Brooklyn, are you listening?

by OrangeBlossom 5 Replies latest jw friends

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  OrangeBlossom

  I wonder if the GB ever check this board to get a grasp of how the rank & file (the hanger-oners like me) really feel about things or even curious as to why so many have left the organization. There are many elders and ministerial servants that post here because they are so frustrated with what is going on. I think that they would really like to see a change, a reform of some sort. One of the things I always enjoyed about being a JW was the fact that no matter where you went in the world, if you discovered that someone else was a JW there was an instant bond. Even now, all of us that post here feel a bond with one another because we are or were or almost became a JW. It was always IMHO an exclusive club that we belonged to. At least that is how I felt growing up. That closeness you felt to another JW is slowing slipping away. The past few years I have felt that maybe I somehow became invisible when I walked into the Kingdom Hall because not one person would acknowledge my presence. So missing meetings became easier and easier because I felt like nobody would know or care if I was even there.

  Anyway, it just seems to me that maybe the head honchos at Brooklyn might drop into this message board from time to time and perhaps get a grasp of what's really going on within the organization. If they did, maybe the Kingdom Halls would be filling to the brim instead of thinning out.

  On the off chance that they might read this post, here are a few of my suggestions that might help things out.

  1. Drop the disfellowshipping thing. It's cruel and unusual punishment, plus it only works on a small percentage.

  2. Drop some of the meetings, they are extremely boring and redundant.

  3. Lighten up on the brothers, the meetings are suppose to build one's faith, not make them feel like they will never measure up.

  4. Drop counting time as it is totally inaccurate. Driving around for 3 hours looking for someone to talk to is not witnessing, it is driving around for 3 hours.

  5. Spend more time sharing the real good news about Christ.

  This is just a preview of what is running through my brain. There are many more things that I could list but these were the big ones for me.

  OB
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  stephenw20

  OB,
  iknow you write this in all sincerity, but please realize ,there is little or not interest in changing unless the profits can be maintained.......they know other way......

  if you truly want this connection with god in an organized form...search one out...the WTBTS.......willonly change if there is a fire in brooklyn and it goes away........

  they have admitted under oath in court unity is more important than truth......and with the change of the baptismalvows....the interst is not pure worship........ its in worship the tower.......

  for your sake and my mothers I wish what you wish for..... if it were possible ....but see it quite near impossible........
  s
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  Uncanny

  OrangeBlossom,

  I enjoyed your list of possible improvements to be made from the "Brooklyn Honchos", as you call them.

  I would add one about trying to get the JW rank and file members to be less judgemental of others. I believe it's this growing lack of love amongst the brothers which is doing just as much to thin out the numbers in the Kingdom Halls as is the failed predictions, stern rulership and out of date operational methods coming from the big end of Brooklyn.

  It's been said that the Watchtower Society constantly monitors JW discussion forums like this one, maybe even on a 24 hours basis. It's also believed that the brothers who do this type of covert Net site lurking and reporting are constantly rotated for fear of them being contaminated by apostate teachings. Or is it more a case of those Brooklyn honchos being in fear that some of their theocratic donkeys will learn the truth about the truth and opt out themselves?

  It is my humble opinion that if every mentally coherent Jehohvahs Witness was to learn the Truth about their religion, the Kingdom Halls would not just be thinned out, they would be virtually empty.

  Uncanny
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  Carmel

  Uncanny,

  That is exactually why reform is the same as annihilation! Remember Jesus' comment about the healthy tree does not bear rotten fruit? Well you don't "reform" a diseased and dying tree! It's fit for the fire by biblical standards.

  Rick at H20 is still struggling under the delusion that if only the 17 most objectional practices and doctrins would go away, what a wonderful god-directed organization it would be. Take them away and it would still be an old wine skin with no wine!

  carmel
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  Liberated

  Hi Orange Blossom,

  I had my list too. I suppose we all did at one time.

  Mine started right at the top with on-their-knees repentence for being misled and for misleading others and went all the way through dispensing with dispensing the magazines, included no counting of time, and ended with voluntary from the heart field service for those who felt called to do it.

  Somewhere along the line it included all believers in the new covenant with Jesus as their mediator.

  However, I finally realized there would be nothing left of the wts. I agree with Carm el: "reform is the same as annihilation."

  I look at my time in the org as volunteer work for a giant publishing company....fits nicely on the resumè.

  Libby
  of the liberated class
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  Pathofthorns

  I enjoyed the post and the comments. Most Witnesses would appreciate the changes you suggest. I think at some point failure to implement them will accellerate the decrease.

  Does anyone have anything concrete related to the monitering of sites like this? Obviously it would be in their best interests to have people doing this to anticipate what is happening "on the other side" as well as what active members are feeling. I think they would be embarrassed at the cultishness of genuine witness sites and the low level of thinking going on there.

  No one who is fighting a battle should turn down information that reveals the mindset of the other side as well as the moral and thinking of his own men.

  Path