The Ministerial Training "School(??)" Scam

by WTWizard 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • WTWizard
    WTWizard

    It is for single men only. To get in, you have to be a hounder or an assistant (ministerial servant). It is called the Ministerial Training School.

    What exactly is this? It is training for hounders and their assistants to become better speakers, hounders, and pioneers. You are given 8 1/2 weeks of intense training, and usually assigned to work for your home congregation, at least for the time being. However, as the need arises, they can shuffle you to any congregation around the country. On rare occasions, you could be assigned a foreign assignment.

    What then? They are usually assigned to assist congregations that are experiencing problems. They will serve in one location until another congregation needs them more. Of course, they are responsible for providing their own accomodations while serving other congregations, and usually have to work many hours per week in holding together congregations and shepherding them.

    There is a major problem (in fact, several major problems) with joining. First and foremost, if they are keeping you single, however they are doing this, you are rewarding them for fxxxing up your chances of having a relationship with the opposite sex. And, in doing so, you are egging them on in doing that to yet others. For sure, once you go through it, they are going to have no incentive to ever let you marry or even attract the opposite sex. That is reason alone to boycott the whole arrangement.

    As if that wasn't enough, it is a lot of extra work for nothing. You will bear the burden of having to move around the country. On top of that, you will bear the burden of responsibility for any congregations that you are not able to hold together and bring back into positive growth. Worse still, you will be doing it under the hounder-hounder in that region. If you fail to do it exactly as he wants, you are in for a nasty hounding which could include being disgracefully sent back home, a more difficult assignment, or more hounding and harassment. If you do follow his instructions to the letter and it fails to work, you are blamed for them having a crappy system.

    With all the decay of late, there is a good to excellent chance of getting more than one assignment at any one time. I have seen one congregation discussed on this board where the attendance struggles to get out of the teens. Many others are suffering mass exodus. Just this past week, a poster reported several parents pulling their children out because of the oral sex issue. Some are going to be affected by the NBC report or the fallout therein. Besides, some who are remaining JWs are stepping down as hounders or assistants, and very few are taking their places.

    To go along with that, there is an unwritten rule that, when you receive an assignment from the Watchtower Society, you NEVER turn one or more down, for any reason. To do that would be rejecting an assignment from God Himself. So, what happens if you get, in one day, a letter informing you that they need you in Massachusetts and another one informing you that you are needed just as much in Oregon? Both are facing mass exodus, or perhaps one has had meeting attendance in the lower 20s and the other has had all its servant body disfellowshipped for apostasy. This is becoming more common, and they need ministerial training "school(??)" graduates to hold together the congregations so they can keep the illusion of doing well together as long as possible.

    Now, would you like to be put between Massachusetts and Oregon? Or, as the need gets even worse, you could be asked to go to more than two locations within one mailing day. Or, even if you only get one at a time, there is the chance that you arrive in Texas just in time to be pulled to Michigan or Arizona on another assignment. I don't think anyone can pull together a congregation and bring it back to growing, especially if the territory is unproductive for embarrassments or people are stepping down for poor leadership. Somehow, this whole arrangement is about to be abused by an organization that is desperate to hold itself together, and the people will be used up and then thrown out.

    I don't think it's worth going. Like all the other "schools(??)" and Beth Hell, this training class simply is a waste of time. What you will be doing after is a bigger waste of everyone's time, and you will be dragged on endless assignments. And, with the many congregations that are falling apart, the danger of getting hounded on two simultaneous missions or one closely following the other is getting alarmingly real. Besides, now that they want me to join this wastefest (why else would they want me to stay single with no prospects), I would rather punish them by wasting their resources instead of supplying more.

  • blondie
    blondie

    I have seen MTS graduates sent to local congregations with problem elder bodies, to get things in line with WTS policies and to weed out the problem elders, encouraging them to "step down" or be "removed." Is there some agreement they sign that they not get married for a few years? They don't tend to stay single very long.

  • WTWizard
    WTWizard
    Is there some agreement they sign that they not get married for a few years?

    I guess one of the reasons why they want those people to be single when they join is that having a wife might make it harder for them to move if the Society decides that they are needed elsewhere. And, with the pattern of problems the congregations are having with hounders stepping down and turning apostate, and meeting attendance in the teens and lower 20s, there is more of a risk that they might decide to put you just about anywhere in the country.

    There is no specific agreement for them to not get married. However, they do frown on it because it might impede them from being able to pack up and move wherever the Society wants them (as with any other missionary type work, the Watchtower Society gets its kicks out of moving people around frequently). They want people to be able to pick up and move on a day's notice if the need arises somewhere else and they decide to pick them. And, with the congregations falling apart, the risk of that happening is worse now than it was back in the 1980s and early 1990s when things were more stable.

    Either way, it is not something I would ever be interested in. Too much hassle, plus it is rewarding them for sabotaging my chances of ever having personal fulfillment. And it is helping hold congregations together that would otherwise fall apart, and helping to support pedophiles within those areas.

  • primitivegenius
    primitivegenius

    ok whats the point in going to the ms training school? not much of one..... but if your single and want to get a better chance at landing a rich or hot (preferedly both) sister to look at you............. there ya go... do the training and then do an assignment or two.............. then quit and its better than being in bethel........... cause your left to do whatever you want...... your not seqestered and watched like a hawk..........

    is it all bulls***.......... hell yeah....... but i see why the brainwashed brothers run towards it........... ive even seen brothers go to ms ts and come out elders. its all a bunch of horse hokey...........

    send freshly indoctrinated drones in to plug the hole in the dam

  • NewYork44M
    NewYork44M

    I have encountered some of these "trained" MS. They have a difficult, if not impossible, task. Besides all the issues associated with the society, they have to encounter local congregation politics.

    Many congregations are set up as "good ol' boy" networks where the elders are long-time friends and/or family members. Here an outsider comes in to clean up. He is usually branded "overzealous" and an odball. He does not even have the statute of an elder. The local body can and many times make his life hell.

  • stillajwexelder
  • stillajwexelder
    stillajwexelder

    Is there some agreement they sign that they not get married for a few years? They don't tend to stay single very long.

    YES -unwritten rule (could be written also) they are supposed NOT to marry for 2 years.

  • OnTheWayOut
    OnTheWayOut

    I understood that they agree to stay unmarried for two years, but there is really no way to enforce that.
    They basically leave the program when they marry.

    The reason brothers do this is to kiss ass and move up the ladder. Many MS's were encouraged to
    go to Bethel, and Bethel doesn't need them. Some C.O. sees the potential for another fully dedicated
    one to be assimilated into the upper-middle management status (C.O.) and lets the organization
    fully take advantage of him.

    It's kind of like hazing. "If I got through it, others should go through it to become C.O.'s and higher."

    These guys feel like big shots because they kiss ass so much that the congregation feels like they
    should cooperate with them or the hounder hounders will be unhappy.

    Many sincere men are broken by the arrangement and converted from nice guys into hounders
    and hounder hounders. (I love that term)

    I see some evidence of the organization getting closer and closer to the Catholic Church. Many
    C.O's are now single, dedicated, fully loyal men. They will make great additions to the Governing
    Body in the distant future. This way, the ridiculous organization can perpetually be run the same
    way.

  • bluesapphire
    bluesapphire

    How do you manage to stay "under the radar"? This must be so difficult for you!

    Can you tell us whether or not these "hounders" actually accomplish anything? In my opinion, the hounders actually contributed to my disillusionment and ultimate decision to leave.

    Once the love-bombing stoped and the people beceme who they really are, all it took was a couple of hounders and hounder-hounders to turn me off. It's a revolving door and these hounders keep it spinning. But that's my experience. I'd like to know your take on it.

  • AllTimeJeff
    AllTimeJeff

    MTS is supposedly a branch of Gilead. They study only the NT. Attention is given to Congregation organization, each of the major 5 elder positions are discussed in depth (PO,SO,SEC,TMSO,WTC), each of the 5 weekly meetings and how they are to be handled correctly is discussed... Judicial Committees and letters from the branch are also covered...

    Then at the end is a section where you are basically told not to shake things up and be humble....

    There is "encouragement" to stay single at least 2 years after you go to your assignment.

    It all depends on what kind of MTS grad a congregation gets, but what kind of help can you recieve from a bunch of 20 something year old guys with bulging ego's, goals and aspirations?

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