Posts by elderINewton

25

For Those of You Who Still Serve... How Do You Do It?

by Kingdom Evader in

jw
friends

new here... been lurking for some time now.... i still serve... but with each passing day, it gets harder and harder.

i'm slowly... slowly working on my wife (i call her mrs. hardcore) and even my m-i-l (who taught my wife how to be hardcore).

making some amazing progress... they are still hardcore... but unrecognizable from a couple years ago!.

elderINewton

I'll provide what I did:

1) Public Talks - nothing better than this opportunity to preach the real gospel and direct people to the bible and not the WT. Make people really care, and be able to see what a true friend is and not a WT conditional friend. The outlines provide for great flexibility with this.

2) Service - it was tough for me too, but ringing the doorbell and just offering a friendly encouraging scripture is about all I could do, other than the escape to 2-3 hour coffee and breakfast.

3) Meeting parts -

a) Bible Study - this is the toughest (other than if you do the WT on Sunday) - make it a drone contest, see who are the biggest drones. A drone being the people most enthusiastic.

b) Service Meetings - these can be tough, but if you continue to direct people to the bible you have done good. The more people actually read the bible the more likely they are to wake up.

c) TMS - stick to what the bible says, not what a WT says.

4) Shepherding calls - I miss those the most. Screw what the WT says and actually listen and make people happy. You do that your awesome. WT demands, you can show people that God loves them. Never forget that. Its the opposite of what we are told to do in many ways, but even after my 3 month fade I still get calls from people who want to know if I still care for them (which I do). AKA - imitate Jesus.

Never once have I lied about my feelings on the borg, stick to the scriptures and your safe. People really don't know what to make of you when you stick to the bible only, it throws them off and really in turn they like it more than the drivel they typically get.

Good luck and happy hunting.

39

Let’s Speculate!!!

by John Aquila in

you know the organization is slowly going down.

not as fast as we would wish, but nevertheless it is crumbling.

five (5) year old child baptisms, smaller magazines, child sexual abuse exposed, smaller annual growth, no one wants to reach out, young ones leaving.

elderINewton

What will the Watchtower look like in 30 years?

Will there still be a Governing Body?

- Maybe - could go back to a president as well. I could see AMIII take over.

Will they finally drop 1914?

- Yes - only focus on world conditions telling us its bad.

Will the blood doctrine finally be dropped?

- They can't (lawsuit costs would be over the top). Medically this is more likely to become a non issue in the future, it will all be fraction based.

Will disfellowshipping be dropped?

- No - likely will have more vocal dissenters, so they will double down on this in some way.

Will there still be Circuit Overseers, Elders, Pioneers?

- Yes - but less CO's.

Will there still be Judicial Committees?

- probably more offenses for the JC's.

Will they still have conventions 3 times a year?

- No - will move to 1.

How many meetings will they have a week?

- No change.

Will they still go door to door preaching?

- yes.

Will they drop the name; “Watchtower Bible and Tract Society?”

- Yes, but due to lawsuits and bankruptcy, not for rebranding.

How many members will they have worldwide?

- 5-7 million. - With the majority in Mexico.

29

Is It Time to regroup?

by John Aquila in

how much do you want to bet that the organization has already started preparing articles for the watchtower magazines, convention talks, circuit overseers talks and letters to bodies of elders, to refute what is happening in australia?

.

right now the most important thing for the wt to do is protect their image that they are gods visible organization.especially in the u.s. and latin american countries.

elderINewton

Konceptuals Option 1is probably the current MO.

A lot will be riding on what happens with the Bethel heavyweights, and if the US media really pumps it.

I was thinking that maybe they might address it in the August broadcast, but its probably already complete. So maybe something or nothing in September. Just depends on how big the rabbit hole goes.

67

Branch Service Department Manual approves appointing Child molestors as Elders

by stuckinamovement in

http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/downloadfile.ashx?guid=7ba22716-556c-43c2-9fc6-76697afad440&type=exhibit&filename=wat.0001.004.0076&fileextension=pdf

elderINewton

wow - burn them down.

How can anyone even one lawyer defend this?

Thank you for posting.

19

WT Financial strategy to reduce liability - Create artificial debt!!!!!!

by Viva la Vida in

jw
friends

see this letter from the royal commission: .

letter from watchtower australia to governing body regarding transfer of funds between branches.

http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/downloadfile.ashx?guid=61967dc3-2203-4cca-8dc7-cd612c66645e&type=exhibit&filename=wat.0012.001.0023&fileextension=pdf.

elderINewton

Well terrible financial statement notes.

Looks like the debt only increase overall by about 293,927 but notice a key line in the notes - "due to and due from domestic and overseas entities" so how much of this is really overseas? Then the real question is, are these just for one entity or is there is like 10 others in the country? Its that way in the US.

In a way these statements look identical to the Canadian ones.

19

WT Financial strategy to reduce liability - Create artificial debt!!!!!!

by Viva la Vida in

jw
friends

see this letter from the royal commission: .

letter from watchtower australia to governing body regarding transfer of funds between branches.

http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/downloadfile.ashx?guid=61967dc3-2203-4cca-8dc7-cd612c66645e&type=exhibit&filename=wat.0012.001.0023&fileextension=pdf.

elderINewton

This document if real would destroy the status of charity in the US or Canada. Willful avoidance is not acceptable under most tax law. I wonder if this was ok'd by the Australia tax authorities?

Also the title is misleading, its to reduce assets not increase liabilities. The document is really just an accounting term, so the Aussie branch is sending funds to other places by way of loans (or interbranch indebtedness) but they need to classify them as donations to minimize financial exposure.

In the US we would call this a tax loophole or tax haven avoidance.

15

Elder Exposed as a LIAR at the Australian Royal Commission

by The Searcher in

the lawyer at the australian royal commission (arc) hangs the elder out to dry on his own statements!.

wonderful to see the org's little dictators being subjected to their very own personal judicial committee hearing - but in front of millions, and not in secret!.

from 43 minutes onward.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv8ptogc6k0#t=2607.

elderINewton

its going to be interesting to hear what the branch reps say on the stand. I can easily say the only recourse for them at this stage is to let the elders hang and say they were the problem not following direction. His lies will be the perfect cover.

45

Governing Body, painted in a corner, now what?

by Wasanelder Once in

the governing body have painted themselves in a corner, so to speak.

if they acknowledge their response to abuse claims was insensitive, unloving and inadequate they are denying the belief that "god's way" is best and risk losing abuse cases.

if they stick with it and say it is "god's way according to the bible" they will be seen as cult leaders and risk losing abuse cases.

elderINewton

If they admit in any way that they did something improper they open themselves to lawsuits. They likely need to hold fast and make minor tweaks.

I can't help but wonder if its time for them to maneuver the assets to other legal corporations to limit lawsuit exposure.

So AMIII still proud of our record on child abuse?

27

Some Watchtower growth projection numbers (5 scenarios)

by Saintbertholdt in

i've been doing some watchtower membership growth projections.

the best, worst and most lightly future scenarios.

i've used the worlds population as a barometer of future watchtower growth.

elderINewton

As a couple of others have stated the demographics are the key missing pieces to this analysis.

If you take America, Canada, France, Germany, England, and Italy with its close to 2 million publishers, its probably safe to assume that 50% is greater than 60 years of age. So the average death rate is likely to increase over the world averages quickly. Its actually one of the reasons I suspect the cash grabs is now while people are "younger."

With that in mind and the meager increases, the death rate is likely to overtake the growth of 2ish % they are seeing. I suspect we are only 3-5 years from a normal -1% decrease.

A few years ago I would have thought differently due to growth in developing countries, but that stagnated slightly so, I'm back to the -1ish guess in the 3-5.

45

Rejecting something due to unscriptural or pagan origins.....?

by stuckinarut2 in

so witnesses reject many practices or holidays due to their "unscriptural or pagan" origins.. for example, birthday celebrations, mothers or father's day, christmas etc..... most people in the world will say "but the origin doesn't matter anymore, we follow this custom now because it's a joyful occasion that creates happy times and brings the family together".

it is still firmly rejected.. so, if the wrong origin is so important, and should result in rejecting something, why isn't the same principle applied to the actual jehovah's witness faith itself!?.

after all, the very foundation of the organisation was based on wrong understandings of the bible, far fetched teachings and doctrines, links to false religious backgrounds, pyramidology, false predictions, inaccurate beliefs etc...... using their reasoning, it doesn't matter how good something is now, if the origin was faulty to begin with?

elderINewton

Time for the necktie's to revolt due to the pagan origin of being worn by Roman soldiers. I thought I was no part of this world?