i attended a recent ministerial servant k m school on the east coast and the main school instructor mentioned among other things (part entitled: 'objective of the km school course') that the total number of ministerial servants is seriously less than it should be.
in times past the ratio of m ss to elders was much more than it is today.. in the u.s. apparently the total number of elders is 88,500+ as opposed to m ss 65,000. the numbers show & numbers don't lie: the society is running out of spiritual men.
the instructor stated that this is a new downward trend that has (in so many words) the society worried.. the next speaker (part entitled: 'why we must be spiritual men') added that in his years as a traveling servant the pool of m ss has always been much, much larger than it is today.
Elders are carrying mics.
I've seen this in my new congregation ! I saw man near 70 years old ( The C.O.T.B.E ) carrying the mics . I'm telling everybody they need a training progams to turn the trouble makers to M.S's or Elders. I think too many years of '' carrot on the string'' has caught up the Jehovah Witnesses.
i never had anyone close to me d'fd when i was still in my jw daze.
but i know that once it happens, good friends are crushed and desperately want that person reinstated.
when they are reinstated, there is a lot of (quiet) celebration.
@ NewChapter
But when I come back Im going to help change it from within.
What I mean about changing it from within . Is the plan that I have ( when I get reinstated ), is to eventually become an Elder. Im going to try to make it better and try to treat people with respect and . Any more questions ?
after reading the two piece bikini discussion and the comment about calipornea, it reminded me of something i used to hear about the jw attitude in general there.
that it was extremely lax compared to mid west or other areas.. people were supposedly not df'd when they would most definitely been elsewhere, and more "worldy" type of dress and grooming were tolerated well.. is this correct at least in some areas?
if so, do you think it has to do with money, or the general culture there?.
I'm from California and it not all hippies and sex or sunshine and rainbows . Some congregations are mellow ( my wife's former congregation and some are strict my two former congregations )
i never had anyone close to me d'fd when i was still in my jw daze.
but i know that once it happens, good friends are crushed and desperately want that person reinstated.
when they are reinstated, there is a lot of (quiet) celebration.
I think the shunning leaves a bad taste in everybody's mouth. It's a wake-up call that the friendship is and always was conditional upon being in good standing with a publishing cult.
@ProdigalSon
It definitely left a bad taste in my mouth .lol . I didn't realize that all the friendships I made over the years were really conditional. But when I come back Im going to help change it from within.
how do they go about picking the leader of the congregation?.
"5 points if he's known for green handshakes. "
When I come back I will do plenty of those. What my new plan is too come back to the truth and try to make it better from within .
how do they go about picking the leader of the congregation?.
How do they go about picking the leader of the congregation?
just wondering!.
i know many would say ''why the hell would you do that?".
just wondering if i could actually get hard copies of some stuff for a 'donation' and not have to hunt it down.... mind you, i'd have a hard time making myself look conservative!.
Dude all you have to do is walk in the Kingdom Hall hand get some magzines . That what I did.
my mother-in-law is making leaps and bounds in her progress to get out of the watchtower.
for those of you that don't know, she is df'd but has been working on "coming back".
recently i've been able to exchange emails about the dangers of the organization and share jesus with her.
Before the meeting began I saw an old friend who was DFed at the time and walked up to him and greeted him. He informed me he was DFed and I replied. "So am I". I then gave him a big hug and told him to hang in there and that all would be well in time. I remember tears welling up in his eyes. I guess it's because no one showed him any compassion and even though he was wheelchair bound, he was pushed into a far corner at the back of the hall and ignored. An elder came up to me and said I wasn't supposed to be talking to the DFed brother and I asked why. He said DFed persons weren't allowed to socialize. I asked him what he meant and he quoted the scripture in Corinithians about how DFed person are to be treated. I pointed out to him how that scripture is speaking to approved Christians and their dealings with unrepentent ones. Since the Brother and myself were DFed already, the scripture had no application on us, since also by WTS standards we were no longer brothers in the Organization. The elder had nothing to say.
I heard of the rule where disfellowshipped people wearn't supposed to talk to one another ( I always thought that was a recommendation ) . I always thought since your disfellowshipped you not under the Jehovah Witness Rule anymore . You showed more loved than that elder.
my mother-in-law is making leaps and bounds in her progress to get out of the watchtower.
for those of you that don't know, she is df'd but has been working on "coming back".
recently i've been able to exchange emails about the dangers of the organization and share jesus with her.
This rule is totally man made, and this is what I don't like about Jehovah Witness Congregations . The fact that the way one congregation is ran in one part of the world , could be totally different in another part of the world. I thought they had rules to ''how to treat the disfellowshipped''?
i was talking to an elder friend of mine.
he says they got a letter in that makes it more strict for a brother to reach out as an ms. if there was ever a letter written on the prospected brother regarding past wrongdoing, he is now practically turned down without question by the circuit overseer.
elder friend said society may even impliment background checks on anyone reaching out.
I don't think anything instituted by the WT would be for the protection of children and the vulnerable, they have not shown any interest or responsibility in that area, I would think the background check, if a reality, was to protect the WT in some way.
I think it's a good idea to have background checks on people if they have a criminal record or if there a paedophile, I just hope they don't go to crazy with it. I don't know why they keep making it harder for bothers to reach out for Ministerial Servant or Elders ? I thought if some time has past than you could reach out of a title ? Did I miss somthing ?
