by RubaDub 24 Replies latest jw friends
I understand how some JWs have to 'fake' some to keep a relationship with their JW family or maybe if they work for or with a JW. So going to 'some' meetings or turn in a couple of hrs in FS may be understandable for awhile, a very transitional phase.
However, why do you have to fake the 'extra' stuff like to aux. pio., MS or elder?
A 'faking' life is so self-destructive with time.
@pirata- I didn't fake my hours either.
Most of the years I was a witness I was putting in (wasting my time) around 25-35 hours each month in FS. I aux. pioneered every month for two years. Some years I was putting in 40 -50 hours per month. So if they had the reduced AP hours back then, I would have signed up for every month.
One or two elders did question me about my fs at times. I'd get most of my time in during the week, and not much on weekends. oF course those elders were only out in fs weekends and would not see me at the meeting for fs. I felt very insulted by this, as I was going out in fs 4-5 days a week for many years.
I used to go out in FS with the same group on Mondays & Wednesdays. A sister would pick us all up and we would meet at the kh. A few years later we just went out on our own., instead of attending the meeting for fs at the kh. We would do 1 hour of door to door and take a coffee break, then do 1 hour of rvs. One elder in particular did not like this arrangement and was constantly on my back to get me to meet at the kh with everyone else. ( I did that the other days, and on afternoons when the Reg pios would meet back at the hall after lunch.)
Eventually I felt that elder was right, and I tried to get the sisters to meet at the hall for fs. But there had been some bad experiences with a certain elder, and these sisters always went out together in the same car group-also, we were accomplishing less and less, so I ended up not going with them anymore- the sister who had been picking me up felt I was wrong about listening to the elder.
Anyway, sorry if this went off topic.
But I wish they had this 30 hr arrangement back then.
(Of course I also wish I had not wasted my life being a jw.)
A while back I got a talking to by the elders because I did not join in the field service group saturday mornings for a period of time. Instead I went out in service on Saturday afternoons with friends from different congregations and went out with my congregation on Sundays.
I learned from that chat that "visibility" was more important than the hours you actually put in. If you are visible, then you are encouraging the congregation, etc.
Reminds me of the "if a tree falls in a forest" saying...
I just reached "inactive" status. I got a little scolding from one of the elders. Boy, I would really score points big time if I got 30 hours in April!
But I won't...
@pirata- its interesting that you mention that some elders complained because you went out in fs on Saturdays with friends from another cong. My brother and I used to do that on occassion too- and we were told not to, to meet with our own congregation.
