Posts by Phizzy

21

New ministry, you don’t give a witness

by Mikejw in

there are assignments on the life and ministry school now where they are suggested to just talk to people without giving a witness.. they are supposed to practice starting conversations with strangers and listening to them to talk about whatever they want to talk about .

there is an assignment this week where the conversation ends without giving a witness.

jws don’t look like jws anymore and now they don’t actually preach.. you could get bearded men with sweaters or other such tops and women in pants or slacks coming upto you in the park or on the street and starting a conversation with you.. then you hear them listening to you and talking about whatever they think that you wanted to talk about .

Phizzy

SO ! the Org. has finally caught up with me ! I used to do this kind of "ministry" 30 years or so ago. I would be conscientious and move the conversation in to talking about the Bible, which I doubt many J.W's today will bother to do, but I used to prefer to work alone, as I knew other J.W's would frown upon my method. And now it is Official Policy !

I remember one lady I called on, I had called there before, and when the conversation came to a close, she said to me "I don't mind you coming around and talking to me about the Bible, but I can't stand those Jehovah's Witnesses !".

This is great news, as although the Org's intention of keeping J.W's busy, and thinking they are doing something productive will be accomplished, hardly any Converts will be made.

Above you said " you wouldn’t even know they were JWs." I bet I would ! having been "in" for all of those bloody wasted decades, I can spot 'em no trouble.

This is good news though, as again we can clearly see in this the desperation of the Org. to make new converts, and yet everything they are trying will not get any dramatic , or possibly even measurable, results.

J.W Org. is moribund, really "The End" cannot be that many years away, but it will not be the End of the World, but the End of the Org.

I hope I live long enough to see it !

Broken Marriages in your Congregation,

by Phizzy in

my questions on this is prompted by pondering on the number of broken marriages that happened in my old congregation over a 30 year period, from 1980 to 2010 approx.. over the whole ww "brotherhood" divorce and broken marriages is about average i would think, but in my old congo.

the number of such events was phenomenally high for such a small group.

very high in comparison to other churches or social groups in this area.. in 1980 we were a slightly larger than average congo, and being somewhat unique, because of our very liberal attitudes, we attracted a lot to join from areas outside of our "territory" many of these may have had marriage problems when they joined us, many of the home grown ones married very young etc.

Phizzy

My questions on this is prompted by pondering on the number of broken marriages that happened in my old Congregation over a 30 year period, from 1980 to 2010 approx.

Over the whole WW "Brotherhood" Divorce and broken Marriages is about average I would think, but in my old Congo. the number of such events was phenomenally high for such a small group. Very high in comparison to other Churches or Social Groups in this area.

In 1980 we were a slightly larger than average Congo, and being somewhat unique, because of our very liberal attitudes, we attracted a lot to join from areas outside of our "Territory" many of these may have had marriage problems when they joined us, many of the home grown ones married very young etc. which may account for some of the marriage problems.

Over that period we grew to such an extent the Congo. was divided in two.

But about close to 50% of the marriages had problems, some stayed together after an Affair had occurred, others divorced.

Was this unusual in the U.K ? was our Congo. somewhat unique in this too ?

What was your experience in your Congo, or nearby ones ?

15

Taylor Swift owes me a new shirt this morning

by Mickey mouse in

jw
friends

go listen to the opening verse of the smallest man who ever lived..

Phizzy

MM ! good to hear from you ! I met you at an Ex-JW meal at Wagamama's in Covent Garden , I I.D'd you as an ex-J.W before the meal. maybe in the Pub ?

I bet you could not be easily I.D'd now as anything like a J.W ?

For me, that life is like one lived by a guy , not me, in another Country.

I am now the real me, as rightly identified by my darling wife the other day, when she looked at me and said , quite firmly, "You Bastard !". LOL.

3

Looking for old friends Widnes kingdom hall

by KennethMckie in

jw
friends

my father was a member of the widnes kingdom hall and we are trying to find his old friends who use to go to the kingdom hall in widnes.

his friends would have known him as ken mckie.

my father is now in a nursing home due to his health issues kenneth mckie had many friends in the widnes kingdom hall and lost there contact .

Phizzy

So your father was living in the Town known as Jehovah's Widness ?

God's own Town ?

I hope you get a positive response.

8

2024-04-April-S-147-Announcements And Reminders!

by Atlantis in

jw
friends

2024-04-april-announcements and reminders.. (3. bible studies: recent reports indicate that in some lands the number of bible studies is decreasing.).

4 pages.

https://pdfupload.io/docs/e3685cbe .

Phizzy

And I doubt the second message you mention has much truth in it BB, or at least that many "studies" actually started will result in long lasting converts.

8

2024-04-April-S-147-Announcements And Reminders!

by Atlantis in

jw
friends

2024-04-april-announcements and reminders.. (3. bible studies: recent reports indicate that in some lands the number of bible studies is decreasing.).

4 pages.

https://pdfupload.io/docs/e3685cbe .

Phizzy

Thanks Atlantis !

The bit about Bible Study numbers decreasing comes as no surprise to me, but it is encouraging to see that they are now pushing for more effort from the J.W's to make converts, this means that they are in fact losing members in large numbers perhaps, but at least means that there are now more J.W's doing "Fake Ministry", just counting time, but never really trying to trap more gullible people.

I am sure the pushing for a return to more House to House and for J.W's to offer a Bullshit Study at every opportunity will not work to the extent of making enough converts.

The Org's desperation is showing.

14

Blasts at assembly in India

by InquiryMan in

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/29/explosion-hits-jehovahs-witnesses-prayer-meeting-in-indias-kerala.

Phizzy

" Course correction"??

I presume this means he wanted to meet with the Elders and asked to be re-instated perhaps ? (If he was DF'd),

Whatever, the Elders ignored his requests, and so have to be held accountable, even though they could not have foreseen the outcome of their deliberate inaction and downright rudeness.

9

Visiting old churches

by moley in

when i was a jw i did and still enjoy visiting old churches and cathedrals because of the history and amazing architecture of these wonderful old buildings.

a sister in my old congregation regaled us with a story of a visit to the tower of london and walking up this crowded narrow staircase only to discover it led to an old chapel.

the way she described her horror at almost entering you would have thought they were doing human sacrifices.

Phizzy

My wife and me did, for the same reasons as you, and never gave it a thought, apart from being aware that other J.W's would have a stupid fear of doing so etc. I never bothered about what other J.W's would think of our enjoyable visits.

After we woke up and left, we were able to visit more of these wonderful buildings, and we also visited Winchester Cathedral one Sunday, and joined in the Service to the extent of sitting through it, we really wanted to fully see the cathedral when the Service had ended.

We also visited a number of Churches and Chapels, of various Denominations, and sat through the Services there.

Nowadays we would not bother with the Services, we are both Atheists. But if able to do so, will still visit any building that is historically and/or Architecturally interesting.

13

JW's in the Hot Seat in Czech Republic

by Sea Breeze in

looks like things are heating up in the czech republic over the horrifying practice of shunning children that ask the "wrong" questions.

kids now days have access to all of the watchtower's lies, manipulations, unnecessary deaths, flip flops, rejection of jesus as mediator etc, etc.

i predict this issue of shunning children will continue to threaten free government money that the wt receives.

Phizzy

" That's where the legal battles must target to. " That would be great, but Courts around the World will shy away from any such action I fear, for a number of fairly valid reasons.

But, as Shunning someone the Org. labels as Apostate, under their catch all, and broad, interpretation of the word, does remove the Human Rights of the individuals shunned.

Human Rights always take precedence over religious belief and practice, or should do.

17

"Everyone Wants To Leave"

by NotFormer in

a thread about steve hassan re-emerged and got me looking him up.

his wikipedia entry had a point under "criticism" that there is an underlying assumption in his approach that all members of high control groups ultimately want to leave*.. while it is generally believed that there are a lot of pimos still attending, doing field service and giving lip service to the wt, i doubt that everyone within the congregations want to get out.

it's not always internally and logically consistent, but it's been around long enough for enough workarounds to make it tolerable to emerge.. what do you think?

Phizzy

" I was a PIMO, but I could not stay that way and support the lies and get others to join the BORG."

Me too, for some years before I finally woke up and left, I made no real efforts to make Converts, some excellent "Marks" I did not continue to call back on, eventually I stopped F.S altogether, as I could not in all conscience teach the 1914 crap, or defend it of course.

An Elder who had called on me to find out why I, the best real doer of F.S in the Congregation probably, had stopped cold turkey. He promised to call back on me and prove 1914 to me, he never did, says it all.