Be Honest: Did You ACTUALLY Report Accurate Field Service Time? (page 6)

Honesty

Why do you ask, brother?

Are you vying for a few of my privileges?

ronin1

Yes. I actually reported field service time. I pioneered for two years and always reported my time.

Years later when I was no longer pioneering and came to my senses regarding the borg, I stopped reporting my time.

The elders in my cong were not happy and spoke with me after a Wednesday night meeting to inquire about my actions. They tried to cite the scripture about Jesus followers reporting to him the things they had seen and heard. I quickly reminded them that scripture was concerning reporting experiences in the ministry, not time. And that there was not scriptural rule that stated I had to report my time to them- that Jehovah knew exactly how much time I spent in the ministry and that was good enough.

They left me alone after that.

Ronin1

candidlynuts

i always was honest with my reporting of time

i was shocked outta my shoes when an elder asked me to add a few hours to my slip one month!!!

" surely you have a few hours we could jot down in " informal witnessing"

coincidently it was the month of the CO visit.

mamochan13

When I was a publisher I was always honest, even if it was only 1 hour.

As a pioneer it was harder. I did all the things on Blondie's list, starting time with a letter at 7 AM then counting all day no matter what came in between. But I tried to be honest, even in months when I only managed 30 or 40 hours instead of 90 or 100. A couple times, though, I admit I rounded things up.

I suppose, though, if you compare it to regular employment - how many workers actually put in a full 40 hour week doing the job they are being paid to do? Add in coffee breaks, lunch, chatting with co-worker, surfing the Internet, smoke breaks, etc. Not that different, really.

r51785

I believe that fudging on or out and out lying about one's time is becoming more prevalent. To prove my point one only needs to look at Watchtower statistics. Thirty years ago in 1975, 382,296,208 hours were spent in field service and 295,073 were baptized. This translates into 1296 hours spent preaching to gain one baptism. Fast forward to 2005: 1,278,201,985 hours were spent in field service and 247,631 were baptized. This translates into 5162 hours spent preaching to gain one baptism. The 2005 number is 4 times the number in 1975! Even if you allowed that it only took half as many hours to create a new convert in 1975 [which is certainly explainable by the fact that 1975 marked the end of 6000 years of human existence ;)], then at least half the time reported in 2005 had to be fraudulent.

r51785

One more point: The workers had a saying in the former Soviet Union -- "They pretend to pay us, so we pretend to work." How hard will the average publisher work if he feels he'll never see the paradise earth? The faith of many dubs is rotting from the inside out. The numbers prove it!

In Between

I fudged ... hey I was reaching out and needed my 10 hours per month ...

Growing up in Nebraska, driving in rurals was great ... 8 hour days during the summer and maybe hitting 10 farm houses in the sandhills ... meant only 2 doors that day for me ...

Elders were the worst I saw at the whole 'time' thing. I would go out with one or two, they'ed hit a call maybe, then waste most the morning driving around, maybe seeing a bro or sis that was ill, long breaks, etc.

It seemed to me that most the elders spent there mornings as being part of some 'boys club', talking about people in the cong. and such, not on door to door. Of course there were exceptions, but for the most part, service in the last few cong. I was in was more socializing than preaching ...

Athanasius

I always rounded up. If I got 1 hour 30 minutes, I'd round it up to 2 hours. That was a common practice back when I was a JW.

sandy

I think I always cheated a little especially the months I pioneered for the Lord.

But I totally lied when I started becoming spritually weak. At about 19 years old I started missing a lot of meetings and hardly ever went out on field service.

For a while I lied on my reports and always reported at least or close to the national average.

But after a while I started to get paranoid, and rightly so, I was missing 80% of meetings and NEVER out on field service. I figured the elders would start to suspect I was lying.

So I dropped my field service time to one hour per month. LOL And I only reported this because the "Timekeeper Elder" - I forget now what his title was, would always call me right before he sent in the time to the "Society" and ask me if I had anything to report.

So I succumbed to peer pressure and lied about my time. LOL

It is all so funny to me now. But I really used to feel so guilty, well more afraid, over it. I used to think Jehovah would never save me for lying about this.

gusgus1

I was very honest about it, but always had very few hours.

I hated service, I always figured everyone knew I was a JW, and if they wanted to know anything about it, they could ask me.

I also always tried to bargain, I would say to the sisters, "Let me watch the kids, while you go out", but my best sister friend, told me I couldn't do that...

Oh how I HATED doing service....

Be Honest: Did You ACTUALLY Report Accurate Field Service Time?

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