The WTS Wants YOU

by ezekiel3 7 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  ezekiel3

  Your Help Is Needed - Kingdom Ministry December 2004 (US)
  
  ?Thank you for all you do in behalf of all of us. It really does make a difference.? That comment well expresses the gratitude we feel for our elders and ministerial servants. As God?s organization continues to expand, there is an ongoing need for mature men to serve in the nearly 100,000 congregations worldwide. If you are a baptized brother, your help is needed.
  
  ?Reaching Out?: How can you reach out for additional service privileges? (1 Tim. 3:1) Basically, by setting a fine example in all aspects of your life. (1 Tim. 4:12; Titus 2:6-8; 1 Pet. 5:3) Have a full share in the preaching work, and assist others to do the likewise. (2 Tim. 4:5) Take a sincere interest in the welfare of fellow believers. (Rom. 12:13) Be a good student of God?s Word, and develop the ?art of teaching.? (Titus 1:9; 1 Tim. 4:13) Diligently care for the assignments entrusted to you by the elders. (1 Tim. 3:10) If you are a family head, ?preside over your household in a fine manner.? ?1 Tim. 3:4, 5, 12.
  
  Serving in an appointed capacity involves hard work and requires a spirit of self-sacrifice. (1 Tim. 5:17) Therefore, in reaching out, focus on humbly serving others. (Matt. 20:25-28; John 13:3-5, 12-17) Meditate on the disposition of Timothy, and seek to imitate it. (Phil. 2:20-22) Like him, let your fine conduct recommend you. (Acts 16:1, 2) As you cultivate the spiritual qualities needed to handle added privileges and apply any counsel for improvement that you receive, ?your advancement [will] be manifest to all persons.? ?Tim. 4:15.
  
  Parents, Train Young Ones to Help: Children can begin learning to help from an early age. Train them to pay attention at meetings, to preach, and to be exemplary in conduct at the Kingdom Hall and at school. Get them involved in serving others, doing things such as assisting with Kingdom Hall cleaning, helping the elderly, and so forth. Allow them to experience the happiness that comes from giving. (Acts 20:35) Such training can help them to become the pioneers, the ministerial servants, and the elders of tomorrow.

  OK, my thoughts:

  1. This is the US Kingdom Ministry. There is no growth in the US! So why is the WTS recruiting? Because there is little support from the male JWs aged 18-25. The fact is that in many congregations, elders are handling mikes and reading the WT at the meetings because there is no one else to do it.
  2. The end is coming soon?? Then why are parents encouraged to train kids from an early age? That means that your 2-year-old son won't qualify for as a ministerial servant for 16 years or about 25 years for an elder! Is that how long the system may last??

  Keep that urgency up, suckers.
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  iiz2cool

  That's the same sort of drivel I heard from them the entire 20 years I was in. But I saw many brothers? reach out? and never get appointments of any kind. They just want children to be trained from an early age so they will become "company men".
  
  Walter
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  JH

  They seem desperate.

  First, they begged for money, now for mature brothers.
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  blondie

  The fact is that in many congregations, elders are handling mikes and reading the WT at the meetings because there is no one else to do it.

  The elders in several congregations in this area wanted to use sisters to handle mikes but were told by the CO that would never happen, that the elders would do all the "privileges" of the nonexistent MS. Many congregations had 5 to 7 elders and 1 MS and no prospects on the horizon; couple that with the stats he gave to the elders that 1/4 of the elders step down each year....

  There are no prospective elders since the young males in the congregations leave by fading or DFing. Most congregations have no new sisters brought in as adults let alone men. I can remember one elder trying to get the non-JW husbands studying the Bible; trying for a second or third time.

  This Sunday's WT study article had a paragraph that pointed out that the rank and file weren't reaching out enough.

  Blondie
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  lawrence

  I think I'll send a letter to a few of the local congos and ask if they're hiring "microphone handlers." No book studies, the gig 4 times a week, and 3 weeks off a year. Maybe a tired and fading CO might buy into? Nah.
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  metatron

  In many areas of the US, I've observed the same thing: elders are getting stuck with everything, they're getting old - and

  there is very little on the horizon as young men are leaving. I once asked a C.O. "where's the 'B' team?" in regard to ministerial

  servants. He had no reply.

  metatron
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  kwintestal

  The elders in several congregations in this area wanted to use sisters to handle mikes but were told by the CO that would never happen

  Is this CO forgetting that "new light" may allow it? Really, if they're that short what alternative do they have? Our previous cong. had 10 yr. old boys running around with the mic because they had noone else "qualified" to do it. If a 10 yr. old boy is being allowed, something that was never even though of when he was born, will the natural progression allow for women to do it too?

  My grandmother used to go to Barbados 2 months of every year, there evidently the women read the paragraphs at the book studies which she thought was very progressive, for the JW's of course.

  Kwin
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  Grouper

  Here in So Cal if you are not in the Spanish hall things are pretty bleek, with sisters in some halls handling the mag and book counters because there are no males that want to do them or are qualified

  They also conduct service meeting during the week

  One older elder pleaded to the children in one KH to do as much as possible because if the system continues they would be the future elder and MS but he stated from the platform that he wouldn't uderstand why the system would continue, what a Dilemma