A Convention With a Service Day

The 1925 convention was a high point in Danish theocratic history. The Danish edition of The Watch Tower announced: “Tuesday the first of September will be a special service day, and it is expected that all who are able will take part in the effort to spread the message by colporteuring with books in the Copenhagen area.” The day began with a talk by Poul Reinseth on the importance of preaching. Then the conventioners were scattered to the four winds​—out in the house-to-house work with the books.

Afterward, the Danish Watch Tower carried this encouragement: “Since the convention, ardor and zeal in connection with spreading the message has spread to many classes [congregations], and we hope that this will mean a real expansion of the work.”

A New High Point

The autumn of 1927 was the next high point. Another visit by Brother Rutherford prompted another convention, where 650 delegates from Scandinavia, Estonia, and Latvia listened with rapt attention to Brother Rutherford’s talk “Freedom for the Peoples.” The daily newspaper Politiken wrote:

“The doors into the Odd Fellows Hall were opened at 7:30, but within a quarter hour every seat was filled . . . and the doors were closed. During the following quarter hour, several hundred people crowded into the large tiled vestibule. They kept banging on the closed doors, and one man who had come a long way just to hear this talk offered 500 crowns [$100] for a seat. But all in vain. The crush of the crowd in the vestibule grew greater. Nearly a thousand people pressed forward to come in but to no avail.”

Campaigns and Conventions

In order to stimulate all to share in the witness work, worldwide campaigns were organized, generally of nine days each. The first Danish campaign featured the booklet Freedom for the Peoples, which was distributed to the public during March 1928. Another feature of activity was the small Sunday assemblies, later called service conventions.

The home of Holger Nielsen in Thorup Strand, a small fishing village in northern Jutland, close to the North Sea, provides a glimpse of a typical Sunday assembly. Brothers will arrive from Ålborg and the island of Mors and the villages in between. All tote their lunches as they preach along the way. In the meantime brothers at Thorup Strand are scurrying about, preparing to receive them. Brother Nielsen’s barn is emptied, swept, and decorated, and benches are fetched on a horse-drawn wagon from the community hall. It is noon by the time the brothers arrive; they share a meal, rest a bit, and then gather in the clean barn for a talk, which is followed by a baptism in the open sea. On this occasion, 19 are immersed. What a day!