Volunteers flock to kick off Jehovah’s Witnesses convention

[Guest Nicole]

Steve Mathey of Bowling Green is a Jehovah’s Witness who, in a way, converted his mother to the faith when he was a child, before he even knew the church.

“I was about 8 years old, in Columbus,” he said. “The Witnesses would come to the door on Saturday morning, and my parents would be asleep. I’m just a little guy, and they’re selling Watchtower and Awake.”

 

Those are religious publications now given away rather than sold, he said.

“I thought as a little kid at that age that this poor lady needed money. … I’d give it to her and I’d put [the publications] next to the door. I didn’t know my mom was reading them — reading, reading — and that’s how she became one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

“A little bit later, when I was 13, 14, that’s when I did. I was Lutheran before.”

On Thursday Mr. Mathey, 56, was at the SeaGate Centre helping to set up for two weekends of annual Witnesses conventions which, he said, “bolster our faith. … For me, it’s like a shot in the arm, like a big vitamin shot.”

Mr. Mathey said he is “heading up the sound part” for the event. He took a break from preparations Thursday to talk about the operation, and when asked if he was the one in charge, he replied, “I don’t know that anybody’s officially in charge. We like to think Christ is our leader on this one, you know; that would make the most sense for us.”

There is a convention committee that takes part in the planning and operation.

Local Witnesses have held their summertime conventions at the SeaGate Centre every year since 2005.

Their move-in for a convention is a bit unusual because it is all done by church volunteers who take a day off work or away from their daily duties.

First they clean the convention space, then they unload and set up equipment owned and sent there by the denomination, headquartered in Warwick, N.Y. That includes arena-size TV screens and all the cabling and equipment for video and audio.

When the convention is done, the gear will be shipped to the next Witnesses convention site and volunteers will clean the SeaGate auditorium for the next users.

“When we leave, it’s cleaner than when we came,” said Dan Brown, a local spokesman for the convention.

Even those who do specialized work are church volunteers, said Mark Smith, another local convention spokesman. “When they started off, they didn’t even know how to do it at all, but they volunteered, and the next thing you know they’re getting trained. The next year they might be running it because they’ve been taught how to do it.”

This year’s program is titled “Remain Loyal to Jehovah!” Each day, the sessions begin at 9:20 a.m. with a music and video presentation. A closing song and ending prayer are scheduled for 4:50 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 3:45 p.m. Sundays.

“If you go to this one or you go to L.A. or you go to Munich, Germany, you’re going to get exactly the same program,” Mr. Mathey said.

The English-language convention began Friday and continues through Sunday, then the same content will take place in Spanish from Aug. 5-7, and all activities are at the SeaGate Centre, 401 Jefferson Ave.

Almost 6,000 people from more than 50 area congregations are expected, Mr. Brown said.

The convention is open to all, and while there is no charge for admission, contributions are accepted.

Mr. Mathey said that he’s looking forward to the convention videos. He’s seen trailers and, when he was recently in New York, he saw the set that church producers built for the Temple.

“It was just unbelievable, so they could film a couple scenes,” he said. “All the actors, actresses, and all the costumes and everything is done in-house — scripting, special effects, the whole thing.”

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