by Nulite 14 Replies latest jw friends
I've spoken with some individuals who are livid that the School/Service meeting are not shortened. They say we don't need the Sunday meeting cut, what about those long Thursday nights and the kids having school the next day. What about the people who have to work, no real logic or consideration.
NL
....some individuals who are livid that the School/Service meeting are not shortened. ... long Thursday nights and the kids
having school the next day. ...people who have to work, no real logic or consideration.
I actually hope they never address this problem. Better to have the rank-and-file complaining
about the need to skip the meeting, than them praising the organization for addressing their
needs.
Years down the road, as the numbers shrink, they probably will do a major change in the
TMS/Service Mtg/Book Study to make the three into one evening. Perhaps they will shorten the
school to 25 minutes, the service meeting to 25 minutes, the book study to 25 minutes, add
15 minutes for songs and prayers and you have 1.5 hours. It could happen. I hope it don't.
I agree OnTheWayOut
NL
From the direction the Society is heading, it looks to me like the Watchtower magazine will replace the Kingdom Ministry and the Watchtower study on Sunday will replace the Service Meeting.
I'm thinking the book study will be eliminated. The Society is struggling to produce study material for the meeting. The book study meetings are not profitable. They are mostly held in private homes where donations are either not collected or they are not forthcoming, and there is no literature counter to barter for cash with.
Now the meetings have two underlying topics. First, the meetings are about attending the meetings, and second, the meetings teach that the Governing Body has the authority to print the material that tells the people to attend the meetings.
Service is not the profit activity any more, meetings are. That can be seen in the focus of the talks as well as the shepherding calls. They don't try to get people in service, they try to get them to meetings. I think in the not too distant future, to be counted as an active Witness will be based on meeting attendance, not service.
At one time service was a benefit to the Society. Now it's a liability. The Society has the expense of producing material for the Witnesses to distribute but they are not receiving offsetting donations at the level they need. That's why the "offer" went from a hard cover book 20 years ago to a pulp paper folded tract today.
Ah Gary, I forgot to follow the money trail completely.
The weekly meetings don't cost the organization any money so I assumed
there was no need to cancel the bookstudy. I forgot that the literature, itself
cost money to produce and contributions were down. I forgot that most
bookstudy meetings don't add up to contributions to the worldwide work, so
there really is a point where they will abandon them.
At one time service was a benefit to the Society. Now it's a liability. The Society has
the expense of producing material for the Witnesses to distribute but they are not
receiving offsetting donations at the level they need.
As radical as that thought is, as much as I am confident that they need the
distribution work to keep the flocks busy, the money trail you lay out is logical.
On their way to mainstreaming efforts, they may just abandon the work. They
would probably go to flyer distribution then to nothing, saying the work is done or
the message is available without the work. It could be done. That would be the
diet version of JW's, because it will be a diminished group that hears the new light.
