by sinamongurl 21 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
You have 3 - 4 elders who actually make all the meaningful decisions. They meet together privately to decide what willbe discussed at the elders' meetings. If another elder brings up something else, he may be completely ignored, as if he
This is especially true of "the new elder", his opinion means nothing and he gets all of the shitty assingments.
I pretty much agree with most of the comments, and want to add:
Elder's Meetings might start out very "theocratic", with respectful consideration given to matters, and efforts made by those in attendance to speak to the point, not go off on a tangent, etc., and REALLY give thought to what decisions were being made......but they often sank into long, long discussions over relatively trivial matters. Especially was this true with bodies made up of men who didn't regularly participate in group discussions in their secular work.
Also: Meetings to discuss recommendations were the most trying in my experience..........Seemingly endless recollections from some elders over the prospective MS/Elder's life or little incidents that may have shown the person in either a good or bad light, but which were mentioned in the hope of extrapolating either the good or the bad thing to define the person.....then endless wrangling over the stories or incidents, etc. etc.
Someone else touched on the following, I think it's very true: Elder's Meetings reflect what a broad cross-section of men are like...some are quiet, seldom saying anything, some are much more forceful and like to hear themselves talk, even to the exclusion of other's legitimate points of view, and every other personality type in between (such as the type Blondie refers to, say one thing, do another). In this Elders reflect "Society" in general.
Finally, someone mentioned the concept of a "sub-set" of the entire body meeting together before to REALLY decide things.....I never saw this in a "formal" way, but it sure as heck happened INFORMALLY....elders would "talk" about various things and some of the more powerful might arrive at a "consensus" of thought amongst those they knew would be in the thick of the discussion about a particular point. But, again, this is how stuff happens in the business world, but arguably shouldn't happen where "God's Spirit" is supposed to overshadow the discussion and influence those present to make the "proper" decisions......
As I look back, Elder's meetings ARE AN EXCELLENT PROOF that Jehovah's Witnesses do not have God's special blessing, nor are Elder's appointed by Holy Spirit, or have any special standing, but rather are just like all of us, some good, some bad, lots in-between.
My two cents.
----Dan
