by minimus 53 Replies latest jw friends
Sir, the only time the Bible was opened was to discuss Titus and Timothy and as you say, Organization rules were only considered.
ELDERS ARE THE BIGGEST GOSSIPS THAT I KNOW! They have a "right" to talk about anyone they want in the name of their elder duties.
Also, if there is a visit from the CO. coming that week they get haircuts and assign the best brothers to give the talks. They all look spiffy, the wives put on a show for the CO's wife. They decide who will have the luncheons for that week. Oh and brother and sister CO. don't eat such and such food.
If they have a brother up for recommendation, then they will assign him a talk for them to give in the school. Any up for baptism are mentioned and prepared. Pioneers are recommended to take the CO.and his wife on calls,return visits and Bible studies.
Special needs or problems are kept to a minimum and if possible hidden from the CO. so the CO. can send a good letter back to the society that the body of elders have everything under control and the congregation is prospering.
After the CO. leaves, the elders go back to whatever it is they do and their wives go wow we have much more gossip to talk about, coffee girls.
Blueblades
Minimus has his take on elders meetings. It may have been acurate for his neck of the woods.
I will say that "the weak, sick, elderly and certain ones that might need shepherding" are given
virtually no time. There's much too much to do to waste time on actual stuff that might do some
good.
They have to decide who kisses ass qualifies to move up another notch toward lower level manager
elder. They have to decide what the "local needs" parts in the service meeting should be- usually
money issues or a type of "sin" that is prevalent in the congregation, perhaps trends toward thinking for yourself college or overtime which causes missing meetings.
Minimus said "Assignments are made to assist those in need." In my congregation, this about
never meant need for groceries or a ride to the hall. It meant "in need of more field service." For
some, it meant, "in need of straightening out about their lack of reaching out." It rarely was meant
for sisters, but for brothers that could share the work, or for families that could become shining
examples to hold up of faithful pioneers and window-cleaners.
As was mentioned, the Bible is rarely used at these meetings. The Flock Book (elders manual) is
extensively used. The Talmud (also called the Watchtower) is also used as are letters of instruction
from Bethel to the elders.
Of primary concern at most congregation elders meetings- what is the C.O. going to nail us on? How
can we show him that we are doing a good job? What have we done about the things he nailed us on
last time?
While I rephrased everything to bring it out of cult language, I swear that the things I typed here are
what happened at the average elders meeting that I attended.
Elders Meetings at Circuit Assemblies usually just cover money issues, but there were often training
sessions to cover legal issues of how to best protect the organization from lawsuits while still giving them
full control over issues.
JH said:
"MS's should have their own meetings and leave the elders out...."
They do!!!
Where do you think they go after the CO kicks them out of the first part of the Elders & MS mtng every CO visit?
Burgers & Brewskis man!
I've always wanted to slip out with them.
Open Mind
In Bangor Maine current home and Rockland Massachusetts exit cong Kingdom Hall Jehovah's Witnesses the elders talk about 'whata we gonna do bout Danny Haszard'?
ANS-$$$$$
I missed Blue Blades' comments before I posted.
brother and sister CO. don't eat such and such food.
Very much discussed. I think Bethel told C.O.'s and their wives to make a point of this
to remind elders (and their congregations) that they also should watch their diets. If you
have stringent requirements, you eat out less, and there is more money to contribute to
the Worldwide Work.
If they have a brother up for recommendation, then they will assign him a talk for them to give in the school. Any up for baptism are mentioned and prepared. Pioneers are recommended to take the CO.and his wife on calls,return visits and Bible studies.
Gotta put on a great show for the C.O. One congregation I was in (only the one as far as I know)
actually addressed important problems two weeks before the C.O. visit, just so they could say
there are no problems that have not been dealt with.
I thought the above was just a one-congregation problem, but Blue Blades said:
Special needs or problems are kept to a minimum and if possible hidden from the CO. so the CO. can send a good letter back to the society that the body of elders have everything under control and the congregation is prospering.
Even the C.O. wants you to do this. That makes his job easier. If there aren't problems, he can
just focus on telling the cong. to do MORE MORE MORE of the donating, recruiting, meeting attendance,
etc.
Kudos to Minimus for starting this thread!!
I think this thread may be very beneficial for new lurkers who haven't had the opportunity to "look behind the curtain" of the Great Oz and find out what really goes on.
Thanks Red Dot!
Open Mind
was, "Why in the world would I?" and I stick by that (peace to you, dear Minimus!) -
BUT... I have to applaud OnTheWayOut: he pretty much summed up what I pretty knew went on in those meetings. I mean, what else can they talk about? Helping others? Love? Pity? Compassion? Truth (i.e., not "the Troof"), but real truth? Ain't 'gonna happen - they can't talk about what they don't know.
We know what they talk about: anything that serves to make them all... from the rooter to the tooter (i.e., PO, CO, DO and the Borg itself)... look "good".
You don't have to be fly on the wall, here.
Peace to you all!
A slave of Christ,
SA
I have always been fascinated with all the "behind the scenes" stuff. So thanks to any past and current elders who help keep us "rank and file" informed. I always figured the elders had a heyday gossiping about anyone and everyone in their meetings. What's worse, though, is that I would presume they also did quite a bit of judging based on the gossip being discussed.
Hypothetical elder gossip:
'Did you notice Sister Abused at the meeting? It looks like her husband beat her up again.'
'Yeah, well, if she really wanted to, she'd leave him. She's just asking for it by staying.'
That's the kind of stuff I imagine being discussed. And isn't it funny how the elders wives always seem to know what's going on? I always hated to hear elders wives talking about things that I knew they could only have heard from their husbands.
By the way, when you think back about just the fact that elders had "meetings" where they discussed the "flock", that a CO would visit twice a year to basically check in to see if the locals were all behaving and then send a letter of his findings to the GB, that there were judicial commitees, etc., doesn't it amaze you how much control and micromanagement went on? And all in the name of "shepherding the flock". It's really more like keeping the prisoners in line and checking to make sure they aren't trying to dig a hole through their cell floor to try to escape.
Elders Meeting Agenda
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