ELDERS STEPPING DOWN (page 4)

Oubliette

jwleaks, thanks for posting!

It's reassuring to know that a person does not need the Society's approval for being deleted as an elder when the reason was their death.

What a loving provision from Jehovah!

From the initial meeting I had with several from the BOE it took 3 months for them to announce my deletion. In total I met 4 different times with various elders and the final meeting included the CO. Each meeting was an effort to change my mind and offer a "lightening of my load" Each time and specifically with the CO there was an aggressive line if questioning trying to determine any wrongdoing on my part. They were looking for anything. It finally boiled down to me missing speaking assignments intentionally among other tactics. When the accounts were not done, when public talk schedules were not created, when I would skip BOE meetings, when I would not bring my BS group to clean the hall, when I gave everyone a "G" on their talk when they obviously needed a "W" it became apparent that I had already stepped down and didn't need approval for my resignation. What a silly game that all was.

Saltheart Foamfollower

I've observed the same thing - elders want to step down because they are sick of all the politics (they don't phrase it like that obviously) and are then "persuaded" to keep going because they are needed. This is probably true because getting younger ones to "reach out" seems to be getting harder.

On a related thought - anyone ever heard of an elder removed for incompetence?

The (not so) pure one

losingit

Tylinbrando--- wow, they required that you be a complete jerk, instead of just letting you leave gracefully. Geezzzz

But I'm happy you were able to leave, since that is what you wanted.

yadda yadda 2

There is definitely a phenomenon occuring in the organisation where as the years go by and disillusionment and disaffection worsens, the motivation is diminishing of members who are expected/required to devote more of their discrete time and energy, ie, elders, pioneers and MS's. Especially those with families.

This phenomenon is behind the reduction in recent years of the pioneer hourly requirement and the reduction in the number of meetings. As time goes on the Watchtower is having to adapt to this by reducing the time-requirement burden on pioneers and elders while at the same time trying to keep the hard statistical data from being negatively affected as much as possible. In other words, for statistical appearance and publicity purposes the Watchtower Society has been implementing changes to make it easier for JW's to statistically continue to serve as elders (reduce the number of meetings), MS's and pioneers while at the same time reducing the actual time and energy needed to fulfil those roles.

This trend will no doubt continue as time goes on, and probably worsen post-2014.

One of the further changes we might expect to see to reduce the burden of elders, especially ones with families, is to somehow reduce the time and energy spent dealing with judicial committee matters and which is to a large degree the main reason for the worsening problem of elders resigning. All the extra evenings and time out to attend to judicial matters takes a huge toll on elders time-wise (away from family, etc) and emotionally. The Society will likely try to simplify or minimise the disciplinary/judicial function of an elders job somehow in years to come. For example, they may change the elders rules so that judicial committees are only formed for reports of gross immorality (fornication, adultery) with any other less serious sins to be dealt with in a more simplified way, eg, two elders simply meet with the sinner on a saturday morning taking some time out of their field service time, provide some counselling and reproof, and then tell the sinful publisher that they are merely 'marked' rather than go through a full judical committee investigation. They would then do this again on, say, a monthly basis instead of knocking on empty doors to sell magazines on a Saturday morning or Sunday arvo to continue to provide more encouragement and shepherding to help the sinner, rather than ignoring the weak and fringe in the congregation and having to reactively do judical committee meetings during weeknights instead on top of all their other duties as elders.

The disfellowshipping arrangement is a double-edged sword for the organisation. It keeps gross sinners and apostates out, but it is taking a big toll on burning out elders and it is also destroying the number-base of JW's who might otherwise stay and make donations.

Another thing they could do is reduce the number of meeting assignments for elders. These can take a lot of preparation and nervous energy. In years to come they might totally eliminate the book-study and simply the Service Meeting, for example. They could also impliment video talks, eg, have the Presiding Oveseer in each congregation on a roster system to give a public talk that is shown on a video screen across all the congregations in an entire circuit. After all, everyone studies the same Watchtower article around the world on the same day, so why not all listen to the same public talk screened across a whole circuit of congregations?

Oubliette

SF: anyone ever heard of an elder removed for incompetence?

How would you know?

I mean, what exactly would constitute "incompetence" on the part of an elder and how would you be able to distinguish it from the behavior of all the other elders?

Captain Blithering

Oh Yeh I can second what tylinbrando said, I faced a not so subtle line of questioning as if to say "what are you doing that you need to confess" .. Nice to know you're trusted. I thought this was a voluntary organisation. Can't a feller just stop? Obviously not.

3rdgen

When my hubby resigned to spend more family time, NOT ONE in the cong. including the servant body said a word to "encourage" him to remain in his "position". There was NO deriliction of duty or even a HINT of wrongdoing on his part. Hubby had voiced his disapproval of the "good ole' boys" running our hall and SCREAMED BLOODY MURDER when a pedophile was about to be promoted to elder. There were NO meetings with him. No accusations, No asking him to please reconsider. NOTHING He was not even allowed to carry mikes. (as if that is a privelige) We now thank these ass@#$%$ for helping us wake up.

Franklin Massey

Besty said, "If I was an elder wanting to resign I would inform the CoBE of my decision. End of story."

Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Even if the rest of the elder body is supportive of your decision, the CO and Society will likely make it difficult for you to step down.

When I resgined my position for personal reasons, my CoBE and Service Overseer were very supportive. They accepted my decision and respected my request for privacy. The CO, on the other hand, asked them to spend more time with me in an effort to keep me on. I stood my ground and a letter was sent to the Branch, who denied my request to step down unless I gave specific reasons for doing so. They were not concerned with my privacy at all, despite my assurance that I had done nothing sinful to disqualify myself and my insistance that the other elders had done everything in their power to assist me. The whole thing dragged on far too long and I felt bad that my local brothers had to deal with the headaches. My CoBE told me that the CO said something to the effect of, "If we let every brother who asks to step down do so, we wouldn't have enough brothers to serve."

It's a business.

steve2

BTTT

ELDERS STEPPING DOWN

Share this