Organized To Accomplish Our Ministry - what happened to this book?

by truthseeker 13 Replies latest jw friends

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  truthseeker

  I have a question for you all. Why has there been so little mention of the Organized To Accomplish Our Ministry book?

  For those of you that remember, the book is green with gold letters. It was first published in 1983, under a slightly

  different title. The latest release was around 1989.

  I have never heard the book mentioned in any of the meetings, and only when a candidate for baptism needs to go

  through the questions.

  The book has 14 chapters plus an appendix

  1. Organised to Accomplish Our Ministry

  2. Benefiting from Theocratic Subjection

  3. Recognizing Christ's Role in God's Arrangement

  4. How the Congregation Is Organized and Governed

  5. Overseers to Shepherd The Flock

  6. Ministerial Servants Render Valuable Service

  7. Arrangements for Regularly Assembling Together

  8. Ministers of the Good News

  9. Ways to Expand Your Ministry

  10. How the Ministry Is Supported

  11. Holding to Jehovah's Righteous Standards

  12. When Difficulties Arise

  13. A Worldwide Association of Brothers

  14. Enduring With Life in View

  Appendix: Questions for those Desiring to be Baptized

  Question...Was this ever a study book?

  Some months ago, someone mentioned here that the Society may be releasing a new edition of this book. Is this true?
• 

  RunningMan

  There were two Organization books - "Organization for kingdom preaching and disciple making', and "Organized to accomplish our ministry". One of them replaced the other, but I can't remember which was which. Both of these were replacements for "Qualified to be ministers", which contained the baptism questions when I got dunked. It of course was a replacement for..... you get the picture.

  I haven't heard about a new replacement, but last year they replaced "United in Worship of the only true God" with somethingorother.

  Based on their system of planned obsolescence, I'm sure a replacement can't be far away.
• 

  iiz2cool

  This was never a study book to my knowledge. It was only given to people who were baptised or preparing for baptism. I remember a few times when a small part of it was discussed at a service meeting, but no real mention of it for quite some time.

  I heard they would be releasing a new version, but nothing yet. It's probably time though, considering all the changes since it was originally released.

  For a religion that doesn't believe in evolution, their beliefs evolve at near-light speed.

  Walter

  Canadian District Overbeer
• 

  Lady Lee

  They took mine back when I was DFed

  What is it with that? I thought when you bought and paid for something it was yours - to keep?
• 

  Nosferatu

  I vaguely remember the book. Probably because I never considered baptism.
• 

  NeonMadman

  They took mine back when I was DFed.
  What is it with that? I thought when you bought and paid for something it was yours - to keep?

  They actually asked for it back? LOL!! I hope you told them where they could look for it? Particularly ridiculous, since I've seen copies of it several times in used bookstores. But, anything to keep the feeling of elitism alive among the rank and file. BTW, for those who are wondering, there was a series of booklets containing organizational instructions prior to 1967. In 1967, the book, "Your Word Is A Lamp to My Feet" was released, only available to active JW's and those being considered for baptism. It was the original source of the infamous "80 questions" that one had to be able to answer in order to qualify for baptism. At the district conventions in 1971, the elder arrangement was announced, and it was implemented the following year, so the Lamp book became obsolete. The book, Organization For Kingdom-Preaching and Disciple-Making was released at the 1972 district conventions. It may be that, because the book was released at the district conventions, copies became available to individuals who would not have been permitted to receive it within the congregation. In 1983, it was replaced by Organized to Accomplish Our Ministry, a book which went into much less detail than its predecessor about organizational procedure, but largely stuck to an overview. The trend toward restricting information about details of congregation procedures to the elders had begun. The Our Ministry book was released in the congregations at the conclusion of the Special Public Talk in the spring, and distribution was limited by the congregations to active publishers and baptismal candidates. This last book was revised in 1989. Then, of course, the brochures studied at the Kingdom Ministry School were consolidated and published in 1991 as the book, "Pay Attention to Yourselves and to All the Flock", which is available to elders only. This is the book you need to refer to, along with the confidential letters to the bodies of elders, in order to get the real skinny on how things are to be handled in the congregations.
• 

  NeonMadman

  By the way, none of the books I mentioned in my above post were ever used as Book Study books, since they would not have been available to everybody who might have been attending.

  I can't recall whether they might have been used as the basis for Ministry School talks, but I think they may have been, and they were certainly used as a basis for the occasional Service Meeting part.
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  BluesBrother

  They took mine back when I was DFed

  Amazing ! I have never heard of that . I trust you told them where to go look for it.

  I was asked to hand back the "Pay Attention " book when I ceased to be an elder but that was because I was still a "Brother" and approachable .

  We used to use the "Org" book for reference and in conducting the pre baptism q's , but it was already getting out of date when I stopped activitie in the late 90's - I have not heard of a replacement.

  Perhaps they keep the rules in the Letters to Elders in the cong file and only tell you when you have done something wrong
• 

  NeonMadman

  Particularly ridiculous, since I've seen copies of it several times in used bookstores.

  Normally I don't quote myself, but I was reading over the thread again and was reminded of a time when I was in a used bookstore with my (now ex-)wife (who was terrified of demons and saw them everywhere). I found a near-perfect copy of the Our Ministry book, and wanted to buy it. She didn't want me to, because it seemed to her that only an apostate would have sold their copy of that book to a used bookstore, and she didn't want to have a book in the house that had belonged to a demonized apostate. I said, "maybe they got it from the estate of a brother or sister who died, but had unbelieving relatives." She accepted that, and I bought the book. But later, she started to worry about it having demons again. I finally had to get an elder to tell her that he didn't think that one of the Society's books could have a demon, before she was satisfied.
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  jwsons

  "Organization for kingdom preaching and disciple making', was replaced by "Organized to accomplish our ministry". in 1983 after "the apostates campaign" in 1980's. It seems that Ray. Franz contributed alot in the previous book and after he left WTS, GB want to destroy everything belongs to Ray + Edward except AID-book (only modify few subjects). Even the second "Organized" book also be modified in 1990's without notice

  jwsons