 10
10 min: Local announcements. Selected Announcements from Our Kingdom Ministry.
15 min: “Making Jehovah’s Name Known in All the Earth.” Question-and-answer discussion. Include comments on informal witnessing from Our Ministry book, pages 93-4.
20 min: Making a Legal Choice for Nonblood Management of Health Care. (Acts 15:28, 29) Talk by a qualified elder, based on question-and-answer guide that accompanies the Society’s health-care durable power of attorney, or proxy, form and the sheet entitled “Information About the Society’s Health-Care Durable Power of Attorney (DPA) Forms,” both dated January 1997. Following this meeting, baptized Witnesses may obtain a new Advance Medical Directive/Release card, and those with unbaptized minor children may receive an Identity Card for each child. These cards are not to be filled out tonight. They should be filled out carefully at home but NOT signed. Signing, witnessing, and dating of all cards will be done after the next Congregation Book Study, with assistance where necessary from the book study conductor. Before signing, be sure that the cards are filled out completely. Those signing as witnesses should actually see the cardholder sign the document. By adapting language from this card to their own circumstances and convictions, unbaptized publishers may write out their own directive to use for themselves and their children. The durable power of attorney, or proxy, form has been prepared by the Society and is a more comprehensive health-care document that provides primary legal protection. Witnesses who have not already filled out this form and who wish to do so can obtain a copy from the congregation secretary. (If a publisher has moved to another state, he would need to execute a new form in order for it to be effective in that state.) Additionally, if a durable power of attorney, or proxy, form has been executed, you should write on the front of the Advance Medical Directive/Release card, preferably in your own hand: “I have also executed a health-care power of attorney.” Book study conductors should be sure that all assigned to their group have the assistance they desire to fill out the Advance Medical Directive/Release card and durable power of attorney, or proxy, form. For the best possible legal protection, both documents should be filled out.
Song 155 and concluding prayer.
Week Starting January 17
10 min: Local announcements. Accounts report.
15 min: Local needs.
20 min: “Use Tracts to Start Conversations.” Review any four tracts commonly used in the territory. Pose a question that is answered in each tract. Invite audience to suggest how the question could be used to start a conversation and possibly lead into a Bible study. Demonstrate how this might be done with two of the tracts.
Song 57 and concluding prayer.
Week Starting January 24
10 min: Local announcements and field service experiences.
15 min: “Give Consideration to Jehovah’s Word Every Day!” Talk and audience discussion. Encourage everyone to make good use of Examining the Scriptures Daily—2000. Include comments from the foreword, pages 3-4. Invite publishers to relate how they make a special effort to consider the text and comments each day.
20 min: “Will You Be There?” Talk and experiences, conducted by an elder. Large gatherings have played a major role in strengthening God’s people from Bible times to our day. (See Proclaimers book, page 254, paragraphs 1-3, and Insight, Volume 1, page 821, paragraph 5.) Encourage all to start making preparations now to attend all three days of this year’s district convention. Invite audience to relate experiences showing that their diligent efforts to be present in the past were rewarded spiritually.
Song 157 and concluding prayer.
Week Starting January 31
12 min: Local announcements. Remind all to turn in field service reports for January. Mention the literature offer for February: Family Happiness book. Demonstrate how the three questions in the box on page 12 of the book can be used as a basis for engaging someone in conversation.
15 min: The Answer to a Question About ‘Marking.’ Talk by an elder, based on July 15, 1999, Watchtower, pages 29-31.
18 min: How to Help Others Identify the True Religion. Discussion between a qualified ministerial servant and two or three capable publishers about how people may be impressed by Jehovah’s Witnesses but do not understand clearly the difference between other religions and ours. Review the ten points covered on page 20 of the May 8, 1995, Awake! Explain how knowing these factors can help a sincere person see both the distinction between true and false worship and the need to learn from Jehovah’s people and associate with us.
Song 60 and concluding prayer.
Week Starting February 7
8 min: Local announcements.
17 min: Review Daniel’s Prophecy Book. Talk and audience discussion. Review highlights of the new book: striking chapter titles, vivid illustrations, boxes with probing questions at the end of each discussion, maps and charts that clarify details. Consider the encouraging explanation of how Michael will “stand up” in a special way (pages 288-90). Discuss the importance of our enduring as teachers of God’s Word (pages 311-12). All of us should read the book carefully and urge interested ones to do the same.
20 min: They Made a Wise Choice. Talk based on October 15, 1997, Watchtower, pages 19-21, paragraphs 3-16. Relate expressions of pioneers, showing why they feel that their lives have been spent in the most rewarding, beneficial way. Encourage all in attendance to evaluate their own prospects for pioneering.
Song 182 and concluding prayer.