Last week an elder who has served in Bethel gave the service meeting talk, which referred to the front page of the Sep KM (which I don't yet have) on the Governing Body's letter to all publishers.
He started by saying that "drastic times call for drastic measures" - Bethel was going through periods of rapid change.
He referred to a symposium given by Brother Jaracz and Splane last December, where they tried to brush off the layoffs saying everyone had to keep "up with Jehovah's celestial chariot"
Bethelites were being reassigned to the field, and this would be difficult for them. Some in Bethel who were being reassigned had been there 20 or 30 years. They would need support from the congregation.
"Machines can make bibles and magazines, but machines can't preach. Only people can preach."
Speaker referred to scripture where it says, "Beg the master of the harvest to send out more workers."
Speaker said that at the symposium, the mood was one of urgency. "You could hear it in the brother's voices", he said.
Reference the scripture where it says, "You will by no means complete the circuit of the cities of earth until the son of man arrives."
This seemed to be an attempt to guilt us into being even more urgent, making the life-saving work more important.
My feelings are that is was a ploy to distract from the real reason Bethel is laying off people. They are short on money, and it's probably true that machines can do the work of several Bethlites. However, it seems they are manufacturing and marketing "this sense of urgency" to get people motivated.
Make no mistake - this organization is evil - behind the scenes, there are men who purposely sit down, discuss and thrash out how they can increase the numbers of publishers by motivating them with these "urgency" talks and getting them to go out with Kingdom News 37, "False Religion's End" is near.
If you've ever been in a meeting where they discuss employee performance and production, it would probably be something like that in Bethel/Patterson.