The Effect of Losing Elders

by metatron 40 Replies latest jw friends

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  logic

  On youngloves comment about the elders reading the bulletin board. Same with the congregation that I go to. We have alot of elders and ms. Before the meeting they are all running around handing list, notices, or whatever it is, to each other, then during the meeting they are up and down from their seats, wandering around in back, going to each other in thier seats telling each other about something 'important', then standing around in back talking to each other. With all this important buisness going on you would think that something would get done around the place, but the cong is all screwed up. My wife has never been able to get any literature she has ordered without reordering 2 or 3 times and then they get that screwed up. We now just get someone from another cong to get it for us with no problems

  Being an elder and ms is just a status symbol so they can all seem important. They tried at one time to get me to advance and I told them that I was not interested, you would think I had committed a serious sin. What I really wanted to say was I was not interested in joining their little priviledged social cluib.
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  Younglove1999

  My husband was told that if he didn't accept the "privlege" of being appointed as an MS, he was basically rejecting the holy spirit and he'd be considered sinning.

  Talk about being pressured into it.

  And why is it they call in the brother 3 minutes before the meeting starts to say "we're announcing this tonight"?

  Why can't they give the brother a heads up and let him think about it and get back to them?

  rhetorical question obviously because we all know what would happen if they let us THINK
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  zack

  Youngloves: LMAO!!!!

  Seriously, the amount of busy work the Branch gives the congregation is appalling. Correspondence. Audits. Lit. orders. More correspondence. The CO calling cause he needs something done on his apartment. Correspondence for more money. Correspondence re legal issues, holding meetings off site, insurance, maintenance of the hall. Co visits. Appointents. Endless lists of bullshit to circulate.

  NOTHING ever about developing a richer life. NOTHING ever about being a better person. NOTHING ever about helping the needy, the poor, the old. NOTHING.

  The ORG. uses and abuses. The smart elders get out while they're still sane.

  Great post.
• 

  Younglove1999

  kind of off topic, but zack's post made me think of this-

  the amount of stuff we get from the Branch, info from the branch etc. and how it affects our minds-

  typical thursday meeting: all of a sudden announcements get dragged out from 5 minutes to 15 minutes because there are 3 letters from the WTS to read- and of course to give us the impression that no one is hiding anything, they make the speaker read the entire letter word for word... "so the new tract is available in the following languages........................" *yawn, yawn* brother finishes reading all 3 of the pointless letters and oh look at that, we only 3 minutes to review the question box for this month! Brother proceeds to just say "be careful out there and try not to read apostate stuff"- now, lets devote 20 minutes to how to reserve a hotel room for next summer.

  *everybody claps*
• 

  SnakesInTheTower

  metatron:

  The Society sends a fresh MTS graduate to HardScrabble, Alabama. He is outwardly welcomed

  but privately viewed as an outsider. The elders manage the congregation around him, as an inner

  circle. He either gives up or 'learns the way things are around here'.

  at the risk of outing myself....and I guess I don't care at this point.... (BITE ME WT IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR ME) this scenario is exactlywhat happened to me. I was the only 1 of the 4 elders not on the Service Committee, so of course, all but the CO visit and quarterly meetings were Service Committee meetings. I lasted 4 months and then left. I wrote the WTS and resigned the program. Went back to a congo closer to home. Thank goodness I did not take the assignment 8 hours away....where they lost their first MTS graduate for the same reasons. They tried to send me and another from my class... he went sight unseen... I did not... got assigned closer to home..... what a load of bull$hit.

  SnakesInTheTower (of the "probably will regret this post, but don't care anymore" Sheep Class)
• 

  shell69

  nvr; completely agree; the few decent elders are burning out after having mopped up after the usleless ones.

  IMO i can count on one hand 'decent, caring elders' that I met in my 37 yrs as a dub.

  Shell
• 

  metatron

  another sign of inept elders? Elder meetings that go on for hours discussing worthless procedures

  and then spend a final 10 minutes in a rushed discussion of whatever is critical.

  Other effects of fewer elders? Anyone remember when lots of elders got removed because their

  families fell apart? Their kids left?

  How about elders who meet the Society's "qualifications", who are general failures in life?

  Broke, always out of work, making endless bad decisions in their lives, bad investments,

  bad housing moves, poor job choices, quack medical therapies and so on.

  I'm not trying to be overly critical ( I don't have to!) but the idea that these guys are "examples"

  of anything practical to the flock is often ludicrous.

  metatron
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  Younglove1999

  oh my gosh metatron, you are so right about all of that!
• 

  TooBad TooSad

  One of the effects of losing elders is the quality of the public talks. I would estimate

  that only 1 out of 10 speakers on Sunday holds the attention of the audience. When

  I look around the Hall on Sunday morning 70% of the witnesses are not even paying

  attention. Back in the good old days (1970 - 1975) 9 out of 10 speakers gave a good

  talk. At our hall there were 6 elders and we were actually in demand by congregations

  as far as 80 miles away to give talks on Sundays. As the good elders wised up and

  stepped down or have died off, the quality of all of the meetings has also gone down.

  Now you have elder want-to-be's teaching who put people to sleep with boredom.

  In our hall we have some good brothers who go out in service alot but do not want to

  be M.S.'s or Elders.
• 

  Open mind

  Awesome post metatron!!

  I have either been recently removed or will soon be removed as an elder. (Not saying either way for paranoid anonymity reasons)

  For many years I knocked myself out trying to do the best I could for Jehovah and "the friends". Saw the light a while ago. I then became a world class L - O - S - E - R E - L - D - E - R. At least when it comes to duties and upholding the company line. I'm sure it drives the uber-gestapo elders nuts, but the one's who see it like metatron does don't want to give a LOSER the boot unless he shows up drunk, wearing a pentagram and moons the congregation during a talk. (Don't think I haven't considered it. )

  I highly recommend the LOSER ELDER approach if it is within your means. At least for a little while. Then get out before you lose your sanity.

  shell69 said:

  i can count on one hand 'decent, caring elders' that I met in my 37 yrs as a dub.

  I'd like to think I'm in that group. Many have told me "you're the only one who I can talk to", etc. This is mainly because I don't cram the party line down their throats and just listen and let them be human.

  Open Mind