Posts by Da.Furious

10

RBC New Update and new Britain Bethel News

by Da.Furious in

i have posted some of this info in a different post but due to the additional information i heard i have decided to put all this under new topic.. rbc update (apparently this information is global):.

rbc will be dissolved on 5 october 2014. majority of departments will be shut down and handed over to bethel (construction, planning, training, it and legal definitely will be gone).

age criteria for the new department is under 50 years old.

Da.Furious

@katewild i did not see the commercial aspect in writing but i was speaking with a brother who has been approached based on commercial base and asked to put in his quote for the work they want him to do - he mentioned all major construction work will have very few volunteers helping. Volunteers will be helping in internal work, painting, plastering, carpet, etc.

With the removal of RBC and requiring skilled under 50s this is not going to happen with JW volunteers. As mentioned also the cost for building all the flats for the volunteers will add substantial amount to the project and would be cheaper to hire external companies - no need to worry about insurance, accommodation and not doing the right job!

10

RBC New Update and new Britain Bethel News

by Da.Furious in

i have posted some of this info in a different post but due to the additional information i heard i have decided to put all this under new topic.. rbc update (apparently this information is global):.

rbc will be dissolved on 5 october 2014. majority of departments will be shut down and handed over to bethel (construction, planning, training, it and legal definitely will be gone).

age criteria for the new department is under 50 years old.

Da.Furious

I have posted some of this info in a different post but due to the additional information I heard I have decided to put all this under new topic.

RBC Update (apparently this information is global):

RBC will be dissolved on 5 October 2014
Majority of departments will be shut down and handed over to Bethel (construction, planning, Training, IT and Legal definitely will be gone)
Age criteria for the new department is under 50 years old
All current overseers have been laid off from RBC with only 1 condition if they can be full time volunteers
Some RBC departments will still operate but under the new management. And this is only for couple of years until they can fully dissolve them
Volunteers will be called from across the country and not only specific regions

New Britain Bethel News:

The layoffs of bethelites is starting – all over 50s are being reassessed and if necessary “kicked out!” – I meant reassigned to field service.
Reason for above is insurance and medical costs
The branch office is reducing the amount of volunteers for building the new facilities due to the fact that building flats to accommodate them will increase the costs substantially.
Based on above, the branch is appointing external companies to do the bulk or major building work
Several brothers have been approached to send their bids for the construction work
Reason for new contribution letter for bethel letters send, was underestimated expenses – in other word bad planning.
Contradicting information about the donation letter, is related to appointment to external companies would reduce the cost significantly! Question: why need extra money?
Some of the flats will get built and then will be sold for the public, I presume witnesses only but not sure how they can pull this off in UK.
Now waiting for final approval from GB to go on with the new bethel after major changes to the planning occurred

Da Furious

406

ex-jw-uk

by bigmac in

jw
friends

i'm quite new to this site, & have realised some members have a union jack symbol under their avatar.

i don't.. could we have a "show of hands" from any uk members?

i've already found several by reading older posts..

Da.Furious

Hi, I am still in and live West of London.

16

Discussion with 2 Elders about IS

by Da.Furious in

some will notice i was really busy during the weekend, thats true as some jws will say i was in a spiritual paradise surrounded by brothers.. my view of a paradise is everybody living in harmony and happy, my weekend experience was more like unhappy people and complaining about almost everything, not to mentioned the quite discussion in the corners (i.e.

gossips).. anyway, during on the discussions, the is (islamic state) topic was started.

it all started when on the elders said that he prefers to talk to muslims in the ministry since they are more open minded and accept our teaching.. i dont come from a muslim background but lived among them enough to understand what they believe.

Da.Furious

After his statement, i just put my head down and went on doing something else. It was really hard form me not to answer him or just ask him to repeat the statement once again and meditate about it and see if it makes any sense.

16

Discussion with 2 Elders about IS

by Da.Furious in

some will notice i was really busy during the weekend, thats true as some jws will say i was in a spiritual paradise surrounded by brothers.. my view of a paradise is everybody living in harmony and happy, my weekend experience was more like unhappy people and complaining about almost everything, not to mentioned the quite discussion in the corners (i.e.

gossips).. anyway, during on the discussions, the is (islamic state) topic was started.

it all started when on the elders said that he prefers to talk to muslims in the ministry since they are more open minded and accept our teaching.. i dont come from a muslim background but lived among them enough to understand what they believe.

Da.Furious

Some will notice I was really busy during the weekend, that’s true as some JWs will say I was in a spiritual paradise surrounded by brothers.

My view of a paradise is everybody living in harmony and happy, my weekend experience was more like unhappy people and complaining about almost everything, not to mentioned the quite discussion in the corners (i.e. gossips).

Anyway, during on the discussions, the IS (Islamic State) topic was started. It all started when on the elders said that he prefers to talk to Muslims in the ministry since they are more open minded and accept our teaching.

I don’t come from a Muslim background but lived among them enough to understand what they believe. In order not to generalise, like any other religion, you will find mixed mentalities and different people react to our preaching work differently, some are polite and others are hardcode and refuse anything we say.

Anyway, the discussion went on to start criticising the IS people and how brain washed they are. IMO That’s true because I believe no one in his right mind will put a belt of explosives on himself and kill women and children. What surprised me was this statement that one of the elders mentioned: I spoke with one Muslim person and he was so defensive about his religion to the point of him telling me that in their religion they are not allowed to question their believes! This is the case with some IS people, they do what they are doing it because they are afraid to ask or reason.

He then compared them to Mormons, who follow their leader without question, because they are not allowed.

The shocking statement was and I quote: They should be more like us, we have bible discussions and the society helps us through reasoning to discern what is right and what is wrong.

After he finished, I was speechless, I didn’t know what to say or what to comment. Did he just say we are allowed to question our believes but only in the society’s way? So how does this make us any different?

Day by day I get shocked and surprised how narrow/closed minded some JWs are. As Jesus said in Mt 7:3: Why, then, do you look at the straw in your brother’s eye but do not notice the rafter in your own eye?

Da Furious

14

Breaking News : Planning application for new British Bethel to be submitted within 2 weeks

by raymond frantz in

application for new british headquarters to be submitted within 2 weeks.

the boys from bethel have been busy planning their new luxurius residence in chelmsford ,essex .the deal to purchuase the new land was in the region of 10million all financed from struggling jehovah's witnesses across the country .please read the news article and let me know what you think.. .

instead of building in chelmsford how about building in a less affluent area "where the need is great", like cumbernauld in north larnakshire.

Da.Furious

My comment can go into several posts, but i thought this is the most relevant one to the topic.

During the weekend I had the privilege of talking to couple of brother on some aspects of the new changes that are happening, nothing spiritual.

During the discussion the new bethel topic opened and what I heard was news to me:

- The branch office is reducing the amount of volunteers for building the new facilities due to the fact that building flats to accommodate them will increase the costs.

- Based on above, the branch is appointing external companies to do the bulk or major building work

- Several brothers have been approached to send their bids for the construction work

- Reason for new letters send, was underestimated expenses – in other word bad planning.

- Some of the flats will get built and then will be sold for the public, I presume witnesses only but not sure how they can pull this off in UK.

- Now waiting for final approval from GB to go on with the new bethel after major changes to the planning occured

Da Furious

15

One day Assemblies and the removal of the RBC

by A.proclaimer in

jw
friends

so i was at a jw gathering today, and i over heard a brother telling a sister about these new changes.

according to him, both one day circuit assemblies will be put together on the same weekend, one on saturday, the next on sunday.

that way the assembly halls could be used to fit in more circuits as they increase in numbers.

Da.Furious

On the weekend I was at a build and was surprised with the attitude of the overseers. First it started in the morning by saying:” Not be shocked but as you know by the end of this month the RBC will be dissolved”. He seemed Ok when he said it.

Later on we started talking, and he was extremely upset. The method of communication between bethel and the RBC overseers was very minimal. They got emails saying thank you for your service. Somewhere asked if they can give up their jobs and support full time.

At the build he didn’t even stay till the end. After lunch he just disappeared. There no overseers at the build at all – never seen this before!

This is all outrageous. These people invested tens of years to help in building kingdom halls and support the society from their own money and all they get is: Thank you for your service.

The good knew is they are migrating the RBC volunteers to the new construction department. The bad news is apparently they are shutting done several department, and as I understood construction and anything directly linked will be closed and not migrated to the new construction.

Da Furious

17

New method of appointing Regular Pioneers!

by stuckinarut2 in

a new arrangement for appointing regular pioneers has been announced.. in the past, a person would have to fill in a form from the society, this would have to be approved by the local elders, then this would be sent to the branch for final approval and appointment.. now it is just the local elders that approve it.

it doesn't need the branch approval any more.. they are selling it as a way to "speed up the process in order to be more effective in the ministry during these urgent times blah blah".

.

Da.Furious

@just kidding: i am talking about regular pioneers. I knew some time ago reg pioneers used to be approved by the branch and the announcement was very similar to the elder/MS ones. But for some reason i thought this was scrapped and local elders approve them.

After reading sir82 reply this got me thinking. I may have been confused with the process.

So elders approve the reg pioneer and then send the approval for branch to sign-off. And this letter means there is no more requirement to have appointment signed off by branch. Elders can do this now on their own.

So if you want to have a better status, start getting gifts and inviting the service committee to BBQs - you will get the status.

17

New method of appointing Regular Pioneers!

by stuckinarut2 in

a new arrangement for appointing regular pioneers has been announced.. in the past, a person would have to fill in a form from the society, this would have to be approved by the local elders, then this would be sent to the branch for final approval and appointment.. now it is just the local elders that approve it.

it doesn't need the branch approval any more.. they are selling it as a way to "speed up the process in order to be more effective in the ministry during these urgent times blah blah".

.

Da.Furious

That's the same thing i said, to my knowledge this has been like this for couple of years.

Bit surprised! And the elder told me No, pioneers are approved by branch.

Am i getting the new light faster than the GB?

26

How many use iPads or tablets in your cong?

by stuckinarut2 in

jw
friends

a question for those that still attend meetings.... how many use tablets or ipads in your hall?.

i did roving microphones this week, and i counted 43 people (variety of ages) out of an audience of 98!.

just curious....

Da.Furious

In our congregation, relatively small one around 50 publishers:

25 have tablets of which 8 are full time pioneers (out of 14 pioneers).

All elders, around 4 have tablets even some use them on the platform.

In my family we all have ones, without them we cannot survive the whole meeting, well at least it stopped me from walking in the car park and try to come up with different reason every time.