by Mr. Falcon 55 Replies latest jw experiences
And some in the cong received shepherding calls on a regular basis because they were high-maintenance sheep.
Some folks need their hand held with everything in life. Or they need validation with everything in life. They want elders to be therapists. Not sure what you expect an elder to do for you when you have a Jerry Springer situation going on at home.
Exactly!
What is the universal reaction when there is so much snow a meeting has to be cancelled?
Is there ever ANYONE who is disappointed?
When it snows, Jehovah turns into the PAblo Escobar of the heavens. Thank you!!! Praise Jah!!! There's 7 inches outside, and I'm going to blow my back out, but so what!!! At least there's no meeting tonight. You know thats the one call an elder likes calling the friends about. Its probably the one call that the friends expect and are thrilled about to recieve from an elder.
tenyearsafter: 'the perception of power is a powerful "drug".' This is soo true. If a mans' motive to be an elder has anything to do with status, seeking a title and/or power, then he has failed before he is ever appointed. If this is true of say 50% of the men that currently serve as elders then that says alot!
Found Sheep: 'They sure didn't notice when I needed help untill I "sinned" then I was a PRIORITY!' Then you don't have one elder but three (JC committee) that 'care' and want to give you some personal attention. Ya, right!
Good topic.
Sorry, I haven't read all the posts. One thing that became most obvious to me the longer I served as an elder was that elders activities revolve around the interests of the organization. We weren't serving or doing anything for the members of the congregation. Everything was about following orders from above and pulling out favorable statistics for the sheeples. The line about "elders caring for the flock" is just lip service, because the actual job description really doesn't include that.
Some folks need their hand held with everything in life. Or they need validation with everything in life.
I've heard about this. JWs who want the elders to tell them what to think or do, make all their decisions for them and are completely incapable of thinking for themselves. And what's even more scary is that there are some elders who take on an almost Rasputin-like role as "family counselor". They act as personal advisors to families and interfere with all their personal business.
Billy -
Everything was about following orders from above and pulling out favorable statistics for the sheeples.
I've heard of this about the statistics thing. Could you go into some more detail?
and then you have elders who are on the RBC lists to run their vehicles 2-300 miles to quik builds, every weekend for weeks on end, to put gas and upkeep the vehicle to haul others who will not pay towards any gas used.. using their time and then get dumped on by the elders left behind that they are not keeping their hours up to cong level... wonder what will happen now that gas is getting so highhhhh it will soon be out of reach to travel anywhere - even to assemblies to give their parts....
Those elders who are doing their best on the RBC are still expected to do parts in the cong and be out in service and be at the elders meetings and do shepherding calls - that the at home elders are not doing -
Tired? Yes Discouraged? Yes Disgruntled? Yes Enouraged by their fellow elders? No
and the responsibility keeps piling in from "head office"
Hahahaha.
When I was younger I know I had MS as an goal. I never thought far enough ahead to care about,orgive thought to being an elder.
Everybodies experiences have opened my eyes.
And yes...I always wondered what all the meetings were about.
You know....brother walks up the aisle in the middle of the meeting,stoops down and whispers in Brother Big-Shot's ear. Brother Big Shot nods,gets up,walks back and taps Brother Warbucks on the shoulder and they all go to the back or outside and have a pow wow.
I always wondering what that stuff was about.
If you are in a 'good' congregation, the elders will not care. A 'bad' congregation has a bunch of elders and ms'es out of work who don't have anything better to do than be busybodies in everybody's life (what Paul said you shouldn't be doing) and they do 'care' but the ones that are actually genuine are far in between. My elders are 'good' and actually care but they are too busy with their own families, rbc and actual problems that they don't have the time to do anything else or they are lazy bums that rather have the other ones do all the work (pioneer + elder + elderly parents + family + full time job = impossible).
You are right on Mr. Falcon. I remember back in the late 90's I went to bed around 10 PM and went to sleep and started to have one of my PTSD dreams at the time. About 30 mins. into this my sons walks in my bedroom to wake me up. I started screaming and kicking thinking I was being attack. It took 5 mins after I wokeup to regain my composure. Why did my son come in to wake me up? A sister called at 10:30 and insisted she needed to talk to me. My son said I was in bed asleep but she had him wake me up because she had something real important to tell me. Guess what was so important. She called to tell me that I did not love her and how dare I be sleeping and not thinking of her. I really at one time wanted to help the friends but like you said after a while you don't want to be around these people. Elders are not trained to handle these kind of things. Totally ADD
