Hello, Norm.
“In some congregations, pioneers have been assigned to assist individuals who were weighed down with intractable personal or spiritual problems and who appeared to have little potential to benefit from the assistance being offered. Such assignments generally produce few positive results and often prove to be draining to the pioneers. Therefore, it is usually advisable for the elders to give shepherding attention to such individuals rather than using the pioneers to assist them. Of course, there is no objection to assigning a pioneer to assist an irregular or inactive one if it is felt that the person will really make progress and is truly in a position to benefit from the program.”
############
Excellent example of the problems of improperly trained men being used to implement poorly defined programs. What training do the elders receive that would give them the qualifications to make that differentiation? (See emboldened text) How are these men to decide what is or is not an “intractable personal or spiritual problem?” How many elders even know what that is? How much “potential” is acceptable to risk discouraging the pioneer assigned to the “weak” publisher? Who qualifies the pioneers (what special training do they receive) to assist others with their personal problems?
If a person is not going out in field service regularly it is a sign that, as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, they have a problem. Now why should that notice escape those in charge? Why pawn these people with “a problem” off on poor pioneers, most of which are hanging on by their fingernails as it is?
Pioneers have a problem to begin with. They ‘pioneer’ so they can be recognized as ‘pioneers’. After all, any ‘publisher’ can put in whatever amount of time he wants to…BUT he is still just a publisher. A pioneer, now, well that’s something special. Even if you’re only an auxiliary (formerly vacation) pioneer there is a certain status to that in the JW community. I have had some people get very upset because the Service Committee would not sign their application to Aux Pio. They were told that they could put in whatever hours they wanted but they would not be recognized by the congregation as Aux Pio’s. (Isn’t that ridiculous anyway?) Almost without exception there would be some anger and rarely did they go out with the group that was pioneering that month.
I also remember how upset the regular pioneers got when they were told that they would have to start turning in their time with the rest of the congregation instead of sending it directly to Brooklyn. I remember how upset they got when they had to start paying the same thing at the counter as the publishers did. All those things (and other changes over the years) were viewed as taking away their ‘specialness’, to coin a word. How many of them do you suppose would continue putting in those hours if that designation was suddenly dropped? What purpose does it serve other that to differentiate and ‘classify’ those that put in those hours?