local cong to handle all pioneer additions and deletions

by seeking help 22 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • seeking help
    seeking help

    read in letter. no longer using the branch for permission.

    all done locally..

    am i the only one who heard that?

    old light? or just 1 step closer to co termination?

  • sir82
    sir82

    First I've heard of it.

    Would be a major, significant change. Hard to believe they would give up an opportunity to micro-manage.

    Are you sure you're not thinking of auxiliary pioneers? Those have been appointed at the congregation level since, well, forever.

  • seeking help
    seeking help

    100 % sure .. also some crap on how this will help more to pioneer due to fast turn arround..

    i was suprised no one mentioned it to be honest

  • sir82
    sir82
    also some crap on how this will help more to pioneer due to fast turn arround..

    Typical non-answer - as if there were thousands of people just chomping at the bit to pioneer, but the prospect of having to wait for a whole month before starting, waiting for the Society to respond, was just too discouraging.

    Some congregations seem to get their letters more quickly than others, and some POs are quicker to get things read out quicker than others. So it could be that most congregations have not heard this yet. We certainly have not.

    Assuming it is true: Could be another move prompted by legal liability concerns. If a pioneer runs over someone with their car in field service, and that pioneer was appointed by the Society and thus doing the Society's work when the accident occurred, is the Society at least partly liable? Perhaps the Legal Dept. thinks the risk has become too great.

    However, if pioneers are appointed locally, then there is no connection to the Society at all. Victims could sue no higher than the local congregation.

    It makes you wonder if other changes are coming regarding how field service is conducted, in an effort to sever the links between the Society and indivdual publisher / pioneer actions.

  • quietlyleaving
  • Finally-Free
    Finally-Free

    I thought most of the pioneer™ management was downloaded to the congregation level years ago. I started as a "regular pioneer" in 1985 and had the cute little pink cards to report to the society each month. That changed a short time later and the cute little pink cards were history and we had the standard newsprint crap just like everybody else. I had to go off "the list" for a while because of an injury. A few years later I tried to get back on "the list" but the local elders wouldn't let me. Two days before I was to start pioneering™ they took me downstairs and handed me back my application which they decided they would not send to the society. There was no good reason for their refusal.

    I was really pissed, as I had gone through the trouble of quitting my job 6 months earlier and built up a small business for the sole purpose of pioneering™. Then they tried to pressure me into letting my business go to a guy who was leaving bethel to get married, but wanted to pioneer™. Naturally, I didn't give in to that. I kept at it for another 1 1/2 years, built it up, and sold it for decent price.

    W

  • Olin Moyles Ghost
    Olin Moyles Ghost

    This would be an interesting development...as sir82 mentioned, the purpose would be to further insulate that WBTS from any legal liability for actions by members/elders of individual congregations.

    Speaking of the little pink cards (comment by "Finally-Free"), does the WBTS still refer to married female pioneers as "Mrs. John David Smith" (i.e., a "Mrs." followed by her husband's name)? I always thought that was strange.

  • Doubting Bro
    Doubting Bro

    Assuming it is true: Could be another move prompted by legal liability concerns. If a pioneer runs over someone with their car in field service, and that pioneer was appointed by the Society and thus doing the Society's work when the accident occurred, is the Society at least partly liable? Perhaps the Legal Dept. thinks the risk has become too great.

    I'm stunned that this theory hasn't at least been tested, although maybe it has. There is a clear line between the WTS & the local pioneer due to that "appointment" and due to the mandatory hour requirement. I'm sure COs, DOs & Bethelites traveling on official WT business expose them to liability but that's much more manageable since there are not that many. I think there's also a pretty clear line on conduct by elders & ms since they too are directly appointed to that position by the WTS.

    I seem to remember a case against a rank & file publisher a few years ago in FL (??) that was in an accident while in service which the WTS was brought into. They actually were dismissed from that case since they claimed the person was acting completely on their own in talking to their neighbors about the Bible. The plaintiff attorney must have done a very poor research job because with the offers for the month, talking points in the KM, officially sanctioned meetings for service with printed direction on how to conduct them and having most of the meetings conducted by officially appointed representatives of the WTS, I can't see how a judge could possibly buy that argument. However, the changes to the corporate structure a few years ago may be why. The Christian Congregation of JWs is the one appointing folks, not the WTS right? How many assets do you think the CCJW has? Probably minimial.

    Sorry for rambling, but I could see this happening although I haven't hear anyone else mention it.

  • seeking help
    seeking help

    why would i make this up? bethel elder is the po. not sure if thats why it was featured early.

  • blondie
    blondie

    I can see this happening. Many jws think that the GB directly selects elders and MS but they have "delegated" this to non-anointed male jws.

    *** w01 1/15 p. 15 par. 16 Overseers and Ministerial Servants Theocratically Appointed ***Today, therefore, the Governing Body appoints qualified brothers at the branches to represent it in making appointments of elders and ministerial servants.

    I would not be surprised if the WTS already has pioneers appointed the same way. Since the "recommendations" come directly from the local elders and CO of the moment, really the men at the branch have no idea about anyone's qualifications and go by what is on the report, assuming they even read it.

    Blondie

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