Are They Creating "House Churches"?

by metatron 2 Replies latest jw friends

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  metatron

  So, we hear rumors about changes in disfellowshipping - perhaps watering it down ------ together with rumors about making the Sunday meeting a totally public meeting i.e. moving the Wt study elsewhere.

  Could they be trying to create early Christian "house" churches? It has been argued that 1st Century Christians may have distinguished between a public meeting in which all would attend - and a "house" church in which the disfellowshipped would be banned.

  I know they dumped the Book Study at private homes but wonder if some informal ( they don't get sued) arrangement will be created out of Family Night.

  Other theories? Bring 'em on! As it is, the idea that the Public Talk is for the Public is Crap. They quote the magazines as if they were Holy Writ and preach to the converted about 'worse and worse'.

  metatron
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  lepermessiah

  Thats interesting because I thought that one reason the book study went away is because its almost impossible to get enough people to open their homes to house all of the groups, especially since they were so adament about making the book study groups smaller so that the BS Overseers (pun intended) could properly shepherd the group and work with everyone frequently in the ministry.

  Ever since they went to the new WT arrangement, I think even the rank and file are totally bored. At least previously, you had a chance that some of the lessons would be on Christian qualities or family issues that were at least somewhat appealing for the majority of the audience. Now you get mostly obscure articles that even a hard-core JW must scratch their head about.

  The bottom line to me is that even a "public" meeting would not attract that many people. In 35 years, I can count on one hand the number of people who just showed up to check it out. It was always family or people studying who showed up.

  Based on recent experiences, I still very much doubt the "watering down" of the DF process. I truly believe that will always be "Crime and Punishment", and most JW carry that around like a badge of honor, in the sense that "well, we at least get rid of unrepentant sinners".
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  JWoods

  Disfellowshipping and the sexy intrigues surrounding committee meetings are practically the only excitement there is in JW life. Of course, especially for the elders - but also for everybody else as they speculate on what really happened, etc. The elder's wives, and in many cases the elders themselves, are a great source for gossip.

  I agree that the public talk was never really about the public. Some have cynically suggested that it was mostly a way for the speaker to get a non-doorstep hour on his timesheet.