What is your experience when you stop turning in time?

by gingerbread 38 Replies latest jw experiences

• 

  stillin

  I've been inactive for more than a year now but I still make better than half of the meetings with my wife. I still get the occasional soft approach from any of several elders. I know that they mean well and they just don't know how to actually be kind; this is just what has been explained to them as kindness. If any real conversation takes place, I explain that for years I went out in service because I had joy and hope but that these days I don't. Surely Jehovah doesn't want me to fake it, does he? They have said that if I went out in service my joy would come back. I thank them for their thoughts and that is that.
• 

  Separation of Powers

  I am noticing a pattern of sorts. Most say that when they stop turning in time, it is hardly even noticed. No call. No text. No drive bys in service. It reminds me of when somebody owes you money, they seem to avoid you at all costs. The expectation that you will call them on the carpet when you see them at a nice restaurant, spending your money on prime rib. It is almost like you are being avoided because you are a constant reminder of how inept and incompetent some "sheperds" are. They loathe to raise the issue because they expect the backlash. That isn't to say that anyone would even lash out about the incompetency or ineptitude. But, the expectation is there and that is enough. It will remain enough until the CO arrives and he asks, "what efforts have you made to assist those who are weak or inactive?" and they say, "we have done all that we can."
• 

  stillin

  Separation, sure, they're inept! They live life in a bubble! I kind of miss meeting all of the odd people around this territory though.

  that's the extent of the witnesses' experience with the "world." Trying to change them, failing, returning to "share experiences" with all of the other losers and failures. I must have had the wrong motives all along out in service. I just liked meeting people who bothered to relax and have an exchange of words with a local religious fanatic. Those people are actually kind of cool.

  but I never brought anyone into the "truth."

  I guess you can't share what you don't have.

  so, I realized that my kind of "time" isn't what they are looking for, and I stopped turning it in.
• 

  oppostate

  Now they delete your name from the service group list.
  There was a directive from HQ that an inactive witness's
  (one who doesn't turn in time for some months in a row)
  name will be taken off the list of service groups.

  Since this list is posted on the info board (bulletin board)
  everyone in the congregation can notice that you're no
  longer in good/active standing, it's like a new way to
  mark someone by not including them in the goody-goody
  list.

  Privilege-wise you won't be able to turn in a form for
  Auxiliary Pioneering nor say something like staying at the
  Patterson Bethel Motel, attend an international DC, nor do
  RBC volunteer work.
• 

  moshe

  Of course an elder, brother Shawver ( now deceased) wanted to know why I hadn't been out in service. I told him I had been busy and when I had some time to turn in, I would let him know. Within a couple months I was done going to the meetings, too. (1988)
• 

  biometrics

  I wonder if JWs will allow time reporting on their website rather than filling out pieces of paper.

  That way all the internet pioneers won't waste valuable time completing an antiquated time card, they can simply export their field service times from the browser history.
• 

  ssn587

  for over a year i didn't turn in time although I attended the meetings with the wife until she took sick, thats when it became obvious to her that they didn't care and never really did., after she passed away I didn't get but two visits, one about the reject Jesus party which I declined and another sister who was supposedly my wife's good service buddy and they went out together at least one to two times per week took 5 months to stop by and that only because she seen me working in the yard. she asked if I was attending meetings and I avoided the issue by telling her that I wouldn't attend their particular hall anymore becuase of the conditional love and not caring about my family. That they were dead to me and I no longer cared about them as a congregation. She shut up then and told me they missed me, and i told her that is a crock, becasue if they missed me and my daughter they would have called or came by to see if they could encourage us etc etc. Well no one did, so we don't care about your congregation either. When asked where we were going I told her we don't we aren't apart of a people that only care in word but never in deed, well its almost two years now and still no visits which is just fine with me. I would tell them to get the hell off of my property if they ever showed up.
• 

  DeWandelaar

  It is one of the things I mentioned to them when they came visiting me:

  I said: you are only visiting because people notioned you to come that had heared of my "new" ideas... not because of loving interest.

  For me it was always the ultimate proof that it is not a loving organisation... it is a scheme :)
• 

  JWOP

  When I stopped turning in time there was no reaction.... at first. A couple months later an elder called to "remind" me to turn in my time for those missing months. I respectfully informed him that I saw no Biblical reason to do so, and that it seemed the idea should be a focus on preaching, not a focus on numbers. They let it go....for a few more months. Then they tried again. So I explained again. They never got around to a third time because I was disfellowshipped for apostasy soon afterward.