I started pioneering the month I finished high school, and never stopped until I awakened, 17 years later. It seems like the entire time, there was SO much emphasis on pioneering. Every field service meeting seemed to have a part that communicated the message that Jehovah would zap us at the big A. or people would die because of us if we didn't have extenuating circumstances (I always translated as bad health or kids, but even then, there were always "examples" of the mom with 5 kids that was pioneering). If you didn't pioneer, did you feel bad, guilty, or even as a believer, were you able to see that this was not a biblical requirement?
Did you feel guilty for not pioneering?
by brokethechain 26 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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LostGeneration
17 years straight outta high school? Daaaammmnnnnnnn, my condolences.
I was one hell of a slacker. Aux pioneered TWICE in my whole life, despite being born-in, elders son, etc.
I HATED serve-us with a passion. No amount of fearmongering could get me to waste so much of my life on such an inane activity.
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Left in the Cold
I never felt guilty. I'm sorry you did.
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Broken Promises
I used to feel guilty until I realised that no one else was going to pay my bills so what right did they have to expect me to pioneer?
On top of that, it's not a biblical requirement so I knew I wasn't doing anything wrong in not pioneering.
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free @ last
Great now I feel like an idiot even more for doing it for 8 years straight out of high school. (How did you guys sit though all those assemblies and service meetings without the 'you're probably not doing enough if you're not pioneering' message seeping into you're brain?) I think the chart below might be right - maybe I was just a naturally annoying person, thus my decision to pioneer and actually put in all the hours every year. My only saving grace is that I never converted anyone for all my door knocking and street pestering.
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aposta-Z
I could not imagine doing more than 60 hours a month. But I aux pioneered every month for about a year after high school.
I really felt then I should do more, but I know I phisically/mentally could not do more.
Keeping you felling guilty for not doing more is one of them jedi mind trick they use a lot. -
ruderedhead
I never did! When they would preach from the platform about pioneering, and were you doing all you could, I used to sit there and think about how those people in N.Y. had no idea what it was like to live in the real world because everyone else supported them! In the first congo I was in, the woman who studied with me was the only pioneer in the cong. at one point, and she went to the elders and told them they needed to change the afternoon start time or she would not be able to pioneer any longer. She still would have as she liked the status it gave her in the cong., but they changed the time just for one person! It was a congregation of like 120 people! That time change meant I couldn't go out in the afternoon any longer.I know it made it difficult for others as well, then she would complain that there were not enough going out in the afternoon. But they wanted that pioneer. What was I thinking when I joined this goofy group?! GRRRR!
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MrFreeze
Why the hell do you think I pioneered? I was a pioneer up until the day I called it quits all together. I was guilted into it. I tried to resign as a pioneer, they called me in the backroom and I let them have it. I was working full time and not making the hours. Haven't been to a meeting since.
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WTWizard
It was persistent hounding for me. They kept hounding me to the point where, had I given in and pious-sneered, I would have been doing it for those scumbags that kept hounding me and it wouldn't have counted anyways. There were constant threats that, unless I pious-sneered, Jehovah was going to demand an accounting from me as to why I didn't--until I replied that my reason was, due to their incessant hounding, it wouldn't count because it was for them anyways. From that point, I just did what I reasonably could do sustainably until they persistently cut the opposite sex out of my life (at which point, they didn't deserve anything), then cut way back and refused to do more than one morning or segment thereof per month.