by hoser 35 Replies latest jw friends
But how many of them "made their time"? So many in this area would sign up and never make the hour quota. Even though it was only 30 hours this time, that just mean more signed up with an inflated idea.
More people signed up in the olden days when it was an hour quota of 75 hours the first month and 100 hours for each consecutive month...what a break from regular pioneering, eh?
I suppose Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts were also beneficiaries of the April circlejerk....
...in Canada, it might be more like Tim Horton's... rather than Dunkin' Donuts.
Godrulz keep in mind that this is a 19th century religion and in later years was dominated by Rutherford who put himself through school by selling educational books door to door. So he made the leap that a door to door ministry could be an effective way to convert people and it was for a long time because women were usually at home. Times have changed.
When I pioneered the hours were 100 per month, Special Pioneers 150 hours per and they recieved a stipen I think it worked out to $1 per hour. In my day you had to be baptized.
The thing about JW's is that they are very corporate in their structure, thinking and culture which, in part, accounts for their organizational construct.
They are closer to the Amway sales force then early christians. I believe Bethel and the factories operates with a 1930's mentality certqainly the way treat their human resources. Their communication skills is 1940's, and their dress code is mid 1950's. They are progressing, give them another 100 years and they might make into the 21st century.
In response for the request for guidelines, a special pio-sneer (they can't really be called "pioneers" because they are not preparing new ground, and they often get that "sneering" attitude after doing it for a while) needs 140 hours of field circus each month. They get paid, and lose money for every hour they are short.
A regular pio-sneer is currently 840 hours during the year (September through August), or 70 per month. That was 1,000 hours a year before 1999 when they lowered the number. An auxiliary pio-sneer is required to do 50 hours during the month they sign up for, down from 60 before 1999. They had a "sale" where you could get the title "auxiliary pio-sneer" for only 30 hours during April 2011 only; I think they are likely to have that "sale", combined with intense hounding for those not taking part of it, every April.
For us non-JWs, can you quickly clarify the levels of service (pioneer, auxil., publisher, etc.)? What are the hour requirements?
Special Pioneer over 100 hours per month (HPM)
Regular Pioneer over 70 HPM (no letter written if above 800 for the year )
Auxiliary over 50 per month
How does it relate to whether one is baptized or not?Must be baptised minimum for one year to be a regular pioneer , can aux pioneer straight away the next month upon being baptised. If reproved or reinstated, unable to aux pio for 1 year.
Does it matter that the early church had no organizational clock punching, stats, etc.?
No - it doesn't matter (though a recent drama had the 1st century "service overseer" reviewing the congregations activities and a recent dvd had a picture of the early Christians going door to door with scrolls , since corrected in the Watchtower).
It seems like an accountability or sales technique, not NT discipleship/evangelism.
True to an extent , though some ( a minority) of sincere JWs do see it as a Christian vocation. The system tends to focus attention on the number of hours performed , rather than any meaningful success or otherwise of the activity. As it is a self-certified system with penalties for underperforming , especially for appointed men , many JWs exaggerate hours and many more count string out the time by having extended tea breaks or have often bizarre methods of boosting time (such as driving past a call known not to be in order to "start their time".) A popular method is the so-called "pioneer plod" , where a couple of pioneers walk extremely slowly between calls in order to boost their time.
Is it theoretically possible to be a bump-on-log (Christians might call them pew warmers) and never go door-to-door as a baptized Witness and still be considered worthy of Paradise? Can someone go to a few meetings a month or none at all, never do field service (yet perhaps talk with a neighbour or leave one magazine/year at a bus stop), etc. and have full assurance of living forever? This may be an acid test of Christian grace/faith alone vs cultic works. Can a person be saved by not being part of the Catholic Church or the WT organization? Is salvation based on faith in a person (Christ) or conformity to rules of manmade organization? What are the consequences of not going door-to-door? I imagine leadership opportunity would not happen. Since they are now tying loyalty to organization and door-to-door with baptism pledge, is it a salvation issue or can one trust Jehovah/Jesus for forgiveness of sin without any subsequent works of any kind? Works are normative fruit of faith, but are they part of the root (a condition of salvation)?
It just proves that if you lower the bar enough, anybody can be a winner at the highjump!
There was a lot of pressure put on publishers to auxilliary pioneer that month. Our congregation acutally put a list up on the information board with the names of all of the people that signed up. Our service overseer (in conversation with friends) made the comment that "they should just announce the names of those who DIDN'T pioneer there were so many that did". I think all in all there was over 50% participation in my congregation. My mom told me that auxilliary pioneering would be a way to show Jehovah that I was grateful that my son was born safely. But my husband and I stuck to our guns. I've sworn that I won't waste one more second of my life in the pioneer service.
Yes, I heard the same letter read at our Service Meeting last week. I was a letter from the Canadian Branch, so it represented the figures for Canada.
I was also intrigued with the 9.9 publisher average as well, Hoser, my Canadian buddy, along with Tailsin who I consider it a priviledge to call my sister.
9.9 publisher average is not good, considering that to qualify as a servant you need to get 10 hrs per month. This hourly requirement is imposed on even the family members of a servant (MS, or Elder). They haven't revealed the monthly averages for the publishers because it has dropped in quite some time.
