suppose you had a business that didn't make money.
you would try to make the thing more efficient and probably lay off.
some workers to cut costs.
Good thoughts neverendingjourney. I agree we are in a transitional period. 2014 will loom large in many people's minds. The internet is drawing the new converts away before they are totally immersed in JW mind control.
If there was a split, how on earth would the average JW decide which way to go?! That would be such a dilemma!
sorry if the title is obtuse, i couldn't think what to call this.. i was thinking about all the rationalizing and downsizing going on in the organization.
it strikes me that they know they have the die hards whatever they do.
even if they reduced the meetings to 5 minutes per week and named mickey mouse the president .
Also, they need more middle-managers. As long as the burden upon elders is
so much, hardly anyone wants the promotion. If they lighten the load, then maybe
more average middle-manager types will take the job.
Noooo! I don't want my husband to be an elder!
All good points. I like the point about the best JW's being the ones who don't like to think. Maybe that's why I'm no good at it.
my lovely wife is planning for the end of the world now.
as i said in a previous topic, she is in a fever over the announcement.
this is a sort of paraphrasing of her commentary:.
A lot of dubs I am speaking to believe that the change is being made so that when the religion is banned, we can then start meeting in smaller groups and people in the community will not know where the meetings are happening because it hasn't been a regular longstanding arrangement. People really can read whatever they like into this thing, and are doing.
i just had an epiphany of sorts.... i've been of the opinion that the change to the book study arrangement was all about control.
controlling the subject matter discussed at book studies; controlling the atmosphere of free-thinking comments or, *gasp* questioning type comments from apostate-leaning attendees.. but what if this is just the beginning of the society and the jws trying to become more mainstream?
what if they're looking to re-invent themselves into a more moderate religion, dropping meeting nights, eventually dropping meetings, maybe even dropping field service.
The more I have thought about it the more I am coming to the same conclusions undercover. It's kind of what my "closing the ark door" thread was getting at. All businesses go through a period of consolidation after a period of growth. I can really see them declaring the preaching work "over" which the r&f will interpret as Armageddon being due tomorrow. This will give them at least a couple of years of strong morale and high meeting attendance.
this is my wife i am talking about.
i'll get that out of the way first.. she was essentially born into the truth and she is hardcore.
she is a zealot.
You know how the WBTS says you should never destroy an interested person's belief system before installing a replacement? I think there is a parallel in that you have to show someone there is life outside the WT. Another revelation to me was that the majority of people are decent human beings who aren't deserving of death. Try to share activities with your wife that are away from the borg. Take up a hobby together. If you push too hard too fast her JW defense system will kick in. Patience is everything. That's all I have.
i was hoping that title would draw you in!
i was just thinking this morning about a lot of the judicial meetings i was in over the years.
i was remembering how, if it involved immorality and a good looking sister, it would not be unusual for one of the elders to comment on that.
I remember an elder who was notorious for asking for too many juicy details at judicial committees. Turned out later he was a paedophile. I wonder whether he got his kicks from the details?
you people grouping together to study the wt books at first for the meetings.. this is the reason i am still kind of leaning toward gas prices in the us as the real reason.. the gb and wt are really blind as to seeing what people are really going to do with that free night..
Yes. I think we can expect to hear lots of counsel about the dangers of studying in groups independent of the congregation in the same way that small W/T groups were criticised some years back.
sorry if the title is obtuse, i couldn't think what to call this.. i was thinking about all the rationalizing and downsizing going on in the organization.
it strikes me that they know they have the die hards whatever they do.
even if they reduced the meetings to 5 minutes per week and named mickey mouse the president .
Sorry if the title is obtuse, I couldn't think what to call this.
I was thinking about all the rationalizing and downsizing going on in the organization. It strikes me that they know they have the die hards whatever they do. Even if they reduced the meetings to 5 minutes per week and named Mickey Mouse the president the old faithful would say "where else would we go?" The ones they are trying to appease with the changes are the weak and fringe elements.
the dubs aren't supposed to?.
i remember being told that the book study was a necessary provision.
it was expected that the dubs would make whatever sacrifices were needed to attend.
I have spoken to a number of JW's who are really upset about this change too.
folks i needs some input on this subject.. i have 3 family members who are shunning me due to their jw belief system and i would like to prime some non-jw relatives on the use of humour to reach out to them.. its not right imho to poke personal fun or be sarcastic or unkind about their belief system so what do we do?.
any suggestions on how humour can be used in this way?.
garybuss + dogpatch - you guys are the experts - please advise......
I find humour to be a good way of getting over how ridiculous certain things are in the borg. Like joking about how last week if you said you had decided not to go to the book study any more you would be counselled but from next January, if you tried to have your own bookstudy on a Tuesday you would be counselled.
