How many times have you heard the term "Platform Elder"? He is the man who gives a ok, to great talk to the sheep. He is not there when you need that spiritual encouragement, he is never found out in the field service and his time is magically above ten hours each month. He sends out the drones into the field, while he goes wine tasting. True story or sorta, I have to change one thing about this real story. The Big Bad CO came to town, Platform Elder shows up to the field service arrangements with us drones ( I was a teenager at the time.) and received the wonderful "Go Get Em Boys and Girls, the Field is ripe!". I had to come back to the Kingdom Hall to pick up more magazines, and platform elder had changed from his suit to his wine tasting clothes. I asked him if he was going out in the ministry, he said "I might place a tract at the local winery or I might not." He told the CO he had plans to work with his car group. His car group went wine tasting while we went out preaching. I hate Platform Elders and Hippocrites!
Do the Governing Body members ever go Door-to-Door?
by 00DAD 62 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
-
AvocadoJake
If would break the hearts of the millions who actually go and preach from house to house. Those who do business territory, write letters, hunt down any who will listen. The scipture you posted in Matthew should shock any who would "Beg off from going out in the field". If Jesus Christ, the Twelve Apostles and the Seventy disciples had time to preach, so do all those who claim to be his brothers. If they don't go out in the field, like they want us to do, they are not his brothers. I have not found any exceptions in the New Testament, that say "Jesus future heads of the congregation would be exempt of obeying the Master." I now am getting the gist of why so many are mad at the duplicity. Remember I am new to this website and have barely cracked this internet library book open. What else will I find, I don't know but it is opening my mind up. I don't like those who don't play by their own rules!
-
00DAD
OOOPS! - A Correction regarding my last post:
I meant to say,
"If they [the GB members] can't/won't live up to [their own rules] then they should NOT coerce others."
I left out the "not" ... kind of changes things!!! I need to work on bedder pruf-reeding!
-
james_woods
A famous one is the Reader's Digest advertisement that was used for a magazine cover.
I love it - an advertisement for Johnny Walker Scotch Whiskey...
-
-
TheSheppard
I would like to share two experiences I had with GB members.
When I was a teen, brother Barr visited the congregation. I volunteered to work with him house-to-house. We worked a local apartment complex. At the first door, he witnessed to an older lady that was not very interested. I remember her making some mocking faces, not being rude, but I could tell she did not want to hear a long presentation. Brother Barr read her a couple of scriptures, but she did not accept the literature. I was impressed with the way he spoke. The next door was mine and I was extremely nervous to say the least. Another lady opened the door and I stumbled through my simple presentation and read Revelation 21:4 which was the one I had memorized at the time. The lady was really nice and accepted the magazines and then I just froze not knowing how to end the conversation. Brother Barr took over and asked the lady if she would be interested in someone returning to discuss some bible topics and the lady responded that she would and thanked us for the visit. I remember feeling so dumb as we walked away and told brother Barr that I had messed up. He responded that I had done fine and to make sure to pass on the information to my Mom, who was a pioneer at the time. After a few not at homes, brother Barr knocked at a door and a man came out. He used the exact same presentation I had done before, using the same scripture. As I heard him I remember feeling that I wasn't such a screw up if brother Barr was copying my presentation. Overall, it was a nice experience. I remember only working with him about 30 or 40 minutes and then we switched since other brothers in our group wanted to work with him. We must have been out a total of about 2 hours since there was a meal prepared at noon for the Barr's.
Some years later I had the privilege of going through Gilead. Brother Jaracz came up from Brooklyn to give us our assignments one morning. All the students had commented about Jaracz' being so serious. I guess they were a little scared of him. I have an outgoing personality and wanted to prove to myself that he was just a normal guy like any of us. After receiving our assignments during morning worship, I saw him walking with his wife in one of the hallways. I hurried up alongside of him and told him about an awesome return visit I had and invited him to come visit him later that night. He told me that he was driving back to Brooklyn at around 8 pm, but if we could go at 5:30 he would be able to. I couldn't believe it. He was actually very nice in talking to me although the way he spoke seemed a little intimidating. I think that was just his nature. That afternoon we visited this man that I had found our in service. He was an immigrant and didn't have much furniture being new to the U.S., he just had a love seat sofa. The man sat on the floor and brother Jaracz and I sat in the sofa. It was so small that we where actually kind sitting tightly. I actually started a bible study with the man. Brother Jaracz read him a couple of scriptures about the importance of studying the bible. As we left, I apologized on the length of the visit since I knew he had to ride back to Brooklyn. He said it was not a problem and as we were getting into my car (actually one of the Bethelites let me borrow his car), he saw a young man sitting across the street. Jaracz quickly told me he wanted to go talk to him and walked across the street. He actually placed the Knowledge book and the guy was very interested in the bible. While we were driving back, he thanked me for inviting me and commended me for making sacrifices to be at Gilead. He wasn't extremely talkative, almost being selective in what he said, but I felt comfortable.
Anyways, for what it's worth, those are the experiences I personally had. I had a chance to sit and talk with Swingle, Klein, Schroeder and Splane on separate occassions. I'll share those experiences at a later time.
-
ScenicViewer
@ 00DAD, you have a PM.
@ therevealer, Thank You for that link!
-
00DAD
ScenicViewer: Got your PM, thanks! -
dozy
Interesting replies & thanks for your information , sheppard.
Talking to Bethelites (of whom , of course , the GB are preeminent) the overwhelming policy is that Bethel activities come first - ministry , meetings etc come further down the line. I've known a couple of enthusiastic pioneers who were very disillusioned when they went to Bethel & found that they did nominal field ministry. Also some sisters who often had to hang around for hours in corridors after they had finished ( waiting for their housekeeping to be checked & for them to be dismissed by overseers ) who would have preferred to be out on the service (or indeed doing any kind of worthwhile activity.)
-
wha happened?
Most if not all of the elders in one cong I attended all worked with the building commitee. U would see them out once a month, the rest was covered by time spent on the builds.
Honstly I can't picture any of the GB out in the ministry. How else would they be able to write those callous/clueless articles about giving your time to Jehovah?