Billy the Ex-Bethelite

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Posts by Billy the Ex-Bethelite

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  31

  HOW EXACTLY does god communicate with or direct the GB?

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  we're all familiar with the organisations claims (and have seen the flow diagrams in books and mags) that the gb is "directed by god".

  in turn, the local elders are "directed by god".

  so, how exactly do they suppose this happens?

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Brooklyn has a direct line to the man upstairs!
  

  
  
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  49

  Ode to the trolleys in Feb's broadcast

  by konceptual99 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  check out the song about the trolley at the end of this month's dubcast.. http://www.jw.org/download/?fileformat=mp4&output=html&pub=jwb&issue=201502.

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  I watched the trolley "musical" and stopped for a look at some other spots. The music, graphics, and a few young faces amid the usual cult stuff delivered by old white dudes brings one thing to mind:

  

  They can try their best on the web and build new KHs with windows, but the cult is still a turd.
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  90

  Some screenshots from new KH meeting!

  by pixel in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

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  they just put up a link to watch a replay of the "new kh meeting", here some screenshots.. .

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Gosh, all those windows! I wonder if it's true what they say that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
  

  Because I've known a lot of dubs that could really throw stones!
  
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  90

  Some screenshots from new KH meeting!

  by pixel in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

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  they just put up a link to watch a replay of the "new kh meeting", here some screenshots.. .

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Gosh, all those windows! I hope they know some good window-washers. Oh, right, it's a Kingdumb Haul.
  
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  23

  New Appointments Are Very Fast & All On The CO

  by baldeagle in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the week of september 15, 2014 was the congregations cos visit.

  the midweek meeting was on tuesday, a very general bland talk was given by the co. in the past we would have had the elders & servants meeting on thursday night, and the other congregation meeting on friday.

  as you know the friday meeting is no more.

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  So the CO is doing the appointing very publicly, and not the GB. What could go wrong?

  Well, if something does go wrong, this seems appropriate:

  
  

  

  
  
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  20

  A few more random thoughts on the new Kingdom Hall design meeting

  by sir82 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  left completely unsaid at the meeting: who is going to be the owner of the property & building when all of these new khs are built?

  in the current arrangement, in most cases, a local trust is set up to hold ownership.

  of course, the most likely answer is "the watchtower (or whatever shell corporations they set up) will own the land & building".

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Is this the look they're going for?

  
  

  

  
  

  Or something more like this?

  
  

  

  
  
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  40

  Ony J.W.'s could do this and not question what is going on

  by Sour Grapes in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  at the meeting today several elders commented about the wonderful program that they attended yesterday on the new kingdom hall designs.

  they said that the new halls are going to be so beautiful with lots of windows and glass panels and that the lights will be kept on in the lobby 24/7 so that you can see into the hall at night and that thousands of these halls must be built.

  then five minutes later they are talking about how close the end is and that we will be meeting in basements in the near future.

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Something that has plenty of windows on one side and could easily be converted into a coffee shop or clothing store or the like.

  It only needs to be a KH for one night and Sunday morning each week. The rest of the week it can be an Apple Store.
  
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  96

  21 Years as an Elder, 5 as an MS, I will never be that guy again.

  by James Jack in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i was deleted as the cobe after i let my adult child move back home and he admitted that he fornicated under my roof while my wife and i where away on a rbc project.

  of course the elder mode in me kicked him out of the house.. the elders moved quickly to remove me because i was too involved in "theocractic activities", i had neglected my adult son.. i accepted this primarily because i didn't want to serve with a boe that did not want me.

  i was devastated however because it was the only life i knew.

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Welcome back!

  I took on more secular work because it dawned on me that I had no retirement plan and I was 52 at the time, this "System of Things", wasn't supposed to last this long. For the first time in my life, I was afraid of the future.

  A year ago, my parents used the line on me: "If armageddon comes this year, do you think you will be ready?"

  I gave an okay answer. But after some thought, I wish I would have responded, "If it's coming this year, bring it on. I'm ready to state my case to god. What I'm not ready for is this system lasting another 20 or 30 years. I've frittered away most of my life because ever since I was a child, I thought it was coming in the next year or two. But now I'm pushing 50. 50! In 20 years I'll be past retirement age, and I'll have nothing to live on."

  "The BOE would like to see  100%"! I was so embarrassed, because the wife and I were part of the 12 that didn't sign up. Further more, after the meeting, each Elder an application in their hand and approached those who had not signed up.

  After I'd left bethel, was still an elder, but not a pioneer, there was one of those months when all the elders except me aux. piod. It happened to come up at one point that one of those elders made it a point to say that all except one of the elders was able to aux. pioneer. I responded with, "I was a pioneer and served at bethel for a total of over 15 years. That's a long time in the full-time and special full-time service. Good for you guys that you aux pioneered. I did that back when I was a teenager. Try reg pioneering and bethel service, then come back and talk." At that point, I wasn't embarrassed, because I didn't care anymore. I was here learning TTATT and was trying to figure out how to get out.
  

  The next meeting I was called to the back room with 2 Elders and counseled never to question an Elder in front of others.

  Toward the end, it was easy for me to avoid the elders because they were avoiding me. Here's why:
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/255058/exjw-psychology-103-lets-reconsider-confidentiality
  They couldn't give me the usual verbal beatings since I'd tell everyone everything that happened.
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  24

  So my dad comes from vacation and ???!!!

  by Kool Jo in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  hello folks.....so in an earlier thread i started, you'd realize that my father and i are quite close, we talk about almost everything/anything.. he traveled outside the country (he's semi-retired), enjoying the fruitage of his hard labor during his younger years.

  so he recently returned home after he and mum went away to catchup with some old friends in another country.. upon his returning home, and subsequently to the meetings, he was told that a decision was made to strip him of his "field overseer" role, but will still continue to be an elder.. the reason...he goes away for too long too often...you can't be away from your congregation for three months out of the year!!!???

  has anyone else had this experience before?

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Things like this can be very arbitrary from congregation to congregation and CO to CO.

  Ugh! service overseer, secretary, WT study conductor, school conductor, ... I cant say that any of them were very good at handling their positions in the congregations I was in. The only time positions were changed were (1) when someone moved, removed, or died, (2) someone else actually wanted the job, (3) the CO said someone had to go.

  And I've seen it enough times where a bro gets ambitious and wants to be secretary or conductor or something. Maybe he'll be gung-ho the first few months, but usually by the second CO visit afterward, his passion is deflated.
  
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  13

  More education bashing in April 2015 simplified watchtower

  by hoser in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  elders in wealthy lands may find it difficult to encourage baptized brothers in their 20s or 30s to do more in the congregation.

  ex- perienced elders in about 20 lands told us why they believe that some young brothers do not do more in the congregation.

  most of them said that when some brothers were young, their parents did not encour- age them to set goals in jehovahs ser- vice.

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  ...when some brothers were young, their parents did not encourage them to set goals in Jehovah’s service.... their parents encouraged them to set goals involving higher education or a career in the world!

  News flash! These parents are called "loving"!

  If the parents are not wealthy but living in a "wealthy land", they may have already struggled all their lives to feed the family, buy school and meeting clothes, put gas in the tank for field serve-us, etc. So when they see their kids have some intelligence, why condemn them to the same fate of struggling in poverty?

  And if the parents are wealthy, do they really want to support their kids their entire lives? I think we've all seen that. I lived it! While my parents were proud of my "spiritual progress", I know it troubled them that I basically lived in poverty compared to how I could live. And after bethel, I was broke with no useful job references or opportunities. After struggling for years, the reality that "higher education" would free me from struggling without hope, the "JW spirituality" of my parents was eclipsed by the love of my parents.

  Watchtower can say whatever they want. For me, "higher education" has freed me from a life that was going nowhere. And as far as my "career in the world", I'm working fewer hours now than I did in bethel or when I was working after bethel.