Posts by Jeremy C

36

Are they going to keep lowering the bar to be appointed an MS or Elder???

by karter in

jw
friends

my mother told me of 2 young guys that have been appointed elders.. i could'nt belive it these guys have zero life experance and both their wifes walked out on them after a few years of marrage.. another one cooked his brain on drugs and his talks are painfull to listen to....all over the place and stumbles through them.. .

is it due to alot of young ones (60 to 70%) leaving and the pool to pick from is getting smaller so lowering the bar is the only way???

?.

Jeremy C

A major challenge they have is in the arbitrary standards they’ve established for one to “qualify”. An unwritten rule that they have (at least this was the case when I was a MS) is that one must be getting at least ten hours a month to qualify as a MS or Elder. I have never seen the organization present (or even attempt to present) any Scriptural foundation for requiring a man to submit a certain number of field service hours in a monthly report in order to qualify as a Christian elder. This kind of standard is completely foreign to the New Testament.

I have known many fine brothers who were very helpful to the congregation who never got appointed to anything because of their “lack” of field service time. Ironically, the organization had no objections to these men providing resources and labor at Kingdom Hall projects.

I have known several brothers who had to step down, or were removed not because of any bad conduct on their part; but simply because they could not regularly generate the expected amount of field service time. This only puts added strain on the remaining Elders who are already burned out.

I’m wondering when, or if anyone at headquarters is going to begin rethinking these silly field service time requirements they have in place. Just think how it would improve the atmosphere of a congregation if instead of four elders, all of the sudden they now had nine or ten?

140

Why So Many Young People Are Leaving The Watchtower

by Jeremy C in

i have been giving a lot of thought to the young people who are leaving the watchtower organization in recent years.

last night, i was reading the thread posted by jwfacts a while back in which he provided some statistics and graphs showing the rapidly declining growth in the watchtower.

one factor that was discussed at length was the high number of young people who do not stay in the organization.

Jeremy C

Makes me feel guilty...I brought my kids up JW's
One still there,( & her daughter my grandchild)another of mine left
married an unbeliever...Was very happy with him,died at 42(cancer)
I pushed her into the cult. I think of all the years I( 18ys) convinced her
it was the truth,,,, If we could help just one see the error of our following
any one that says they know it all.

Mouthy: At the time, you did what you were convinced was best for them. Back then, you simply didn’t know better. Had you known better, you would have done things differently.

Once a month, I visit the teenage residents of a live-in drug and alcohol rehab. Some of the stories are heartbreaking. I’ve heard many of them share how their parents actually gave them marijuana while they were still in grade school. Many of them had parents who were actually cooking methamphetamine in the house right in front of them. We live in a world with a lot of sick people. I’m sure you as a JW parent were doing what you truly believed would protect them from harm and protect them from a lot of the sickness that’s out there. Don’t be too hard on yourself. We humans are gullible, and put our hopes in all kinds of fantastical ideas. Some of us are just slower learners than others.

140

Why So Many Young People Are Leaving The Watchtower

by Jeremy C in

i have been giving a lot of thought to the young people who are leaving the watchtower organization in recent years.

last night, i was reading the thread posted by jwfacts a while back in which he provided some statistics and graphs showing the rapidly declining growth in the watchtower.

one factor that was discussed at length was the high number of young people who do not stay in the organization.

Jeremy C

The only other feedback I'd offer is my opinion about the length of your post. As one of my editors told me a few years ago: Halve the number of words and you'll increase the potency of your message because more people will be inclined to stick with your message to its completion.
I hope you don't find my comments audacious because my main message is how well you write.

No steve2, there’s nothing wrong with your critique. We can all use some constructive criticism from time to time. Hey look at this way: you guys can be the JWD version of theocratic ministry school conductors.

The whole point of the bookstudy meeting was that it was usually in small homes; it was the favorite meeting of every person I knew. You might get a sour location sure, but you might get that rare gem: the bookstudy where EVERY week there was snacks, treats, coffee and fellowship after.
The bookstudy was VITAL, the GB said, because it was a micro congregation; this was the group you would go to when we were persecuted.
And of course, though they never said this, the bookstudy at a private home was most similar to the early 'households' of faith, the earliest congregations of Jesus' followers.

Pistoff, you bring up a very good point. I was floored when I had heard that they dropped the home bookstudy. We were always told that this was the most important meeting of the week, and that it would be vital when the Great Tribulation broker out. (perhaps their cozy relationship with the UN makes them believe that persecution won’t be too bad after all) This truly was many people’s favorite meeting because of it’s cozy feeling; especially those where the friends enjoy desert and fellowship afterward.

The deletion of home bookstudies had nothing to do with something so temporary as gas prices! This silly explanation is similar to the kind of reasoning that they gave for changing the baptismal questions. I’m convinced that they felt the home bookstudies were one of those loose ends they needed to tie up in solidifying their control over the organization. It’s too easy for small groups of people to begin having independent discussions about the material they’ve just covered. I don’t think the past generation of GB members would have given their approval to this.

140

Why So Many Young People Are Leaving The Watchtower

by Jeremy C in

i have been giving a lot of thought to the young people who are leaving the watchtower organization in recent years.

last night, i was reading the thread posted by jwfacts a while back in which he provided some statistics and graphs showing the rapidly declining growth in the watchtower.

one factor that was discussed at length was the high number of young people who do not stay in the organization.

Jeremy C

Thanks everyone for your kind comments. Obviously, my observations about the high turnover among those born and raised in the organization don’t apply to every individual congregation. This will vary in different areas. I attended congregations in California, and the JW culture in the suburbs of Los Angeles were strikingly different from those in the inner city L.A. And that JW culture was radically different from the ones that exist up in the rural areas. The devotion and activity of these youths also varied from area to area. The area in which I grew up saw a huge turn-over.

This difference that you see from region to region applies to mainline Christian churches as well. I live not too far from Rick Warren’s mega church, and I can tell you that the growth he has experienced is very impressive. I was amazed when learning about how much he has invested in youth programs and support groups. I live in an area with a very robust Evangelical presence where growth is steady. Obviously, this does not apply to the whole country. But, on the whole, the point is that there is a stark contrast between what the Watchtower is offering versus mainstream Christianity. When a prospective recruit is looking into the Watchtower organization online and then comparing it against a mega-church like Rick Warren’s, it’s like comparing a Five-Star restaurant with a Stouffer’s TV dinner.

140

Why So Many Young People Are Leaving The Watchtower

by Jeremy C in

i have been giving a lot of thought to the young people who are leaving the watchtower organization in recent years.

last night, i was reading the thread posted by jwfacts a while back in which he provided some statistics and graphs showing the rapidly declining growth in the watchtower.

one factor that was discussed at length was the high number of young people who do not stay in the organization.

Jeremy C

The embarassment factor growing up, the flag issue, music issues, party issues , lack of school sports, forbidden to join the Boy Scouts, knocking on a school mates doors in service....................I always felt that I was playing on a losing team.

Giordano: One thing you brought up is afterschool sports. This is one area where I think born-in JWs really miss something that can be very beneficial.

There are qualities that young people can learn from afterschool sports. One of them is to build confidence and the capability to engage in healthy competition. True, sometimes the competitiveness gets way out of hand, but I think for the most part, the character traits that it can instill are important for healthy social development and the ability to compete in the market place. One trait that you learn in school sports is training to better yourself and to compete; not to mention the team bonding that one develops with their peers. The job market demands these abilities. Many born-in JWs never really developed much social confidence, and never developed the attributes of healthy competition that are so crucial today. As a result, they feel very foreign to the world around them, and feel incapable of meeting the demands that the 21 st century economy. This is not to say that all JWs are totally dysfunctional, or that all non-JWs magically have these important attributes. It’s just that the Watchtower’s model sabotages young people in so many ways.

97

Wouldn't the predators on the ark have eaten everything by the time the 40 days was over?

by highdose in

let say noah did manage to get all the species into the ark... about half of them would have been predators and the other half natural prey.. are we going to belive that they went without eating for 40 days and nights?

or the ridiculous theory as the wt would have it that noah fed them nice tasty bales of straw which they happily munched on?.

and even if one of these two exhuses were true, when the animals were let out of the ark into a world now deverstated by a flood, then wouldn't they have continued eating eachother???

Jeremy C

I thought so too, bohm, but they resurrected the idea just a few years ago with a picture in The Watchtower of a lion grazing. I'll see if I can find it.

Wow, TD, I didn’t know that. I’m wondering what arguments they use to explain why the Grand Designer would give lions, tigers, and even the T-Rex the powerful jaws and teeth that are ideal for ripping flesh, when teeth of a cow or horse are much more ideal for eating grass.

140

Why So Many Young People Are Leaving The Watchtower

by Jeremy C in

i have been giving a lot of thought to the young people who are leaving the watchtower organization in recent years.

last night, i was reading the thread posted by jwfacts a while back in which he provided some statistics and graphs showing the rapidly declining growth in the watchtower.

one factor that was discussed at length was the high number of young people who do not stay in the organization.

Jeremy C

shamus100: thanks for those kind words. I must admit that I like your avatar – the sight of that creature with its arms extended reminds me of when I was at the dinner table at Bethel, watching one of the Governing Body members reach for the bowl of creamed corn.

140

Why So Many Young People Are Leaving The Watchtower

by Jeremy C in

i have been giving a lot of thought to the young people who are leaving the watchtower organization in recent years.

last night, i was reading the thread posted by jwfacts a while back in which he provided some statistics and graphs showing the rapidly declining growth in the watchtower.

one factor that was discussed at length was the high number of young people who do not stay in the organization.

Jeremy C

My concern and beef is with the demonizing of knowledge and general culture. It's not surprising that the first punished sin, and almighty taboo was reaching for a tree of "Knowledge"...

braincleaned, you make a very important point here. The Watchtower organization regularly describes itself as an educator; portrays its preaching work as a global “educational” work, and claims that the information found in its publications is “superior knowledge”. What is being disseminated from the Watchtower writing department is not information that expands one’s thinking capacities, but that actually constricts it, and causes it to atrophy.

A case in point is the sheer intellectual gymnastics they must engage in just to convince themselves that humans have only been on earth for some 6,000 years; as one example. This is an organization that still likens it’s preaching work to that of a character named Noah in Old Testament literature. It compares rigourus and intellectally honest investigation of its teachings to character traits found it God’s enemy the devil.

What is being sold to its members is not knowledge, but un-knowledge. This, coupled with the fact that they don’t offer the activities or programs that would keep their young people motivated and engaged, pretty much ensures the increased turnover of their youth. Since it is mostly the younger, more robust people that make up the Pioneer ranks, their recruitment will continue to decline.

13

Lifesaving Work

by mankkeli in

jw
friends

knowing that we are living deep in the time of the end, we keep focused on the main work of true christianspreaching and disciple making.

(matthew 24:14; 28:19, 20) like our exemplar, jesus, we want to be intensely occupied with this lifesaving work.

how can we show that this work is important to us?

Jeremy C

Portraying field service as an urgent life-saving work has only gone so far. It is just enough of a motivation to guilt burned-out people into dragging themselves out on Saturday to “please Jehovah”. I observed that many Witnesses felt satisfied by putting in an hour of door-to-door on a Saturday morning – and that they had done their duty for the day. They usually had some pressing matter waiting for them at home, such as yard work, or fixing a leaky faucet.

It is a rarity to find a Witness who really truly enjoys field service. This is why the Watchtower leadership must convince the rank & file that they could be found blood guilty if they don’t go out and reach people in service. The whole “lifesaving” theme is enough to convince talented young people to forego a college education and to make Pioneering their “career”.

If Witnesses truly believe that they are engaged in some kind of life saving mission, then it makes having jokes made about them in the media worth it. It also moves the rank & file to push aside the fact that they don’t like what they’re doing, and to keep their nose to the grindstone for Jehovah. What a deal.

97

Wouldn't the predators on the ark have eaten everything by the time the 40 days was over?

by highdose in

let say noah did manage to get all the species into the ark... about half of them would have been predators and the other half natural prey.. are we going to belive that they went without eating for 40 days and nights?

or the ridiculous theory as the wt would have it that noah fed them nice tasty bales of straw which they happily munched on?.

and even if one of these two exhuses were true, when the animals were let out of the ark into a world now deverstated by a flood, then wouldn't they have continued eating eachother???

Jeremy C

Highdose, your points are well taken, but stories in Genesis on the part of the believer simply requires acceptance; not analysis. Faith requires dismissing and trivializing such details. It’s no fun when a child asks their parent just how Santa Clause could possible visit all of the children on earth in a single night. How does Santa fit millions of wrapped gifts into a single sleigh? How does he park his sleigh and reindeers on the grass roof of a small hut? Why does my present say: Made in China, when it was made in the North Pole? Oh, stop all of your questions Jimmy, Santa is real!

Although believers in the flood myth are a bit more sophisticated than that exasperated parent, their apologetics usually entails referencing geology books written in the 1800s, or pointing to frozen mammoths with food in their mouths and saying: see!!