by metatron 15 Replies latest jw friends
There was serious talk that, one day, every man in the congregationswould qualify as someone spiritually mature. Qualifications like being loving, hospitable,
and "approachable" were taken seriously.
Is it true that initially, the elder system was designed so that the "Older Men" would be rotated from one position to the other?
Englishman.
I enjoy reading your comments, I also see in the congregations politics and power grabing is alive and well.
Remember when the word came down that the CO was not "just another elder"?
Is it true that initially, the elder system was designed so that the "Older Men" would be rotated from one position to the other?
Yes, each elder rotated through each "position," and stayed in any given job for a year before moving on to the next position. The rotation occurred in September. It soon became apparent that not all eiders could handle all jobs and that was one reason that the rotation was abandoned. The Holy Spirit was not aware of this lack a ability until the system was tried for a few years.
Edited to add:
Remember when the word came down that the CO was not "just another elder"?
What I remember vividly was hearing that he WAS just another elder. Many of us were delighted at this revelation. By the time that change was reversed, I was already licking my wounds, inflicted by fellow elders, and ducking for cover, so it is not prominent in my memory.
Your words are profound to me Metatron. I couldn't have said it better. My experience with anyone in the organization, that was considered to be spiritually mature, is that they said the right things, but fall short on application. This caused so much grief among sincere followers. We had an exceptionally bad batch of elders in one congregation. The CO gave a talk about shepherd neglect and the PO came running afterward suggesting that the talk was exactly what they needed. As soon as the CO left, things were right back to the way things had always been.
The arrangement is flawed because a CO once told me this: if the elders want you to be appointed an elder, they can think of a million reasons to have you appointed. If the elders do not want you, they can think of even more not to have you appointed. So much for holy spirit. They do more to grieve the spirit because their actions fall short of what they claim to represent.
I liked Klein. He was shameless in his praise but harmless. Very few, that I was aware of, followed his lead because he was never perceived as one of the powerful. Just another follower. Knorr was cruel. The CO that approved my application to bethel told me that he hated bethel. He said that Knorr was a cruel task master and would humiliate people publicly before the bethel family. Sounds like a man who was moved by Jesus superlative example. It still amazes me that people would defend his cruelty as the product of the times. Just another example of 'witness speak' not measuring up to any spiritual standard.
As the product of three decades of JW life, more than 20 of them spent in the loft ranks of "the glorious ones," I can assure you that any connection between elder appointments and holy spirit is purely imaginary. Equally false is the concept that the actions of a body of elders are determined in some way by this imaginary connection.
It's politics, pure and simple. Their own unique brand of politics, to be sure, but politics just the same.
How else would you explain the existence of so many dysfunctional elders in so many congregations? On this board, you only hear about the sh*theads whose egos drive their nonChrist-like actions, and whose actions make them unforgettable. But there are countless thousands of others who sit idly by in their "elder" chairs and do nothing, never demonstrating any visible qualifications to be "older men" in the congregation, content to occupy a position handed to them by their brother in law or longevity.
Suffering publishers are told "men are imperfect" and to "wait on Jehovah" while these appointed idiots control and mismanage people's lives for decades, with no relief in sight.
