The group I rolled with while at Bethel didn't drink much but we had our moments for sure. I remember some Friday night's drinking a ton and being hung over the next Sat for work but it wasnt often. Bethelites in my area certainly have a reputation for being able to "hold their liquor" though.
XBEHERE
JoinedPosts by XBEHERE
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21
30 minute public talks
by dozy inapologies if this has been discussed elsewhere (i can't find any thread that mentions it).. letter read out at meeting on thursday confirming public talks to be reduced to 1/2 an hour - watchtower same length (one hour).
no new outlines to be given out (yet) , but brothers to reduce the length of their talks by cutting out non-essential material.
no start date given for the change.
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XBEHERE
You have not been around long
I haven't, but my point was its at least been like this for almost 40 yrs. I do vaugely recall DC's going on until 7-8PM and dinner being served. Lets face it, they are loosing people left and right so they need to continue to ease up. Since I am trapped still going to meetings with my family for the time being I welcome any shortening of any meetings.
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30 minute public talks
by dozy inapologies if this has been discussed elsewhere (i can't find any thread that mentions it).. letter read out at meeting on thursday confirming public talks to be reduced to 1/2 an hour - watchtower same length (one hour).
no new outlines to be given out (yet) , but brothers to reduce the length of their talks by cutting out non-essential material.
no start date given for the change.
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XBEHERE
It is a significant change. The public meetings have been 2 hrs for my entire life. Think about it, they are reducing the amount of magazines we have to read every month , and now essentially taking 30 min away from a meeting day since even though the WT was always supposed to be 45 min with 15 min for song and prayer conductors always went 1hr 10 - 1 hr 15 min.
They are inching, and I mean INCHING their way to mainstream almost with all these changes. A whole DC about Jesus??? Come on now!!?!?! Whats next?
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Sad News Orangefatcat's husband died this morning.
by orangefatcat inthis is one of the sadest days in my life, my beloved husband marco passed away this morning at 5:15 am.. it has been a dreadful day.
but my dear friend was with most of the day while we went togerther to make funeral arrangements.. that was really hard on me.
i have done nothing but cry and cry all day, i finally fell asleep a few hours ago while my friend diane was here and she let me sleep.
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XBEHERE
My sincerest condolences.
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How Many Former Elders/MS Taught What You Wanted & Ignored The Rest?
by Seeker4 inthis was prompted by the thread on whether you enjoyed being an elder or ms. some mentioned they taught what they wanted when they were an elder.
that was personally true of myself.
there were some things i stopped teaching over the years, and would refuse to counsel the friends about.
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XBEHERE
When I conducted the Draw Close to Jehovah book I didnt mention pioneering, bethel, or any of those stupid "privleges" because that was not the point of the book. I even hit heavy on the Jesus sections and I know I sounded almost born again (it was a phase I was going through when I first began to doubt) and nobody said a word about it. When I give parts its all from the bible as much as I can make it so.
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Former or Current Elders, MS, Pioneers.......Did you enjoy these positions?
by R.F. indid you ever enjoy serving in this way or did you view it more as, "it's the thing that's encouraged, so that's what i'll do"?.
im currently a ms and pioneer(will shed this one immediately) and before i ever were appointed these, i always wanted to.
i thought it was a pretty cool thing for someone my age to be instructing the congo, and to have so many look up to you.
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XBEHERE
I pioneered, served at Bethel, was an MS and now an elder. Each of these assignments I gladly accepted since I really thought I was doing the right thing. Now though I have hate every day that I an still an elder and I am hoping that the other elders "attack" me at the upcoming CO visit so I can tell them off and accomplish what I want which is to be left alone.
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Did You Like Your Congregation?
by minimus inthe hall i was in the last few years was not a bad place.
most of the people were middle class, some had college educations (like the po and his wife); they generally weren't over critical.
of course there were a few elders and publishers that were pains but for the most part the people in that hall were pretty decent.
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XBEHERE
The one I grew up in, not really. It was just ok. The one I am in now completely sucks, the elders may as well wear purple cloaks and stand on street corners to pray. All the ones I was in between these 2 were pretty good.
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XBEHERE
The fact that they claim to be christians but in fact behave like first century Pharisee's instead.
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Elders Giving Personal Opinions as Counsel,How did it Affect You?
by flipper inhey everybody.
when i was a witness one thing that drove me crazy was getting counsel from elders shooting personal opinions off their hip like it was from jehovah god himself.
how many times at assemblies, wt articles, etc.
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XBEHERE
This is basically what happens at elders meetings personal opinions, occasionally the mentality does spill over into the congregation. I recently had a "shepherding" call from 2 of my fellow elders and I was told that elders need to show the example by commenting at ever meeting, making sure that my ENTITRE family was out in the ministry on one weekend day and then only me if they couldn't be there for both. They thought they were encouraging me! hah!
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WT Advice
by XBEHERE inin all the years that you were an active jw did: 1. going out in the ministry when you were down or felt depressed every make you forget your problems and cause you to feel better?
2. going to meetings when you had to rush around and practically yell and scream at your husband/wife/kids to get there ever cause you to feel better that you went instead of staying home to relax?
these are the top two elder solutions to jw problems.
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XBEHERE
In all the years that you were an active JW did: 1. Going out in the ministry when you were down or felt depressed every make you forget your problems and cause you to feel better? 2. Going to meetings when you had to rush around and practically yell and scream at your husband/wife/kids to get there ever cause you to feel better that you went instead of staying home to relax?
These are the top two elder solutions to JW problems. Personally I never regret missing meetings and we all know that the ministry is a waste of time. Did you pretend to agree when asked if you feel better for coming to the meetings? Seriously though so many elders at least say that they actually believe this crap. Did you?