I first became a witness at age 15. The congregation was full of relatives, and unless you were one of them, you didn't really exist. So the main criteria to becoming an elder or servant in that congregation was being related. Nothing elses mattered - relationships were your qualifications. One young man about 20 years of age (related to half of the congregation and nearly all of the elders) was averaging just over 5 hours a month, had gone to court a few months earlier for doing 90 mph down a 35mph road, had been caught smoking a year or two earlier, but he was still made a servant. He later became and elder...blood line was all that mattered.
In the next congregation I was told you had to 'polish the car' to become and elder - 'the car' was the PO. And that piece of sound spiritual advice came from another elder. If you put on a vaneer or spirituality and ran around after the PO - hey presto, next CO viist you were in. Needless to say these 2 congregations were riddled with problems and unhappiness. These congregations were run by sick minds and caused many heartaches for the insignificant plebs. But if you weren't a relative or member of the 'elders club' (as one sister whose hubby was an elder called it), you didn't really exist. On elderly brother told me once that he felt like he could turn up naked and none of them would have noticed.
The scriptural qualifications for becoming an elder were mostly irrelevant. Everyone knew it, but the elders were either too stupid to realise everyone knew it, or didn't really care what the plebs thought. Sad really but as they say, the culture of an organisation comes from the top!
Moogle.