Question Box
● How should family Bible studies or studies conducted with nonbaptized minor children of dedicated Christians be reported?
Caring for the responsibility to teach children Jehovah’s way requires much time and effort on the part of dedicated Christian parents. (Deut. 6:6, 7; Eph. 6:4) Whether all the time involved is reported as field service has no bearing on the seriousness of the parental responsibility.
The congregation’s field service report is compiled to represent primarily what is being accomplished in the field ministry preaching the good news publicly and teaching the truth to persons who are not dedicated and baptized Witnesses. (Matt. 24:14; 28:19, 20) However, if a dedicated Christian parent regularly conducts a family Bible study and minor nonbaptized children are involved, he or she may report a total of no more than one hour and one return visit each week that the study is conducted and one home Bible study for the month. This will be the case even if the study is extended for more than one hour at a time or conducted more than once a week. Additional studies or time spent teaching the children individually would not be included in a field service report, but would rather be viewed as an expression of the parent’s earnest desire to train up the children in godly devotion.—Prov. 22:6.
What if, for some reason, parents should need help in sounding down the truth into the heart of their children? They may ask others to give them the needed assistance. If another publisher is asked to render such assistance, it would be well to discuss this with the presiding overseer or the service overseer. If the parents are new in the truth or otherwise need help with their children and it would be advisable for another publisher to conduct a Bible study with them, that may be done. In such a case, the one conducting the study would be able to count the time, return visit and study if the children are not baptized.—See “Are You the Only Member of Your Family in the Truth?” in the January 1980 Our Kingdom Service and “Working What Is Good Toward Younger Ones” in the August 1980 issue.