A Brother refusing to pray?

by HereIgo 15 Replies latest jw experiences

• 

  HereIgo

  Wasenelderonce, that also is a very likely reason. Just not into it
  
• 

  Syme

  Maybe it happened every time that he had masturbated earlier in the day, so he couldn't feel worthy to pray on behalf of all the cong
• 

  jookbeard

  I used to hate praying at the KH/book study etc, I bet my prayers sounded crap also, we had a family friend who was a jw for many years but never made the grade, he used to swear like a docker a truley foul mouthed man, he used to love to pray at the meetings though, these uber humble spiritual prays used to ooze from him, I used to laugh to myself quietly, little would the cong have known that particular afternoon I was working with him and he was repeatedly using the F and C word!
• 

  blondie

  A sister I know was asked to moderate a meeting for field service during the week because no brothers ever showed up. One week a new brother showed up so she tried to defer to him to conduct and pray. He said no. So here she was wondering if she could still put on her hat (yes they had appropriate headwear available....no diapers folks) or just skip the meeting. She opted to skip it since he refused. But she was on the phone to an elder right after. It had been privately reproved and was still on restrictions. But nobody thought to tell the sisters who handled the meetings for service. After that he showed up after it was over but still able to be part of a car group.

  I knew a brother who did not pray, stuttered so bad and nothing helped. Another had a severe anxiety disorder and could only talk in front of people one on one like field service. Another grew a beard after his baptism and was not allowed to. One time in the dark days, a brother showed up with a light blue shirt at a convention selected to give the opening prayer and was switched out for a brother with a white shirt.
  
• 

  stillin

  Back in the years before prayer became an actual "assignment," one of the elders delighted to surprise young brothers right at the moment that prayer was to begin. "Brother Nervous, would you represent us in prayer?"

  Of course, the young brother, myself included, bumbled out some sort of prayer, but it made the elders feel better about themselves so...mission accomplished!

  I wish I had had the balls to just say no.
• 

  SlappySlap

  Hi everybody, first excuse my english.

  Here's my own experience. When i was about to be baptised more than 10 years ago (i've grown up as a JW), while i had the interviews with the elders (you can call it "questions" or whatever you want), i told one of them (cobe) that i didn't want them to give me any privilege (mic, praying...) and he told me that every brother have to do it one day, like an obligation. So in the first time he left me 3 month without doing "mic" and 6 month before pronouncing my first public prayer.

  Several times i refused to pray at the meetings, book study and service meetings, many bros and sisters found it odd but i didn't care of what they thought.

  If i had bad behaviour or thought (bad attitude toward somebody, arguing with somebody most of the time my mother) before the meeting or if i wasn't in a good mood i politely turned down the prayer with no explaination.

  Praying is supposed to be a sacred action so somebody shouldn't pray publicly with a bad conscience But as we know, some actions or sins are sometimes repressed hardly and people tagged or shunned, so it can be hard for brothers to avoid they aren't well disposed to perform some assigned tasks.

  The second thing is that i'm not myself when i pray publicly, i couldn't pray 100% in my own words and expressions and with all my heart because you all know that everything you say, every word you pronounce is sometimes spied or interpreted by somebody. So it' hard to pray publicly the spirit completely free.
  

  I've always thought that praying at the meetings shoudn'd be given to anybody but to someone whose purity and loyalty are comfirmed