"You Can Do Just Enough Ministry To Dislike It" (page 3)

BluesBrother

The thread title was true of me....elder and all. I did it because I had to. Had to to be a part of the movement....and gain life !

There are some who really do like it...sisters mainly who just love talking......

Vidiot

BluesBrother - "...There are some who really do like it... sisters mainly who just love talking..."

Fortunately for the WTS, there are a lot of those... :smirk:

OneGenTwoGroups

I pioneered for 15 years, always hated door knocking. Conducting studies was nice when I was a true believer.

2+2=5

I hated it. Probably not as much as my wife. Weekends are infinitely more enjoyable without theocrapic activities.

I liked working with certain people and getting to know them, or with friends. I liked knowing the area I lived in so well. I liked going to work unassigned territory because people were more receptive and all it was about was placing literature as you didn't have to ever go back. Plus the local congregation was happy to see you. Some had big picnics afterward that could be fun.

I really didn't like it in general. Knocking on doors where nobody cared was a waste of time. I was never comfortable talking to people like that and had a lot of anxiety about it. Often we rode in hot cars with no fresh air and walked away a little car sick. It was largely busy work. I hate when people show up to my door unannounced and hated doing that to others. Field service was the first thing to go for us. We just couldn't sell a product that we had doubts about. Probably six years or more later we were officially out.

Sliced

I THOUGHT I liked it- simply because my mind was conditioned to think I had done something RIGHT, GOOD and what GOD wanted me to do. I dreaded it on the inside, I hated getting up on Saturday mornings... but after I got there- forced myself to project to total strangers... I would feel pretty good come break time. It was like a weird placebo effect... I really did think that God was happy with me, so this eased my conscience as if I had somehow "bought" a bit more of Gods favor for everlasting life. Erghhhhh I hate thinking of all now. I stopped going out at the beginning of this year and I have never felt happier in my life to have my weekends to myself. First time ever!!!

careful

sir82 said

I think there are a lot who do enjoy it.
Our sample here on this forum is a bit skewed since, if you really liked the ministry, you'd probably still be a JW and not within a country mile of this forum.

I enjoyed it a lot. I hope that doesn't draw negative comments from the "skewed sample" here, but I think it might! When I left, I had a hard time not going out d-t-d. I still enjoy talking to people, including strangers, about God, the Bible, etc. One ex-JW friend I still see does too and tells me about her current witnessing experiences. Neither of us, of course, still report the time. THAT always bothered me. Can you imagine Peter or Paul making out field service reports?

I knew one past missionary who really loved the field service. He hated doing elder duties and would always tell me how much he'd rather be out in the ministry. He'd served at various Bethels and didn't like that either compared to the field service. He and I always had plenty of RVs and Bible studies. We both got 30+ hours a month in just on Bible studies (yes, I did turn in my FS time to keep the peace).

But I suspect that the majority of Witnesses do/did not like doing it, and certainly the majority of people here didn't.

SnakesInTheTower

I gave a public talk as an elder and admitted from the platform that I couldn't stand FS. I even said that as a visiting speaker. I usually warned the PO about it ahead of time and gave him context, so they didn't think I had gone off the rails. Fun to watch the other elders, in the dark, drop their jaws. I almost always got invited back. I couldn't do talks the way it is regimented now. And the cart work? SCREW THAT! So glad I can work weekends and make OT now.

Snakes (Rich)

Ps..edited to add...esp. shocking since I was, by all appearances, an all in Org boy...elder, pioneer, MTS graduate. Too bad for them that, even in 2002, I was already having doubts. I went back to college in 06, and FS started to decline rapidly. LOL

The Rebel

I hated door knocking because I am very shy, but I made some great friends from it. The trick was to knock on the door and find some great people who invited you in and who you found a connection with. So if I knocked on a door it was always the person who opened the door and not preaching the magazine in my hand that was important to me. Why? Because I learnt that the person who opened the door was always more interested in me first and the magazine second. I am pleased to say I have friends today from door knocking, because we connected not by my preaching, but by a connection we had for playing records, or talking football ect...

"You Can Do Just Enough Ministry To Dislike It"