In some congs, you are allowed to continually pioneer even if you never meet your hourly requirement...the label is all-important. Especially if you're that person who is always willing to go in service when no one else does, and you'll drive all over two counties picking up studies for meetings and then taking them home. Of course you get to count all your time with them, even when shopping for groceries, and count all the senseless hours you spend riding around "in service" doing your errands. If you are in a foreign language cong it's almost a joke, because your time is not spent "preaching" but is spent asking others if they happen to know anyone who speaks that language. No wonder the foreign language congs are growing, they are known as places to "hide out" for those escaping the drudgery of their home cong.
one eighth of jw's are regular pioneers?
by Truthexplorer 22 Replies latest watchtower bible
-
-
KateWild
We had 19 in our cong at one point. But they weren't really recruiting for thr GB, they didn't put much effort into biblestudies and baptisms. Most of them were depressed in some way and certainly not zealous. Most f them seem to isolate themselves away from the cong and work with set partners.
None the less at the time they all carried the label Pioneer and wanted to keep it.
Kate xx
-
The Searcher
Also, what is glaringly obvious is that PIONEERS got the first crack at "Cosmopolitan Witnessing" and the Trolley Witnessing, then the average publisher. This enables the pioneers to really build up the hourly requirement of "preaching", when in actual fact, they are standing for 1,2,3, or 4 hours talking to their companion.
Jesus said, "GO therefore and make disciples", not "STAND therefore....".
Basically it's a conniving way of getting people to advertise the JW.ORG website worldwide by deluding them into thinking they are fulfilling their so-called "dedication" and are WITNESSING!! Very sad!
-
WTWizard
I can remember when I was in, and there were people that were always dragging themselves out in field circus. They just plain didn't feel like being out, but they were regular pious-sneers and needed their time. Sometimes they were getting by on 5-6 hours of sleep per night, and relying on coffee to get going on a regular day just so they could go out in field circus. To me, that was such a waste of time.
Also, when they kept hounding me to pious-sneer, I eventually told them that I could no longer do it because they hounded me to where it would simply be "for men". After being hounded continually, there is no way you could do it for joke-hova (even if you wanted to). So I simply refused. I did manage to waste between 20 and 25 hours a month in field circus, and regretfully managed to place one damnation book. Mostly, it was simply placing rags and wastes of paper, and going around the territory. And finding 90% of the people not home. And finding many not interested's. And wasting time dealing with little Chinese fire drills as they kept changing who I was supposed to work with. And waiting for people we were supposed to pick up, but were not ready. And wasting time on errands. And wasting time as we drove across town on a call, only to have the person not home. And once, we were supposed to hand out wastes of paper at a bookstore--and I simply browsed through books.
-
Truthexplorer
Just wonder if the apostle Paul ever got to a point.......ah I didn't get all my hours in this month.....oh here comes that guilty feeling
-
Phaedra
...and how many would even bother to put in all those wasted hours with heartfelt devotion to proclaiming the truth if there wasn't a status label attached to it?
"Sorry, I can't go visit old sister shut-in this week because I have to get my TIME in."
"Nice to meet you. I'm sister so-and-so, a REGULAR PIONEER for 20 YEARS from _____ congregation."
Phae
-
MaxTan
Yeah, 1/8th of publishers are reg. pioneers. The stats are in pages 176-177 of the latest yearbook.
I have been a regular pioneer for more than 10 years now. Since learning TTATT, I have not been able to push myself to go to ministry any more. So, out of the 60-80 hours per month that i report, i do maybe 1-3 hours of actual ministry, out of that time maybe one minute of actual talking to anybody. Some months not even that. Just cant lie to people. To WTBTS i can lie to, easily. They deserve it.
My wife is a zealot, though. An example for others to follow. Always the first to speak everywhere. Known by everybody in the circuit. She knows how I feel about JWs and the GB. But she has a model JW mindset, mentally lazy, and refusing to face the facts, sticking her head in the sand. Loving the adulation that comes with the title. I have been slowly trying to prepare her for the time when i am no longer "a pioneer" but that always ends badly...
-
Tech49
I have run across several congregations that allow people to "share" pioneering, like job sharing. 2 or more go in together, putting in collective service time as a small group to meet the hour "quota", thusly all are announced as "pioneers", even though each individual may be putting in only a few hours. I kid you not.
Its all for show, and for the title. The numbers are meaningless, and fabricated.
-
Band on the Run
Witnesses have always (since I was preschool) had tables in the NY bus terminal. In the 1950s, the Witnesses would not talk with each other. They were engaged with the public. My family would file past, looking at the splendid table and signs. Only a couple of years ago, I was commuting to Philadelphia for legal work. They have a massive table in one of the two big train stations. I thought of a doctrinal question. If I revealed nothing, I could ask it without becoming entangled. Well, II am tall for a woman. I stood for fifteen minutes to the side of the table. They were so engrossed with each other that no one saw me. One would need a baseball bat and loudspeaker to break up their tete a tete.
-
AlphaMan
The JW's should be embarrassed to use the word pioneer. It's not even in the Bible. Makes them sound like a wacky cult. Oh wait.....they are a wacky cult. JW's continue with your cult buzz words designations please.