A question for ex-elders and possibly x-MS

by Lady Lee 18 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  tijkmo

  yup constant elders meetings after meetings...

  some elders just didnt wanna spend time with their wives and families so the more elders meetings the better...and about the most trivial things

  my way of dealing with it was to remind the elders that we were supposed to be associating with the friends for 20 mins after the meeting and so any elders business that was neccersary should be dealt with after that..you would be amazed at how these unimportant meetings diminished then.

  when i was p.o they tried to appeal to my pride by arranging for meetings to discuss trivial things..but i would tell them that they should sort it out themselves, or as a commitee, or have a meeting and tell me what they had decided. (i only did this for trivialities obviously)

  i think they were just annoyed cos i would take a crowd of the young ones to the movies or to quiz night after the meeting
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  BroSun1

  Hi there Lady Lee

  The Watchtower Society and Sport.

  AHA! Once again a Playground of confusion!

  Some of the ‘principles’ put forward.

  • You can play sport as long as it is not competitive. (Ha Ha)
  • You can play sport as long is it is not at Club level.
  • You can play sport as long as you are all JW’s.
  • At Bethel in South Africa they actually have fields allocated for playing sport. Brothers are allowed to run off their pent up feelings so that they can avoid masturbation and homosexual activities.
  • For ones not in Bethel it is preferable not to play sport.
  • The Elders will counsel you if they find out that your child in taking part in school sports.

  I once pointed out to a District Overseer and his wife that the ‘Insight Book’ brought out the point that Jacob must have taken up the sport of wrestling to have enabled him to wrestle all night with the Angel. The response from them was one of anger. They did not even bother to check whether the ‘Insight Book’ actually made the point. They said, “You Brothers are always looking for excuses to play sport. You are simply disobedient to the Society”.

  ELDERS MEETINGS.

  The Watchtower Society is a POLITICAL Organization within it’s own context.

  The most vicious arguments take place in Elders Meetings and very often a spirit of Christianity does not prevail. The desire for prominence is great. If you are astute you will align yourself with the right camps, the influential ones, since that will greatly enhance your chances of getting ‘privileges’. I guess I could go on and on…..

  Calling ‘guilty’ ones to backroom meetings after Congregational meetings is an embarrassing and cruel habit.
• 

  BrendaCloutier

  I clearly recall waiting and waiting for my husband to be finished with the meeting after the regular meetings Some took hours

  What i remember most is being a little girl, and Thursday night waiting after the meeting for my dad to be done in the back room. And waiting, and waiting, and waiting - my mom and me. I remember once being carried to the car at 1am!
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  Seeker4

  There are many congregations where the elders or other brothers regularly organize basketball games, baseball, hockey and more. One of our former COs, a terrific guy named Frank Hans, said he organized hockey for his congregation when he was a parent and elder. He told a great story about how he got two of the players to stage a serious fight, with fake blood and all, just to get the other brothers going.

  Frank was a cool guy. Dismembered probably remembers him.

  In fact, when I was a temporary worker at Brooklyn Bethel, a LOT of the workers regularly skipped lunch to go play basketball or stickball. They even had team names - The Good News Bears was one I remember!

  And yes, elders meetings often went way too long for no good reasons.

  S4
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  Lady Lee

  JG

  I'm glad one of us knows what I am thinking. I really needed to go for a nap before posting that.

  But the answers recieved are great.

  We lived fairly close to the hall. I would many times take the car and the kids and go home especially if it was a school night. One of the elders had a car and would drive my husband home or he would walk

  After years of this waiting around I would be seething inside because they would come out of the meeting and blame us for taking so long - possibly in jest but I was too far gone to take it as a joke.

  The point about prefering to be in an elder's meeting with t"the guys" rather than at home with us strikes a chord. He rarely did anything with us that wasn't "spiritual"
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  dannyboy

  Lady Lee,
  
  

  Did they have to take all the time that they did or was there a lot of gabbing going on.

  
  In my experience, a heck of a lot of time was wasted in endless debates over trivial matters, and also wasted by most of my fellow elders not having much experience in thinking on their feet or in reasoning on stuff. For example, there was always a few elders who were literally a couple of minutes "behind" in the discussion, so to speak, with resultant time wasting re-hashing. Sometimes it was a lot like a religious "Dilbert" cartoon.....
  
  The debates/discussions over trivial stuff bugged me. There is usually more than one acceptable way to do most anything, sometimes 10 different acceptable ways, but when you've got a room full of men who are full of themselves and their personal opinions, it is usually a slow process to decide much of anything, especially when most present can't see that unless a really important principle is involved, it's more important to get stuff decided and move on to the next issue.
  
  Unlike a business-like atmosphere where all present try to be brief and concise, recognizing the time that is being spent/wasted, most elder's meetings are not very efficient. The Watchtower Society would like to paint the picture of thoughtful elder's meetings, with humble men who do their best to "care for the flock"....the reality is far different with "politics" being played, and power struggles and all the rest.
  
  But what more could one expect of men who were/are mostly janitors and lawn-mowers (no offense) or other types with little practical experience in working smoothly with a group?
  
  My two cents, I guess I veer off your subject, but these things just poured out of me just now.
  
  -Dan
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  Sasha

  Interesting...Not to change the subject. But, JW do not celebrate birthdays. Any time I was at a book study, whenever it was one of the Elders date of birth, he would annouce it at the end. For example: " I am 44 today"...stufff like that. You can't say happy Birthday...so what do you say? wierd. I have heard brothers discuss "games", by the way. At one Sunday, the speaker said" Now, I know you would rather be home watching the game, but you are here" strange to me.
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  jwfacts

  I was only a servant, but we had to get together several times a year for meetings, such as with the CO. I use to hate them with a passion. To me they were power tripping boys clubs and a complete waste of time. I don't believe anything was discussed that could not have been done openly in front of the congregation.

  But then I do not like corporate meetings or the corporate ladder. I work in the corporate world and regularly suffer boardroom meetings. To me a corporate meeting or the congregational boys club meeting are all the same, based around power and segregation. Meetings are necessary to finalise strategy, but I feel there are too many that are too exclusive and go for too long.
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  Arthur

  When I was a MS, the only time us Servants got to sit in meetings with elders was to be raked over the coals about something. I, like jwfacts hated the meetings with the Circuit Overseer. It was 90% diatribe from the C.O. about his personal grievances and pet peeves.