At the recent DC the new meeting arrangement was mentioned just once, but not to give us further details on how the new meeting will be structured or how the R&F will be cared for.
Instead the audience was urged not the second guess the GB, being advised to look at how well the spirit has directed the Org up until now, so therefore it will do so into the future.
But the reality is the congregations are only just over 5 months away from this new meeting arrangement, yet they know little about how it'll actually affect them.
How will they meet for service?
How will they be shepherded?
What format will the new mid-week meeting take?
And even bigger than that, the multi-language field, which relied heavily on the BSG arrangement for its very existence, is still in the dark about their future.
Those in the deaf field do not know whether they will still have meetings in 2009.
I've lost count of the number of times I've heard the R&F speculate on the reasons for the change (including a new law being passed in the US banning religious meetings in private homes) when the GB made the reasons for the change perfectly clear in their letter to the congregations;
Satan is putting us all under more pressure
Gas prices (an incredibly myopic point of view)
And here's a question - Is this new meeting arrangement a world-wide thing?
New meeting arrangement - just over 5 months to go
by passwordprotected 23 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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passwordprotected
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freethinker2009
I am in England and it has happend here. Fact is they pride themselves on the unity of the organization, everyone studying the same thing. So they need everyone to follow suit so all JW will change get rid of the book study.
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Mysterious
Wait, I'm confused. What are they changing?
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hamilcarr
Is this new meeting arrangement a world-wide thing?
Yes. It was already common in some parts of the world, for example in foreign language fields where large distances had to be covered.
Wait, I'm confused. What are they changing?
Book study is done away with, or, more correctly, changes to Bible Study in KH, merges with TMS and Service Meeting.
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Mysterious
So one extra free night per week? Sweet more time for worldy influences.
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dozy
A friend was talking to Paul Gillies (UK Branch Committee) at a recent district convention who told him that "New York haven't thought out the full ramifications of this change" and told him that he had no idea what was going to happen & implied that some of the older GB were against the decision. I get the impression that the scrapping of the BS arrangement was some kind of impulsive reaction , perhaps influenced by lawyers. The new release talks about the Cong Book Study Arrangement , so this must have evolved after the book went to final press , sometime in the spring.
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sir82
Here's the funny thing.
During our recent CO visit, he kept rambling on and on and ON about the importance of the Congregation Book Study, it's key to the shepherding arrangement, it's the key for grooming MS to be elders, it's key for encouraging people to start commenting, smaller groups, closer ties within the group, yadda yadda yadda.
Oops! Beginning in January, all that goes kaput. It's like he didn't get the memo.
I guess, given that he is in his 80's and has been a CO since probably the Johnson administration, he just naturally falls into his routine of what he has said for decades.
But it just goes to show how ingrained the "importance of the smaller CBS group" is in the psyches of JWs...as noted above, it's hard to believe that the GB have thought clearly about the ramifications of this move.
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james_woods
One clear indication that there is a lot of duplicity about this is simply the idea that they did not want to actually implement it at the time they announced it - late winter this year, if I recall correctly. The reason was "gas shortage, and helping people save family time." In spite of these reasons - (and the summer of $4.00 gas in the U.S.) -
Unbelievably, they put it off for nearly a full year.
And here we are, pushing into end of summer and the fall, and still no clear idea of what is actually going to happen. Or why.
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New light for you
When i talked to elders last night i brought up this "bookstudy change" as an issue... being that it was always SOOOO important for my last 20 years..but now.. not so much.
THey went into how first of all...
#1. bookstudy is NOT done away with, it's just condenced into the other meeting, because that info IS important.
#2 was we thought that it would be important to have bookstudy arrangements in the end, but now it seems the most important issue is family. They give you this meeting night off to make SURE you have time for family study.
#3 the sheparding and field servie will STILL be broken down into "bookstudy" smaller arrangements.
oh ya, and #4 then only ONE brother has to prepare for bookstudy instead of 6 or so, so it takes a burden off them as well.
Yadda yadda wahtever. At least i can give you the "SUPPOSESED" reasoning they're giving out.. fresh in my mind.
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Wasanelder Once
"They give you this meeting night off..." Those words just grate on me. They don't give me anything, on or off. "Were not masters of your faith" they say and yet "They give you this meeting night off.." Stupid robots. I used my freedom and took them all off. W.Once