Posts by dontplaceliterature

131

Window Washers

by dontplaceliterature in

question:.

why do i see so frequently the witnesses referred to as "window washers" on here?

i have been a witness (though only recently "conscious") for my whole life.

dontplaceliterature

The Elders and Servants in my Congregation are as follows:

Elder (1) - Sales

Elder (2) - Sales Management

Elder (3) - Retired (Was in Sales)

Elder (4) - Retired (Was in the Automotive Industry)

Elder (5) - IT for a local Hospital

Elder (6) - Retired (Worked for Local Govt - non-military obviously)

Elder (7) - Architect/CAD Designer

Elder (8) - Retired (Worked in the Automotive Industry Also)

Elder (9) - Retired (Worked in Technology Development)

Elder (10) - Owns a personal Home Improvement Company

Elder (11) - Retired (Worked in Automotive Industry)

Servant (1) - Retired (Worked for Local Government)

Servant (2) - Owns a construction related company

Servant (3) - Sales

Servant (4) - Sales

Servant (5) - Unemployed (Perviously worked in a retail store, to my knowledge)

131

Window Washers

by dontplaceliterature in

question:.

why do i see so frequently the witnesses referred to as "window washers" on here?

i have been a witness (though only recently "conscious") for my whole life.

dontplaceliterature

Question:

Why do I see so frequently the Witnesses referred to as "Window Washers" on here?

I have been a witness (though only recently "conscious") for my whole life. I do not know a single JW who is a Window Washer by trade. Most of the ones I know are in sales of some form or another...

37

Favorite quote from 2011 School for Ministerial Servants

by iamwhoiam in

"let's see a show of hands of those who know that the end is very close (everyone raises thier hands while looking around at each other).

excellent!...we know this because we have a whole-hearted faith in the faithful and discreet slave don't we?".

no explanation needed .

dontplaceliterature

@truhap, the telephone was invented before "elders" exisited. :)

37

Favorite quote from 2011 School for Ministerial Servants

by iamwhoiam in

"let's see a show of hands of those who know that the end is very close (everyone raises thier hands while looking around at each other).

excellent!...we know this because we have a whole-hearted faith in the faithful and discreet slave don't we?".

no explanation needed .

As I said Skeeter, I don't think the concern over Facebook was that it was used to start a wicked crazy party...the real issue was that it was used to undermine the elders faster than they could yank everyone into the library (aka bad-room).

37

Favorite quote from 2011 School for Ministerial Servants

by iamwhoiam in

"let's see a show of hands of those who know that the end is very close (everyone raises thier hands while looking around at each other).

excellent!...we know this because we have a whole-hearted faith in the faithful and discreet slave don't we?".

no explanation needed .

dontplaceliterature

Sure they do.

I had an experience on a Circuit Assembly about a girl from school that started a study with me (which I later turned over to a sister), and I was encouraged to bend the truth about the circumstances surrounding our friendship and our study arrangement. She quit the study as soon as I moved it to a sister, and I had to keep my mouth shut about that part. Everyone in the audience was lead to believe that she was still making progress....

I hate experiences at the assembly. They are usually fully of trash and exaggerations.

139

Some observations from the KM Elder School I wanted to share with you.

by miseryloveselders in

jw
friends

my school was a couple weeks back, and it was interesting to a degree.

to be honest with you, it reminded me of a police crime scene investigation with yellow tape.

what i mean is, in one respect it was business as usual.

dontplaceliterature

MLE,

I went to the Servants side of this "school" last month. I have some comments I will add to this thread later. I'm trying to finish CoC right now and have about 1/3 of the book to go...

Nice comments....

37

Favorite quote from 2011 School for Ministerial Servants

by iamwhoiam in

"let's see a show of hands of those who know that the end is very close (everyone raises thier hands while looking around at each other).

excellent!...we know this because we have a whole-hearted faith in the faithful and discreet slave don't we?".

no explanation needed .

dontplaceliterature

I'm not sure if that makes it true...or if there was something printed in the outline for the part that fabricated this story...

37

Favorite quote from 2011 School for Ministerial Servants

by iamwhoiam in

"let's see a show of hands of those who know that the end is very close (everyone raises thier hands while looking around at each other).

excellent!...we know this because we have a whole-hearted faith in the faithful and discreet slave don't we?".

no explanation needed .

dontplaceliterature

I was at this school and wondered if anyone heard a similar experience:

In the talk "Do All Things For God's Glory," my Circuit Overseer brought up the subject of balanced use of the Interent and social networking sites. When speaking of the danger of social networking sites, he mentioned a party for which invitations were sent out via Facebook to several Witnesses. As word spread, more and more people decided to go to the party and there ended up being a few hundred people there (maybe more...not in my notes). Several of the attendees were not Jehovah's Witnesses, I guess. He said that the party involved "drunkeness, fornication, drug use, and some other wrongdoing," and that "over 100 young people were either disfellowshipped or disciplined in some form or fashion." The problem involved members of "51 congregations from, 4 states, and 14 different Circuits, that we know of."

The problem wasn't the party though. He complained that once investigations began, everyone used Facebook to contact their friends who had been there, and warn them that the Elders knew about the party and were conducting investigations and that they should protect one another by keeping silent. Therefore, the entire investigationn was derailed, and the situation could never be "handled" properly by the Elders.

This seemed EXTREMELY far fetched to me, and I wondered if any other "conscious, active" Ministerial Servants or Elders on this board had heard something similar at their school.

Comments?

12

An Elder That Helped Me

by dontplaceliterature in

has anyone in this forum ever had an elder in the organization discuss "apostate" teachings with them in a non-threatening, mutually enlightening way?

obviously, there are many of you who have talked with elders about "apostate" ideas, and have been disfellowshipped/disciplined for it.

that's not really what i'm interested in hearing about in this thread, no offense.

dontplaceliterature

@R_O

We must both come from very liberal areas. It seems to me that so many decisions, and the view of these types of questions varies greatly from region to region, even congregation to congregation.

I understand where some of the others in this thread are coming from, as I've also been in an ultra-conservative, crew-cut, white-shirt-only, congregation and would never have considered bringing up the slightest notion of a disagreement with a WBTS teaching. I feel that the majority of the congregations are like that, although there may have been a shift...and thus the need for WBTS to "tighten the grip" as so many say they are doing.

12

An Elder That Helped Me

by dontplaceliterature in

has anyone in this forum ever had an elder in the organization discuss "apostate" teachings with them in a non-threatening, mutually enlightening way?

obviously, there are many of you who have talked with elders about "apostate" ideas, and have been disfellowshipped/disciplined for it.

that's not really what i'm interested in hearing about in this thread, no offense.

dontplaceliterature

Has anyone in this forum ever had an Elder in the organization discuss "apostate" teachings with them in a non-threatening, mutually enlightening way? Obviously, there are many of you who have talked with Elders about "apostate" ideas, and have been disfellowshipped/disciplined for it. That's not really what I'm interested in hearing about in this thread, no offense.

The reason I ask:

A few years ago, an Elder from a neighboring congregation invited me to lunch out of the blue. I have no idea what prompted him to take an interest in me, as he was considerably older than me. Perhaps he thought I was a good conversationalist? Anyhow...an incredible friendship developed and we began meeting one another weekly, sometimes mulitple times a week, and discussing different subjects. Very quickly, those conversations turned to discussions about our mutual concern regarding WBTS teachings, which turned into out-and-out bashing of certain teachings and ideas, which turned into a mutual agreement to talk about these things with no one else for fear of apostasy accusations. The funny thing is, even though our spiritual conversations were mostly of a contrary nature, I never felt more spiritually strong than I did during the early part of our friendship.

I have pages and pages of e-mails that we sent back and forth to one another questioning the Society's stand regarding certain matters, and the transformation of our organization as it continues to come up with new Rules and do away with old ones.

I wouldn't be suprised if that Elder is a member of this forum. But, I have no idea.

Have any of you ever had a personal confidant inside the organization who was serving actively as an Elder (and was not a family member) that would discuss such things with you in an open forum, free from the threat of an apostasy accusation?

Just curious. If you care to relate any specific experiences, I'd be glad to read about them! :)