sorry if this is old news but just heard that there will only be about 75 people left at sydney bethel after layoffs.
My jaw dropped when I heard how much the numbers were going to be slashed.
I consider my source reliable but am looking forward to someone confirming this because this indicates a virtual shut-down of Australian bethel, which would mean lots of unused land and empty buildings.
Hopefully someone else on this forum knows more.
sorry if this is old news but just heard that there will only be about 75 people left at sydney bethel after layoffs.
sorry if this is old news but just heard that there will only be about 75 people left at sydney bethel after layoffs.
there were always all types of speakers in the org.
myself, growing up a "witness", must have heard all types of talks, and given by all manner of speakers, especially on sundays, when almost every week we would get a "visiting" brother giving the public talk.. sometimes, you would have a "great" speaker, all fluent and animated.
other times we would get a comical speaker, one who would maybe purposelly get a few laughs outta the audience.
Not sure James but the point of his argument was; 'you can't turn your back on young ones for a second'.
there were always all types of speakers in the org.
myself, growing up a "witness", must have heard all types of talks, and given by all manner of speakers, especially on sundays, when almost every week we would get a "visiting" brother giving the public talk.. sometimes, you would have a "great" speaker, all fluent and animated.
other times we would get a comical speaker, one who would maybe purposelly get a few laughs outta the audience.
In the mid-eighties, one of the MS's in our congregation gave his very first public talk.
He was a real 'hick' and his theory must have been to make the biggest impact possible during his first talk.
It was full of completely shocking, outrageous stories designed perhaps to stun us all into being better JW's.
Among the highlights was a story warning against pre-marital sex that concerned 2 infants (both were 3yrs old apparently- yes THREE years old) that were caught committing fornication in the car while the adult quickly left them to go into a store to buy something.
This was greeted by audible gasps from the gob-smacked audience.
whats worse than being an adult jw?
when i was a kid i always had a bad concience all the time.
i believed i would not survive armageddon for the fact that i didn't like going to service and i didnt like going to the meetings.
In the 80's we had religious instruction at high school and for one hour per week, an old-school, fire and brimstone elder and me would sit outside somewhere (because there wasn't enough students in his class to justify giving us a classroom) and go through the yearbook or some other article that he chose.
In my final year of high school, religious instruction classes were not mandatory because of extra exams etc.
After missing just one of his classes, the elder caught me at the next meeting and informed me, 'I'm probably going to die at Armageddon if I continue missing his class'. I was 14 yrs old.
True story.
This is above and beyond the daily grind of being a teenage witness and my experience is very similar to that expressed by many other posters on this topic.
I could go on and on.
at around 4 minutes into the september 2015 video splane said "for the man and the baby to be part of josephs generation they would have had to have lived at least some time during joseph's lifespan.".
this is the lynchpin of the wt argument, that two lives must overlap to be considered the same generation.. let's take an example of twins who are born just a few minutes apart.
obviously, these twins are the same generation as each other.
My grandfather witnessed the second world war. Although I was born decades later and knew my grandfather well, I did not witness the second world war and therefore cannot be a part of the so called second world war generation.
Only if you were alive when an event occurred can you belong to that generation.
i don't have a great reference point on my observation other than my local area but i was wondering if this was a widespread thing.
... in the last two years in my former congregation there have been 6 people to disassociate for "apostasy," 6 disfellowshipped for various reasons, and numerous ones reproved.
these are just the ones i have heard about.
i just thought i would mention this on the off chance they might be lurking here.
the two quotes are.
(1)vincent toole ="i've never heard of the term 'theocratic warfare'".
Bumping this thread, it has some important quotes.
it seems like there has not been as much discussion here about the rc testimony on day 6 (4th august) as there has been about previous days.
i was quite surprised by rodney spinks' testimony, which was a marked contrast to the bungling and inarticulate testimony of the elders that appeared before him.
spinks seemed reasonably co-operative, and a lot more willing to concede points than anyone else has been.
When I knew Rod Spinks he was a truly 'black and white ' type of witness. He left you in no doubt as to your status in the congregation based on the amount of witnessing you did.
He always came across like he believed he was the smartest guy in the room.
Most of you will probably understand what I mean when I say that this guy is one of the reasons you left the organisation.
