by garlic81 31 Replies latest jw friends
Back when they first invented the "elder arrangment" - a general rule of thumb in my area was that you had to be over 30 years of age to be an elder. The only exceptions seemed to be if you were pioneering where the "need was great" and the local congregation needed servants.
Is there still an unwritten 30-years age rule?
I knew of only a couple of guys under 30 who made elder...and this was years ago.
I don't know if the 'rule' still applies or not...I'd guess not, since they're desperate for warm bodies to fill the elder body seats.
I think what's more telling is there are fewer and fewer men in their late 20s, 30s or 40s even that aren't reaching out for elder. Out of my peer group that I grew up with (of the ones still in even)...all of us in our 40s up, only two or three are elders. All the rest are just R&F publishers with a few more MSs in the mix. They just don't seem to care...
That is pretty much what everybody is saying, Undercover. Fewer and fewer want the aggravation -
Even when I was still in, I really didn't want to be an elder. Oh, I said I did...because I thought that was the natural progression. I was made an MS at an early age, but stagnated after that. I never really "reached out". I did just enough to stay off the radar but not ever be recommended for anything more than what I was doing.
Looking back, I can tell it was my inner self trying to tell me something was wrong, but having grown up being conditioned to "want" to reach out, I somehow felt inferior or of little faith, for not really wanting to. It's hard to put in words, but I'm guessing I'm not the only one who felt it...
I was an assistant congregation servant at only 21 (before elders in 1970) because I was pioneering where there were no servants.
When elders came to be I had moved back to the home congregation, and they busted me back to MS until I was 26 and they needed me again for a position in a new congregation. That was in 1975 and I was pretty much working out serious doubts by then - eventually resigned and left in 1979.
We have had elders in their late 20s in our congregation.
It appears that you done all those things and are not promoted it could take awhile.
B
Also it depends on how great the "need" is, even though "scripturally" this shouldn't be a factor.
There are plenty of 20-something elders in Mexico. Often they are the only elder.
Good thing Jehovah's Spirit is there to make sure they give good marital advice.
om
Usually, that depends on what they have in mind for you. If they want you to take the lead, you can be made a hounder in 6 months (and they usually hound the worst). If, on the other hand, they want you in the Value Destroyer Training School, they are as likely to impose excessively high standards. You are then supposed to do all the things listed on the opening post, and then some, as the minimun to just barely make it into the New Dark Ages. Then, they will keep hounding you to make sure you really are doing everything and are not doing or thinking something they don't want you to. Such people could be "on probation" for many years--or even get shoved through the Value Destroyer Training School right after they are appointed assistant hounders.
It depends on your congregation. My first congregation had a number of very old elders. One brother in very good standing was an MS for over a decade simply because they would not allow elders in their 20's.
