``Turning the Tables"Dept.: What About Doing Shepherding on Elders?

by Room 215 11 Replies latest jw friends

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  Room 215

  I wonder how the local elders would like it if a couple of of us ``weak ones" were to stop by their homes unannounced to discuss ``spiritual matters" with them and their families?

  It may be an unfair generalization, but it seems to me that every encounter with an elder has to be on their terms. Locally here, few if any JWs know the addresses of the elders or has ever been to any of their homes; this is especially true of any dub regarded as ``weak," ``irregular" or ``marginal."

  Aloofness rather than a genuine spirit of brotherliness seems pervasive in the JW community here. Of course, years ago, in the pre-paranoia era of Franz/Dunlap, it was common practice to pass around congregation address/phone lists; no longer.
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  Will Power

  thats a great idea - and unless they're annointed, they are the same class as you.

  Remember they themselves have written - there is no distinction between clergy & laity in God's great crowd.
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  DannyBear

  Aloofness rather than a genuine spirit of brotherliness seems pervasive in the JW community here.

  There was always a measure of 'aloofness' towards a select few......yet your choice of the word 'pervasive' is very telling.

  Are jw's withdrawing from each other even more now? Think maybe its a cumlative effect of so many years of disappointing expectations? 1975, 1914, 2000, 'great tribulation', the big A itself taking it's sweet time in coming, just causing the brotherhood to fracture?

  It's been over 25 years since I set foot in a Kingdom Hall.....I can only imagine whats going on now.

  Danny
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  gumby

  Dannybear.........just wanted to say hi buddy.

  Room215.......that would be like asking the pope if you could visit to give him some encouragment.....I'll bet the elders would laugh in your face if you showed up to encourage them........but I like the idea

  Gumby
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  kwintestal

  You'd show up and they'd ask you to hold on while they called another elder over. They gots to have back-up y'know.

  Kwin
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  Fleur

  Oh, wouldn't that be rich. Can we start with elders who are members of your own family? LOL I could have a laundry list of things to 'point out' that need correction about the two elders in my family.

  an aside: Dannybear! It's been forever! big hugs!!!

  love

  essie

  (same old essie, lost old esmeralda account info)
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  minimus

  Room, are you dreaming again? Who wants to waste their time "shepherding" elders??
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  blondie

  Actually, I was in a congregation where the elders' wives complained that they had never been called on. I will admit that this elder body were pretty proactive and compassionate about making shepherding calls on everyone, making appointments, keeping it light, even on some occasions taking their wives with them. So the elders called on the wives (can't make a shepherding call on an elder, that's what elders meetings are for, you know). But the CO got wind of it and he ripped into those brothers telling them that the congregation should not get the idea that the elders or their wives needed "help" spiritually and that was the end of it. It was like the wind was kicked out of those men. Two stepped down within a year and 3 moved away and were never reappointed.

  No good deed goes unpunished.

  Blondie
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  Room 215

  I might be tempted to try it if I knew where any of the local elders live; of 12 in the congregation, only two have congregation book studeis at their homes, and where the rest of them live is pretty much as mystery to all but a very few in the congregation-- they talk a good game about ``love" but are actually a fairly elusive, aloof lot.

  In reality, most of the dubs really resent the current ``shepherding" program-- which in these parts is anything but a spontaneous expression of friendliness, but rather a highly structured campaign presented as another item on the elders' ``must do" list.

  Here's how it works: A non-meeting night is picked, an announcement is made from the KH platfrom that the dubs who attend so-and-so book study can expect an ``encouraging visit" for a pair of the elders, who stop by, ask you to shut off the televsion and join them around the kitchen table for prayer and a canned ``scriptural" spiel usually on a ``can you do more" theme. ... Blech!
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  Axelspeed

  So the elders called on the wives (can't make a shepherding call on an elder, that's what elders meetings are for, you know). But the CO got wind of it and he ripped into those brothers telling them that the congregation should not get the idea that the elders or their wives needed "help" spiritually and that was the end of it.

  I heard alot of this too. The pretense that all is well and being so hypersensitive to "how it might look"- on so many levels - is quietly taking its toll.

  Axelspeed