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On June 3, 2001, at 11am, I went to a church service in a JW's Kingdom Hall. The following is how I felt. I recorded what I saw, heard and what God was telling me.

The service consisted of a question and answer time with the attendees. They read a paragraph from "The Watchtower" magazine and they'd ask a question. The questions were in the magazine, but the answers weren't. The answers were usually simple. There was very little personal application. Most of the answers were terse and things moved quickly. Nobody stopped and told the congregation how the verses applied to them. There was no notable moderator, only a guy who read from "The Watchtower".

They never defined any words. This would have been nice because I know some of the congregation wasn't tracking along. There was no sermon.

There were about 125 people in this room. It was simple and a little rugged. Everyone meets in one room: kids, elderly, babies, teens, etc. This was distracting, at times, because the babies would cry. My wife and I sat in the back. We actually sat in a little sound-proof room that had a speaker. It was obviously the overflow room.

They never used the words "Jesus" or "God". The constantly and consistently used the word "Jehovah".

Many people were dressed in coats and ties. I wore nice pants and a collared shirt and felt like I fit in nicely.

After the service, one man decided to talk to us. I told him I was a minister and was checking out the church. I gave him my ministry's business card and I haven't heard from him again. He obviously decided not to call or write me. I hope my ministry helped him.

During the service, there was very little smiling and no laughing. People were very serious and pious. There were a lot of penitent looks and humility.

They spent some time talking about God's power. His power in lightening. His power in creating great and awesome things. They mentioned how the Behemoth was a hippopotamus and the Leviathan was a Nile crocodile. The Institute for Creation Research asserts that these animals were dinosaurs.

The carpet was red and there were regular chairs in the room. Some flowers adorned the walls and they had some plants in a little aviary. There was a small library/book store that was connected to the church room. The whole place was pretty small.

I felt a little teeth grinding/gritting. My heart rate sped up and my stomach turned a little. I felt like a weight was on my shoulders and I had a somewhat unhappy face. This was very different for me because at The Rock, I'm smiling, laughing, worshiping, learning and having a wonderful time.

I was fasting during my time at this Kingdom Hall. I think this is why I was extra sensitive to what was happening. I felt uncomfortable. The discomfort could have been demonic or it could have been God's Spirit prodding me to stay close to Him and not believe lies. I spoke in tongues and God gave me some comfort.

There was a painting of some people working together in a field. There were people of different races and ages. I imagine this is promoting unity.

Lastly, they answered a question from their magazine in an odd way. They claimed that God's primary desire for us is to share the gospel. Two people said this. This puzzled me because isn't the greatest commandment that we love God?

After attending this service, I realized that heretical churches won't always (if ever) say, "Hi everyone, we are a cult. We believe things that disagree with the Bible. Here they are....." The lies will be more subtle and more hidden. Going to one service isn't a perfect way of discerning if a church is best for a person. We must do research and find what they believe and compare it to what the Bible says.

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