by ThinkerBelle 24 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
JWS are evaluated upon their spiritual strength and devotion to Jehovah, a part of that evaluation is their dedicated service in the field work. pioneering etc. More hours in service is perceived to be strong spirituality both from a congregational and individual viewpoint perspective.
Numbers are very important to the WTS cause it avails information how well their organization is doing in a given area or expanding in growth participation.
Why do JW's record and report time?
It's simply a control mechanism. The number on a slip of paper at the beginning of a new months gauges one's ''spirituality''. Any record number over the congregation or national average proves a ''brothers'' eligibility for ''priviledges''. Privilidges such as carrying a microphone around or operating the sound system at the back of the hall. Other priviledges like being used to read for the WT or the book study or prayer before the meeting.
Secondly, I want to state that another reason why they record time is another control mechanism. When the ''circuit overseer'' , or CO makes his rounds to the congregations every 6 months or so. He goes through each and every members' preaching records on the Tuesday afternoon before the week's visit. He goes through everyone's records and determines who is shall we say judged as ''weak'', by that I mean ''low hours''. From there it is determined when the elders get together for their meeting with the CO, they discuss who merits one of those dreaded ''shepparding calls'' or those rude drop in visits out of the blue.
The WTBTS was an ok cult, until Boozerford took over. He was a big, dumb animal who would never have amounted to jack-shit, were it not for CTR.
Rutherfraud was such a materialistic, legalistic, pseudo-spiritual, megalomaniac. He set the standard for the WTBTS. When CTR died, Boozerford went ape-shit, smashing the ground, snapping twigs, beating his chest, forbidding beards, ect. He drove away anyone who wouldn't put up with his crap.
So who was left? Only the weak sycophants who were too afraid of the world to leave Da Judge's personal North Korea. The children of those weak souls are leading the WTBTS today.
The utter legalism set in motion by Rutherfraud is still going strong. Thanks to Boozer, "the Lord" declared that a certain number of hours were needed to please the Lord!! Of course that hourly requirement was insane!! Even so, the groveling worms that wanted to stay in Boozey-Land went along with the insanity.
Thanks to the architect of Beth-Sarim, the WTBTS has a massive issue with legalism and pedophilia! Oh yeah, they also believe that statistics, like field service hours, prove that you are spiritual! You can even be an Elder with a Pedo record!
DD
DATA,
It's funny you should mention that in your last paragraph. Did I mention before where how I got my handle?? While I was researching sites like Reachoutrust.org and the Cal Lehman ministries in Towerwatch.com, I always came across links to this site. Further I was sent a link to JWfacts and that's where I had the most epic, unprecedented, surreal surprise ever.
That was such an overwhelming moment when I read about ''Beth Sarim'' so to it that I was so shocked I picked my handle ''Beth Sarim''.LOL
One of the hardest craziness to stop ...'cause then they will know.
High numbers = A list ..... It buys popularity & advancement.
Two reasons: Bragging and control. The Watchtower likes to brag about how many hours are reported worldwide, they feel the preaching sets them apart and proves they are doing God's will. Not mentioned is the fact that the hours are greatly inflated and mostly spent in time filling activities (driving around, donut breaks). For all the millions of hours reported, most people could not tell you what message they are supposedly preaching about, and that is only in areas where they do preach. Most people in China and Islamic countries have probably never even heard of JWs. As a control it's useful to the elders to know who are active and who may be straying from the fold.
All this is in contradiction to the scripture that says to not practice your righteousness in front of men, and to not be bragging. And having the elders bug you about your service report is not good shepherding and is not loving or kind. The bible don't mention a specific time requirement, does not mention field service reports, or pioneering. It doesn't classify people as active or inactive or irregular.
J.F. Rutherford began this tradition. In the beginning, all approved for field service were required to turn in a service activity report weekly. Of course, back then, all baptized Bible Students (and later JW's) really, truly believed that the end was upon them. They went out in service ALL THE TIME - no leisure time at all.
The congregations were called "companies" and pioneers were called "colporteurs" - which literally means book and magazine salesman. So the members of a local company were turning in their weekly sales reports.
Time slips later became a way to assess a persons "spirituality" - which is its primary purpose today.
ginger
because they are the pharisee's
it's all about show.
it's a cult
A long time ago I looked it up for it bothered me. JWs reason that the first century Christians kept records. For example, three thousand were baptized (Acts 2:41). At that stage, the answer satisfied me because I trusted them and did not look for ulterior motives or hidden agendas.
Now I see it in a different light. Firstly, if you look carefully in Acts, you will notice they kept tally, but not accurately. Acts 2:41 NW says "about three thousand priests were baptized." So that was an estimate. Secondly, it concerns those who were baptized, and had nothing to do with reporting of time.
Conclusion: As was spelt out above, JWs use it as a gauge to measure spirituality. Who is spiritually weak? Avoid those. Who is spiritually strong? Appoint those, etc. It is all about control.
That all makes sense for control and I can see how when they were charging for literature, they wiuld want to keep track of "sales"....I know others that fudge their time too that are firmly in. I only report maybe 4 or 5 hours in a minth so I guess I'd be labeled weak, but I've never had a sheparding call ( maybe cause my father is an elder).
Does anyone know the scriptual reason, if any, that JFR gave to support it?
