by ozziepost 11 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
....the November 1st issue of The Watchtower so that you can follow along with the elder who is there to repeat the article out loud and you will be encouraged to "Cultivate a Giving Spirit".
It'll last 15 minutes. Just thought you'd like to know so that you could pre-study this "spiritual food". For a start you could read this thread: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/61045/1.ashx
Cheers, Ozzie
1. Hollow a NWT and drop in the paperback you are currently reading
2. Get one of those small radio ear buds and pop it in and listen to the game or your favorite music
3. A list of people to tell about your diarrhea problem before the meeting so everyone will know why you raced back to the restroom at the beginning of that part (see #1 and #2)
Blondie
Going to the Service Meeting this week? You'll need to take........
a barf bag.
I read the other thread, I guess the article is like 5 pages long or something??
They won't pass the collection plate at meetings, but they'll subtly pressure you throughout your life to leave something substantial in your will for them, if not everything you have.
And they expected us to be chomping at the bit to be getting magazines with articles like this one (or like the recent study articles that go on and on and on about persecution and problems) into people's hands, a "life-saving work". I felt like such a fool peddling this garbage.
Actually, since my husband was the accounts servant for several years, he kept track of the donations, if they increased after this meeting part. If anything they decreased. The only time they increased is when the monthly accounts report indicated that the mortgage/utilities could not be paid that month. The only thing that this info brings out that might help a JW is that you can make your investments through the Society and evade more taxes. Without the built-in money from paying for the publications, the WTS has to depend on the "generosity" of the local publisher. Based on my experiences, when money was short, the elders were pressured to make up the difference. Or Brother or Sister Moneybags would step in and have one more thing to hold over the elder body.
Blondie
Based on my experiences, when money was short, the elders were pressured to make up the difference
Your right Blondie. This is not a written rule, but is still something the society feels strongly about. It is like with the magazines when the donation program started........"We have a MORAL obligation" were the words used,......to pay for the mags.
The same is true of elders MORAL obligations, and meeting the congregations expense if need be. Elders are also to comment at the meeting's if no hands go up, or the answer to the study at hand is not being covered.
Gumby
I was just telling my gran about this on the phone a couple of hours ago, especially the donating jewellery part. She is not and never has been a JW, and never will be. She thought it was quite funny.
It's been over twenty years since my wife and I have attended a meeting. But I get the strong feeling that if we did go we would find nearly everything very familiar. I suspect the service meeting and ministry school remain the same. And the Watchtower Studies and Public talks would contain the same material as 20 or 30 years ago.
Is there anyone out there to confirm my suspicions? Or have there been some significant changes?
mizpah,
I think you would find it much more robotic than it was when you left.
I became a JW in 1992, there was still some vibrance in the org at that time.
By 2001, I felt like I was among zombies, it was especially bad at assemblies/conventions, to the point where I quit going to them or would duck out early. But maybe somebody in 1992 would've perceived the same thing compared to what they saw in 1982, so who knows. But it is pretty much the same stuff over and over and over, as far as the content of the meetings and publications.
I say these guys are begging because they're getting scared. I say the French thing
has them wetting their collective pants in horror.
If anybody gets news about the French tax issue, post it immediately, please.
This could be huge........
metatron
Going to the Service Meeting this week? You'll need to take........
Some monopoly money with you: Fake money for Fake promises
(might incite a local needs program :oD)
Greven
