I served for 17 years; 11 of them as an elder.
I enjoy teaching.....and it showed. I was given all the big assignments, CA, Memorial, weddings, ....I even taught at the KM School for servants as a kid in his late 20's......
I miss teaching.... but I believe that is more of a personality 'thing'
Those that have served as elders have a VERY unique perspective on the religion. The hypocrisy (i.e. judicial meetings for drunks, when the majority of the elders are alcoholics)....the nepotism......and what really unnerved me for years: the gross lack of Bible knowledge or EVEN "organizational' knowledge among fellow elders that had people's LIVES in their hands. I came to realize I was one of the good, sincere ones......most were NOT.
I do not miss all the marriage mates who truly hate each other and refuse to have sex. I don't miss crying with a teenager when their heart is broken by a JC, I don't miss the Christianity ala Carte that JW's employee (we can DF for adultery, but not slander.....we can DF for smoking, while the elders wives drink themselves blind every weekend), I don't miss watching some CO misuse his power to affect other people's lives, then leave town.....
Those that have been elders and used extensively, have seen it all. It will destroy your own psyche.....and if you love your wife, it destroys her too.
There should be entire threads for the damage done to we morons that put our families and the women we love(d) through that insanity. And then you learn they could give a shite about you anyway......
Its really sick.....