Observations From an Ex-Elder Part 3 - Searching for the Lost Sheep

by doubtfull1799 41 Replies latest jw experiences

  • LongHairGal
    LongHairGal

    DOUBTFUL:

    All good posts!

    In my opinion, I don't think they are looking for ALL the "lost" sheep. Some "sheep" are more valuable to them than others. If you are a "brother" and a responsible person (if you have a business that's even better) they will want you back.

    I still live in the general area. They don't look for me because they have a general idea why I no longer go. I disagreed with their attitudes towards women and responsible working people.

    I know they're users. They know that I KNOW they are users. I doubt they will ever come knocking, unless it's out of desperation for contribution$. They would get told off but good if that were ever to happen!

  • Still Totally ADD
    Still Totally ADD

    1799 your story is pretty common. Same thing happen to me. After severing for 25 years and the last 3 years as the PO not one elder came to see us. My brother who is a elder when he calls me does not even say anything about the WT even though he knows I drop out. I feel those who are remaining as elders are over work and under paid. Still Totally ADD

  • MrTheocratic
    MrTheocratic

    This thread in itself gives us the single biggest reason why this organization is in peril. THERE IS NO LOVE AMONG THEMSELVES. IT'S ALL A FACADE. If there were true love like what is described in the Bible then these examples would be the exemption. But the truth is its the norm. The organization as a whole is canabalistic

  • Ucantnome
    Ucantnome

    Since my wife stopped attending meetings (over 20 years ago) she told me no one has ever spoken to her regarding it . Not an elder or their wives or her friends.

    She was in the congregation for 30 years and long before me. A regular publisher with occasional pioneering. She also attended some meetings after I stopped and I was ok with this continuing.

    When the elders came to visit me after I requested the visit and it took 7 months for the visit to take place they did ask me if my wife would be joining us but she didn't wish to as she was busy.

    Maybe they will

  • SongofHannah
    SongofHannah

    Upon reading Ezekiel 34, I believe this current state of affairs, along with it's outcome was prophecied long ago.

    Ezekiel 34

    The word of Jehovah again came to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and say to the shepherds, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding themselves! Is it not the flock that the shepherds should feed? 3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, and you slaughter the fattest animal, but you do not feed the flock.4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bandaged the injured or brought back the strays or looked for the lost; rather, you have ruled them with harshness and tyranny. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; they were scattered and became food for every wild beast of the field. 6 My sheep were straying on all the mountains and on every high hill; my sheep were scattered over all the surface of the earth, with no one searching for them or seeking to find them.

    7 “‘“Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah: 8
    ‘“As surely as I am alive,” declares the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, “because my sheep have become prey, food for every wild beast of the field, for there was no shepherd, and my shepherds did not search for my sheep; rather, they kept feeding themselves and did not feed my sheep,”’ 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah. 10
    This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: ‘I am against the shepherds, and I will demand an accounting of them for my sheep, and I will dismiss them from feeding my sheep, and the shepherds will no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouth, and they will no longer be food for them.’”

    11 “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: “Here I am, and I myself will search for my sheep, and I will care for them. 12
    I will care for my sheep like a shepherd who has found his scattered sheep and is feeding them. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered in the day of clouds and thick gloom. 13
    I will bring them out from the peoples and collect them together from the lands and bring them into their land and feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams and by all the dwelling places of the land. 14
    In a good pasture I will feed them, and the land where they graze will be on Israel’s high mountains. They will lie down there in a good grazing land, and they will feed on choice pastures on the mountains of Israel.”
    “‘“I myself will feed my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down,”declares the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. 16
    “The lost one I will search for, the stray I will bring back, the injured I will bandage, and the weak I will strengthen; but the fat one and the strong one I will annihilate. I will feed that one with judgment.”
    “‘As for you, my sheep, this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: “I am about to judge between one sheep and another sheep, between the rams and the male goats. 18
    Is it not enough for you to feed on the very best pastures? Must you also trample the rest of your pastures with your feet? And after drinking the clearest water, must you foul the water by stamping with your feet? 19
    Should my sheep now feed on the pasture trampled by your feet and drink the water befouled by the stamping of your feet?”
    “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says to them: “Here I am, and I myself will judge between a fat sheep and a lean sheep, 21
    for with your flank and shoulder you kept pushing, and with your horns you kept shoving all the sick ones until you had scattered them abroad. 22
    And I will save my sheep, and they will no longer become something to prey upon; and I will judge between a sheep and a sheep. 23
    I will raise up one shepherd over them, my servant David, and he will feed them. He himself will feed them and become their shepherd. 24
    And I, Jehovah, will become their God, and my servant David a chieftain among them. I myself, Jehovah, have spoken.
    “‘“And I will make a covenant of peace with them, and I will rid the land of vicious wild beasts, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forests. 26
    I will make them and the area around my hill a blessing,and I will cause the rain to fall at the proper time. Blessings will pour down like the rains. 27
    The trees of the field will yield their fruit, and the soil will give its produce, and they will dwell securely on the land. And they will have to know that I am Jehovah when I break their yoke bars and rescue them from those who enslaved them. 28
    They will no longer become something for the nations to prey upon, and the wild beasts of the earth will not devour them, and they will dwell in security, with no one to make them afraid.
    “‘“I will establish for them a plantation of fame, and they will no longer die from famine in the land, and they will no longer be humiliated by the nations. 30
    ‘Then they will have to know that I, Jehovah their God, am with them and that they, the house of Israel, are my people,’ declares the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”’
    “‘As for you, my sheep, the sheep that I care for, you are but men, and I am your God,’ declares the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”
  • James Jack
    James Jack

    You have nothing to offer them. Besides, you probably make too much sense and that scares the Hell out of them!

  • truthlover123
    truthlover123

    There is a fear factor in the "truth" - you cannot question, you cannot swerve too far from commenting at meetings now - most just re hash the paragraph that was already read.... I believe many are dis heartened, received a call last weekend from a very knowledgeable brother... many doubts and although I listened I did not tell him that I had the same thoughts as him.... you never know who you are speaking with and if they can turn on you to the elders to make a name for themselves....and although I am now doubting, I am not ready to go full fledge out....

    I too, have missed meetings and low in service but not one elder or MS has checked to see what was going on.....I personally don't care anymore and know that the "love" that I once had is gone.... I guess theirs is as well...

  • Vidiot
    Vidiot

    @ truthlover...

    The longer you're out, the harder it seems to be to keep yourself from hating the Org, huh?

  • NewYork44M
    NewYork44M

    Out of sight out of mind. You have been long forgotten.

  • waton
    waton
    too busy with the 99 other sheep who remain in the fold to worry about "difficult" lost sheep d1799:

    no, too busy with the weekly weakening wt routine with a sense of fulfilled scheduled duty, perhaps even envying you, in your peaceful, stress free condition.

    How could they face you to encourage you, when they secretly long for the day they can get off the wt treadmill too?

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