by JWTom 37 Replies latest jw friends
Another thought, that has also been discussed recently in the light of Zoom Meetings during the pandemic.
What will it take to make the transition away from meetings? Again, for 20+ years the meetings have been specifically made less important by the org. As Millie210 mentions, what you hear is that the meetings are very important - hard to rationalize the distinctly different messages/realities.
To me it would seem like organizational suicide to stop the meetings....
As long as people keep calling the flashing 800 number at the bottom of the screen, entering the promo code and donating, there will be no problem in Borgland.
if there are no more meetings--what will the society do with all those lovely kingdom halls ?
To me it would seem like organizational suicide to stop the meetings....
Correct , sociological engagement is valuable and necessary in religious organizations like this, it creates an awareness and perception of support to the believers.
I see the Watchtower going to the Protestant Reformation model. Everyone show up to the Kingdom Hall on Sunday to listen to a 30 minute sermon. Soon, those sermons will all be live streamed from HQ in NY. Just be sure to donate before leaving. The ministry will be scaled down to handing out a single tract that tells the reader to go to JW.org for the answer to life's questions.
Lets not forget about how the elders (power consumers) like to watch over the flock to see what the rest the congregation are doing , ie. what they are wearing, hair length and visual observation etc.. .
This suggestion that the Jworg. is going to piddled down wholly to a online religious organization is improbable speculation.
JWTOM:
It’s as important as ever because if JWs have no contact with the congregation and the hounders, they will get used to the freedom. Can’t have that happening! So, that’s why there are Zoom meetings with heavy pressure on people to have their camera on so they can be seen and participate. People are also expected in the lockdown to always be available to video ‘chats’ because it’s assumed they have nothing else to do!
STANLIVEDEATH:
Those lovely kingdom halls would get sold.
Very informative OP.
I think that one of the major reasons meetings do not appear to be as vital or unmissable as they perhaps were in the past is due to the continued "delay" in the foretold "end of this system of things"
From a human survival point of view, it is extremely hard to keep up the hope in something that is called "urgent" decade after decade after decade and not feel seriously "let down" as you get older and older.
People can't help but think about all the sacrifices they made as young JWs (no higher education, no "worldly" career, no retirement savings or funds, no children, serving as pioneers for decades barely getting by financially, etc.). JWs do not expect to grow old and die in this system - yet that is exactly what is happening, generation after generation after generation.
My maternal grandparents started affiliating with the organization in the mid to late 1920s when its followers were known as "Bible Students". They were so convinced the end was so very near that they never bought their own house but remained tenants until they died in the 1970s. All of their children, including those who remained in the organization, had seen how frugally their JW parents lived their lives and subsequently decided not to be tenants but property owners. The second, third and now fourth and fifth generations of JWs have become progressively more nominal. The zeal and enthusiasm has gone - even thought a significant number remain in the organization.
It recalls exactly what is stated at Proverbs 13:12:
"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."
This utter nonsense about the world ending needed to have happened well before now, given their founder, Charles Russell, predicted in the 1880s that the furthest reach of the time of the end would be 1914. It was only later followers who changed that expectation to 1914 being the beginning of the time of the end and now, given that the generation who witnesses World War One has passed away, they shore up belief in 1914 by introducing the unBiblical concept of "overlapping generations".
Where's the proof that meetings are being cut down/reduced? With zoom they can hound the JWs daily for more halls (goon squad's real estate monopoly money). Last we heard they were keeping the JWs busy, all dressed up and tuned into zoom.
After being born and raised in cult. I learned real quick what a waste of time it is and how it sucks the life out of you then leaves you dry with nothing or dead.
