At our hall a few sisters resented the fact that they were acting as MSes for weekday and they had to stop the meeting when any brothers came in. Because nobody except sisters went out on weekdays except during co vist or if you were gunning to be promoted to MS.
If attending meetings: Are brothers still "reaching out" ?
by truthseeker 21 Replies latest jw friends
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Cygnus
Why would anybody want to reach out and do anything in the kingdom hall? The atmosphere is so boring and sterile and dull and no individuality is allowed. Every hall has the same music, the same platform arrangement, the same sound system and mic system, the same system for territories and accounts, etc etc etc. Everything is the same. Everything sounds the same (too much treble, too little volume), all the decorations and color schemes are the same. Borrrrrrrring.
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undercover
Some elders found it hard to let a sister read at the book study when no qualified brother was present. They would rather use a brother who could barely read so that the book study went over time regularly.
I remember occasions like that well. We had one brother in a book study who had a disability. A couple of the elders were bound and determined to make him join the school, give talks, etc. This guy could barely read, write or even speak well. It wasn't laziness or bad upbringing, it was a disability. But that didn't stop the elders. One way to "help" his reading was by letting him in the rotation of book study readers. His night of reading was excruciatingly painful. I got to where if I knew he was reading, I would visit another study or just not go.
Once this elder tried to have an unbaptized brother read, but the sisters complained vociferously about that.
One time I came back from vacation and went to the book study with a weeks growth of beard. Not a heavy beard, but definately on it's way. I came in just as it was time to start and the conductor was relieved to see me come in because I was the first baptized brother, besides himself, to show up. He actually started to remark about a reader finally showing up. But, his relief turned into a combination of dismay and puzzlement when he realized that I was not clean shaven. He then refused to let me read. He ended up using an un-baptized brother to read.
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JT
Then one elder approached me and said that , "The circuit overseer won't look at any one whose hours are below 10."
Is this true? Another unwritten rule? You have to do 10 hours a month to have your report card seriously looked at by a circuit overseer?
*****888
this has always been the standard unless there are some specail reason, you got no legs or arms, in a wheel chair, etc
otehr than that you need at least 10hrs and that is understandable, wt is a corp my man plain an simple, if the NATIONAL AVG IS 9 and you are suppose to be leading the troops out in service with respect and high regard how can you do that with a 3.2 hr avg smile
What happened to the qualifications in the book of Timothy, husband of one wife, moderate in habits?
## tell me you are joking i know you didnt actually think these were the qualifiacations did you, tell us you are joking??
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JT
JWs will fall apart unless it allows for female elders and MSes. THe men just dont have time for it unles they are on some type of governtment assitances. Most of the regular elders I know are retired, disabled, or independantly wealthy/ financially secure. Everyone else is working overtime or taking classes to keep food on the table. They always defer the task in the hall to the ill, well off, or retired brothers. The ill brothers can barely work so that leaves people that dont need jws or are afraid they are going to die to carry the burden.
This is causing corruption by necessity in some places. Being extra lax just to keep the hall running
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this is so true, the jw of today is not the jw of old, they are tired and worn out, the new jw pay little if any attention to such things as CAN YOU REDUCE YOUR STANDARD OF LVING AND PIONEER
that is why they had to lower the hours they lose so many pioneers each year- while the wt will give the number of pio coming on the list, in some years they lose more than come on the list
they used to give dfing numbers the last published figure was over 40,000, THEN THEY STOPPED we ask our CO why and since we had 5 former bethelites in our hall , the co was a bethelite, he felt comfortable talking, he told us the last figure he was told by Service was over 60,000 and they made a decsion not to publish it due to it would discourage the bro-
keep in mind that for each DFing they avg around 2-3 private or public reproofs,, while a large percentage do come back from what i am told the numbers are staggering, then in some cases you have folks who get dfed 2 or 3 times during a life time as jw-
being that wt is obsessed with NUMBERS- their numbers are not looking good, only in the last few years have i every heard and i have been around for over 35yrs where there are circuit assemblies and NO ONE GETS BAPTIZED
that was unheard of years ago, today it happens more than the wt want it to-- they have a stat they work off, it is 1% of attendance
1000 folks in attendance = 10 baptized and any thing less than that is considered NOT GOOD
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XBEHERE
Most men are not reaching out anymore, besides the few who are still power hungry. beleive it or not those men still exist. Many, if not most Congregations have more elders than MS's serving in them. Ever since the last KM school for elders where they "refined" the role of the Bookstudy Conductor (Overseer whatever) the job is just to much for most Elders to manage on top of everything else that is expected of them. No one wants the job anymore.
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JT
Some elders found it hard to let a sister read at the book study when no qualified brother was present. They would rather use a brother who could barely read so that the book study went over time regularly. Once this elder tried to have an unbaptized brother read, but the sisters complained vociferously about that.
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this is so funny- in my old bookstudy i had a single sister who was a Dr. i always tried to make the meeting interesting by bringin in extra little points, so it would not be so boring COME ON I MEAN THE UNITED IN WORSHIP AND REV BOOK STUDIED 9 TIMES IN THEBOOK STUDY--s mile
anyway on this one night she invited another female Dr to the BS well i got tied up and was not able to make the meeting so i called my asst to let him know, unbeknown to me he could not make it either so he called and left a message for me that he would not be there- anyway we both missed themeeting, so the only other one there was this other bro who could not read that well, but since he was a bro the according to wt Organizational procedures has to instead of a woman
so here she has invited this doctor to come with her and he not only CONDUCTED BUT ALSO READ
she was so embarassed by this ,, she called me later that night to tell me how her friend was in totally shock that this man was the instructor and the only reason is BECAUSE HE IS A MAN-
it was a classic wt mindset at work
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wannaexit
In my area few brothers are reaching out. I would say about 10% are looking to climb the ladder.
The hour requirement for those reaching out is about 15.
see a lot of oldtimers passing mikes and doing the job that the young ones used to to.
Also in the last 8 years the CO's in my area have been retired old men.
I don't see much young blood taking on the mantle.
wannaexit
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truthseeker
JT, of course I'm joking! Question is, why do they go beyond the things written regarding qualifications for servants?
1 Tim 3:8
Ministerial Servants
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should be serious
not double tongued
not giving themselves to a lot of wine
not greedy of dishonest gain
holding the sacred secret of the faith with a clean conscience
let them be tested as to fitness first, then let them serve as ministers
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Mary
Are the brothers reaching out in your congregation?
Ya, but I'm sure it's because they'd like to throttle me.
I think Gumby summed it up: apathy is everywhere in the Organization now, despite the rulers attempts to "stir people to vigor again"......it's just not there anymore. "The End" has been "right around the corner" for over 130 years now.......they've run out of excuses as to what the delay is and people are plain tired.
If they made the religion less burdensome (like have a one hour meeting on Sunday and one on Wednesday and that's it), you'd probably see alot more people go..........