first of all, sorry if i cannot correctly express the original expression used in my native language to ask for the "spiritual condition".. a few years ago some member of the family asks my wife directly how is her "spiritual health" (for me it's one of the many strange vocabulary used by jw like "the slave says...").
she was catched by surprise with the direct question and says that everything is ok... and luckily someone call them for lunch.. my question is: do you have any good answers for that question?
you can be ironic/use some humor because the question is a little bit anecdotical .
"I'm sure that only Christ can judge my "spiritual health" accurately, so I'll leave it up to him. What I or others think is of no consequence!"
I like Searchers answer, that is a good one. The state of mind that I am in right now wants to say is..."mind your own damn business" BUT the sensible side of me will probably be similar to Searchers.
I think I might say..."why would you ask" and see where they go with it.
jehovah’s witnesses will seek to overturn the apex court’s order .
This is what WT is worried about? Really? They should be worried about the dwindling money and members! Their publicity lately has not been good. It reminds me of your house burning down and you're worried about what color to paint the front porch.
way back in the 70s around the time when the elders arrangement was new i recall a particular co who tried to replace all the circuit arrangement with young pioneers, in fact he tried to infest all of circuit with youth.
my father in law was removed by this person from his circuit position and that added to the complete disdain even contempt my fil had for him.
my fil was one of a small group that had formed congregation , built the kh with their own funds and where very loyal to the organisation, never commenting or expressing dissent in any form.
Never knew your FIL but I like him. lol He reminds me of my Elder Dad (deceased). He would do the same thing. You are correct, he would be removed toot sweet today, if he did that.
The new breed of Elders are wanna be big shots. The beautiful thing about this is, once all these wanna be elders are left to run the show, they will peck each others eyes out. Once they are done pecking each others eyes out, WT will discard them like yesterdays trash. Watch and enjoy the show!
when i was younger i used to hear about "marking talks" given in the past.
i believe they stopped in the 80's or 90's.
basically, if someone wasn't baptized or doing something unrepentant, they would get a "marking talk" and be treated the same as a df person.
There are probably so many leaving WT that they are setting up the congregations for a boat load of these talks. WT is worried! As they should be.
my dad{rip}, was a faithful jw since the year i was born, i'm 60, he died 2 years ago.
his last 12 years were spent in an assisted living/nursing home right in the small town where he spent the last 8 years of being an elder/pioneer.
when he went into the home, one brother would visit him regularly, but after 4 years, that friend moved away, and visitation from the locals ceased, for 8 years!!!!!!!
"For instance they will have a pot luck lunch afterward, and have arranged social activities. They will have organised meet ups. Although I do believe church is primarily learning about God, I believe Wt has got a lot to learn."
Watchtower warns of large gatherings where ones may get involved in "serious sin."
When I was a kid (many years ago...lol), whenever there was an event that the kids were enjoying, there was always one or more elders or maybe even the CO that ruined it for everyone. All the kids were doing was having a good time and someone always came along and "pissed on the parade." This always ticked my Elder Dad off and eventually there were NO gatherings anymore so a lot of the kids went out and found other things to do. Like get in trouble.
My spouse and I always had events at our home. We felt that our kids needed the association. What a nightmare. There was always something. One sister bitched that she wasn't invited (not true). Two sisters got into an argument that one was "apparently" drinking too much. One sister mentioned to me that she noticed I had a particular movie in my DVD collection that was rated R (not true...rated PG & I let her know that). We also let someone borrow one of our vehicles and they went through our music collection and pointed out some "questionable" music. You just can't win with these people, there is always SOMETHING. Freedom has been a breath of fresh air. And WT wonders why people are leaving.
my dad{rip}, was a faithful jw since the year i was born, i'm 60, he died 2 years ago.
his last 12 years were spent in an assisted living/nursing home right in the small town where he spent the last 8 years of being an elder/pioneer.
when he went into the home, one brother would visit him regularly, but after 4 years, that friend moved away, and visitation from the locals ceased, for 8 years!!!!!!!
Like the Elders told my spouse..."we really would like to USE you." Yeah...USE you! WT is an all take, no give organization.
the numbers don't lie... definitely slowing down!!.
in the 40´s the average growth per year was 20%in the 50´s it was about 10%they had four decades of solid 5% per yearnow the average for the past 16 years has been 2%.
maybe in the future it will be 1% or 0 or even negative????.
Maybe Karma has come to finally bite them in the ass.
During our tough times we were told to..."trust in Jehovah." Maybe WT doesn't have enough faith.
so i ended up going to the meeting yesterday.
i have been absent for almost 2 months.
my wife was also absent as long but mostly out of chance.
You don't believe they will do a bait and switch...and 2 elders show up instead of his wife? Just be prepared we've had some sneaky Elders around here. I wish you and your wife the best!
my dad{rip}, was a faithful jw since the year i was born, i'm 60, he died 2 years ago.
his last 12 years were spent in an assisted living/nursing home right in the small town where he spent the last 8 years of being an elder/pioneer.
when he went into the home, one brother would visit him regularly, but after 4 years, that friend moved away, and visitation from the locals ceased, for 8 years!!!!!!!
We have still in family members who are all struggling spiritually (hate that word), financially and have had health problems (they are getting older). We have 2 elders in our family. Neither one of them give a crap. They are there for the congregation and have time to pioneer but no time to check or care about their own families. Not even a 5 minute phone call or a simple text. The biggest bunch of HYPOCRITES we have EVER seen!
"WHITEWASHED GRAVES FULL OF DEAD MENS BONES" is the perfect way to describe them. It's all about appearances.
(just posted this over on exjw reddit as well).
as part of my masters in architecture degree (a treat to myself after leaving jws about 4 years ago), i'm attempting to digitally reconstruct some of watchtower's significant early buildings.
my goal is to produce accurate architectural drawings and images based on solid evidence.
Do a search on YouTube for: Beth Sarim
Quite a few videos and photos done over the years.
Good luck on your project.
