by zack 21 Replies latest jw friends
Zack
CO's and elder bodies use the national average as the barometer of a male JW's "zeal" for God. Whether he is recommended for privileges, or not, depends on which side of the ledger his "report" puts him on.
I confirm what you said.
An elder who is trying to get me to qualify for servant status told me "the circuit overseer won't look at you if your hours are below ten."
The publications always talk about what one can reasonably do; when no one else is around, however, it is wholly another story.
This is the problem - the WTS aren't really requiring what you can reasonably do, they want you to simplify your life, and go beyond just doing what you can fit in the week.
For example, every Saturday on the dub calendar has "Magazine Day" - All 52 weeks. Is that reasonable?
This is the problem - the WTS aren't really requiring what you can reasonably do, they want you to simplify your life, and go beyond just doing what you can fit in the week
I went to as many meetings as I possibly could. Making meeting attendance was top priority in all my decision making. I sacrificed all I could. When I did that, then I started taking ungrateful sisters to the meetings. I could see that no matter how much I gave up and gave "spiritually" was never going to be enough.
My only hope was to marry someone that could allow me not to work altogether so I could pioneer.
Putting in more time in door-to-door will not make me more spiritual or closer to GOD. It does not make you a better person and it certainly does not qualify you to move up in responsiblity.
well that is just my opinion.
Well, someone is working 10 extra hours for me ...
... oh, and Welcome Zack!!!!
Don't forget that to even think about going to Bethel, you had better be putting in pioneer hours at least the year prior of applying -- unless you have some outstanding, rare trade or craft that the WTS desperately needs.
Actually, there was a required 10 hour quota for publishers up until 1970 or so. There was a quota of 12 magazines/month, 6 RVs (BCs)/month, and 1 bible study/month. They used to post a large chart up by the platform with each month's congregation totals and averages. Congregations were quite competitive and comparing and judging each other. They finally stopped that about the same time.
So the national average is a replacement for that means of juding others by the numbers. JWs would not be appointed as regular pioneers unless they had maintained this quota for 6 months and were conducting 1 home bible study.
When it changed, the talks centered around the concept that now some publishers would do more than the obligated 10 hours each month and that those who could not make ten hours would not be discouraged. Horsepucky. It was to cover the fact that the zeal of the average was waning and putting that info up publicly in the congo was too revealing.
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km 2/71 p. 3 A Letter from the Pioneers ***First of all, before you can enroll as a regular pioneer you must have been baptized for at least six months, and during the past six months you must have been a regular publisher reporting at least ten hours and six back-calls on the average each month. You must currently be conducting at least one home Bible study.
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km 2/73 pp. 1-6 Branch Letter ***How about congregation publishers? They are increasing in numbers, from 389,555 for the previous year to 401,519 for the first three months of the 1973 service year. That is good to see. But their report of hours is down?from 9.9 to 9.6 per month, on the average.
Some have said: ?But we have no quotas now.? Though the hour requirements for the various branches of pioneer service have not changed, it is true that congregation publishers have no set goal of, say, ten hours per month. Yet the question might be asked: Is this a valid reason for decreasing the amount of time spent in doing the will of Jehovah God in the field service? Really, in past years we were not going in the field service simply to meet a goal of hours, were we? We were interested in preaching the good news of God?s kingdom, to magnify Jehovah?s name and to give others the opportunity to hear. And we still are. Now that we do not all have a set goal of hours we are not to conclude that our field ministry is any less important. Our message is urgent. This is something to think about, don?t you agree? Jehovah?s requirement that our service be whole-souled has not changed.
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w71 6/1 p. 335 How to Succeed in the Pioneer Service ***It is not easy to jump from a pace of ten hours a month as a congregation publisher to one hundred hours a month on the pioneer track.
*** w65 9/1 p. 524 What Comes First in Your Life? ***Surely the suggested minimum goal for this, twenty minutes a day, two and a half hours a week or ten hours a month, is a reasonable one for a mature Christian. Jehovah?s witnesses try to devote at least ten hours a month to their field ministry.
Balsam: Will our ex-brothers and sisters ever wake up and understand they are working for a money making corporation and not God? Only time will tell. (italics mine.)
Balsam: I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but I thought that this was a cool play on words!
Reviewed some KMs from earlier this year and late last year. Average bounced between 8.8 and 9.9. I don't know the last time it was above ten.
"The WTS is a huge publishing organization with slave labor who produces this literature then places it for payment or donations." I agree with Balsam, but we had one CO that took it even further. We were told that we were to "donate" for the literature when we pick it up at the counter, then if someone contributes to the world-wide work out in service, we also put that money in the contribution box. So the literature is getting paid for twice, in theory I guess, cause I never asked for a donation at the door so I pay for it.
In a Scandinavian country, the average hours in the holiday season (when the JWs have more free time than ever) is some 6,5 the lowest during the whole year.
