it really stands out to me just how phoney the bonds of forced brotherhood are.
the smiles are paper thin when they see each other in hotels.
the laughs forced.
Quite true, nobody special.
We even had one of those animated cartoons as one of the reminders for the convention showing a little old sister on a "zimmer" (walking) frame being knocked over by a stampede of "seat getters."
Everyone laughed at the kingdom hall. Not realising how pathetic we must be to need such a reminder!
Obviously even that childish reminder was not enough and so the elderly have to be let in first.
jesus said that his true disciples would love him more than family.
(matthew 10:37) therefore, ex-jws worthy of reinstatement should be returning because they love jesus more than family - not because of wanting to restore family association.
if they truly love jesus more than family they would still return despite their family continuing to communicate with them, because they will value their relationship with jesus as a prize to be attained above and beyond their relationship with their family.
@mrquik
Got scripture references for your post please?
it really stands out to me just how phoney the bonds of forced brotherhood are.
the smiles are paper thin when they see each other in hotels.
the laughs forced.
Welcome and Hi! nobody special - I understand completely. When I was an elder I hated the power trips some of my fellow elders went on.
How many baptised at your convention and what was the attendance? We get great satisfaction seeing the massive increases. (sarcasm)
We've seen a marked drop in baptisms to assembly attendance ratio since late 2014 and wonder if it is worldwide or just North America and Europe.
i went to the mid week meeting and looked at the attendance figures on the noticeboard for the three congregations that share the local kingdom hall.
i wrote down the three previous sundays attendances and this sunday (after the referendum) too.
cong c. (95 pubs) 74/82/73/90.
@fizzle
Lower half of the UK is about as specific as I want to get. I was a fairly well known elder in my circuit and have reduced activity from that to low level activity publisher.
Responses to child abuse - especially since the ARC - and ridiculous generation "exSplane-ation" made me change from "going for family" to "minimal activity for family". And planning for on the way to "virtual inactivity for family!"
i went to the mid week meeting and looked at the attendance figures on the noticeboard for the three congregations that share the local kingdom hall.
i wrote down the three previous sundays attendances and this sunday (after the referendum) too.
cong c. (95 pubs) 74/82/73/90.
Panic's over - I went again tonight (2 in a row! Where's my medal?) and checked the noticeboard attendance figures and although only two were showing (the bigger cong doesn't meet until tomorrow) they were back to their usual low state.
Cong A. Showed even lower at 49
Cong B. Showed even lower at 59
So back to apathy and yawndumb!
i went to the mid week meeting and looked at the attendance figures on the noticeboard for the three congregations that share the local kingdom hall.
i wrote down the three previous sundays attendances and this sunday (after the referendum) too.
cong c. (95 pubs) 74/82/73/90.
I went to the mid week meeting and looked at the attendance figures on the noticeboard for the three congregations that share the local kingdom hall. I wrote down the three previous Sundays attendances and this Sunday (after the referendum) too. Here they are.
The three congregations have about 75/75/95 publishers.
Cong A. (75 pubs) 51/56/53/73
Cong B. (75 pubs) 60/60/63/71
Cong C. (95 pubs) 74/82/73/90
Strange that all three had a higher attendance on the last Sunday? Do you think they all had Armageddon's coming-itis?
i was raised as a jw and 1975 expectations were pretty intense.
as i recall, most people did not leave after the failed expectations but many s l o w e d down.
now, i think most of the 1975 witnesses are gone or barely in.. is the older generation still around in the kingdom halls or are they much gone?.
@virgochik
It's the 4D vision they have.
Desperation, Delusion, Depression and impending Death go hand in hand with the still in '75 generation.
Their very own four horsemen of their very own apocalypse!
i haven't been on here much, but every so often i try and keep up with the discussions.
i'm sure this topic has been talked about before, so my apologies in advance if i'm repeating.. a little about me.... i'm a non baptized jw married to a devout jw.
both my husband and i were raised in the organization.
This may sound incredibly naive but if separating is on the table what have you got to lose by trying to save your marriage first but do the following anyway?
A) Telling your husband why you believe jw's to be "wrong" in their world view - ARC/Generations/False Prophecies etc.
B) Telling your kids the above.
C) Providing an alternative for them - education - non jw friends - being decent citizens - fun - helping the less fortunate - value of money?
If you aren't baptised then "everyone" knows you haven't bought into the religion including your kids and husband. Tell 'em why!
i was raised as a jw and 1975 expectations were pretty intense.
as i recall, most people did not leave after the failed expectations but many s l o w e d down.
now, i think most of the 1975 witnesses are gone or barely in.. is the older generation still around in the kingdom halls or are they much gone?.
I remember the run up to 1975 as a young teen.
Looking round the cong I occasionally attend there are about 80 publishers. Of which still now attending at least 12/14 were baptised in or before 1975 and another 4/5 would have been what are now unbaptised publishers aged 10 plus. So 20/25% still would have solid memories of 1975.
Of that group 4 still serve as elders (aged 60's through 80's) and 1 as a min servant. They would have gone through not only 1975 but also the big generation change of 1995 and they're still repeating and parroting and spouting the same old crap as ever.
did anyone experience a disassociation announcement during the public meeting instead during the service meeting?.
in my case it was announced the next day that we submitted our letter and this was on sunday instead of waiting for the service meeting on thursday..
Nearly always at a service meeting. Sometimes even when the CO is there - elders usually ask him whether to go ahead or not.
Also if there is no service meeting because of an assembly they might rush it through on a Sunday so that you don't mix with the brethren at the assembly!
