Posts by committeechairman

58

New congregation accounting system

by thedog1 in

i'm sure i read a thread here about the new congregation accounting procedures.

i ask because i handle the accounts in our cong and in our part of the world the new accounting system has just arrived whereby local congs do not have their own account any longer, but all funds outside of basic monthly costs is forwarded to an account controlled by the org.

this is causing huge confusion in our cong as we have to work out how much we need to keep back for monthly costs and the new idea is that you send all your extra cash to the org and if you need it back you can ask for it but we don't know how easy or hard it would be to do that.

committeechairman

This isn't happening in the US...yet. I'm fairly confident that not only will the arrangement for accounting and bill payment switch to the branch office handling routine expenses but as it is in many countries, ownership and management of Kingdom Halls (build/operate/remodel/decommission) is handled more directly to the branch office and out of local hands.

An arrangement of this type does cut out a huge amount of complexity for the branch in dealing with the local brothers...but the local bodies of elders will really just be told what will happen with expenses and with KHs. This will be a monumental shift for most all the brothers. Very few will be comfortable with this.

I expect this move in the US to occur within 18 months.

29

When you bring your lunch, bring along extra's to feed others

by Quarterback in

last week's service meeting had brought out the experience in the 2013 yb about sharing their lunch with someone in the audience, who didn'y have anything.

although i beleive this to be a good idea, but, i couldn't help but think how things had changed.

the society wasn't playing by that same principle of hospitality, when they had the food arrangement at the assemblies.

committeechairman

I think the comments from LongHairGal and DATA-DOG are right on. This is exactly where this is all leading. What I don't know is precisely what the income to the branch offices and HQ is being used for. While it is true that there is some construction cost to the Warwick/Tuxedo project, that is a small expenditure compared to the income generated from the sale of property in New York. The only costs there are for material, a small bit of contracted work, and property/permits. Everything else is a massive amount of volunteer labor - and the volunteers have to get themselves there and back with no expense relief except for (maybe) room and board (not sure if this covers everyone who comes from RBC to help).

The actual contributions that come in for congregations is fairly miniscule and comes from a small number of congregation members. However, at circuit and district/international events, the contributions are more significant. While at circuit events the donations are directly remitted to the assembly hall or venue rented with some donations going to Worldwide Work, for district conventions all contributions are remitted to the branch office and the branch office handles venue expenses directly. A rough back of the napkin calculation for district conventions in the US would yield roughly $12m after venue expenses so the income from those is not as much as you'd think. The large proceeds from the real estate sold might approach $1b, but I suspect that this is a hedge against drastically dropping Worldwide Work contributions - which are about a 1/4 of what they were 20 years ago. Investing those funds won't gain them much but the run time will be significant in the face of drastically reduced income.

In the end, if we expect the organization to provide general relief when the next big financial collapse occurs, I think their direction from them is going to be that the few employed people share everything with everyone. And that is going to be extremely difficult for most folks to do. Very difficult.

74

Has the Governing Body Become More or Less Authoritarian in Recent Years?

by cofty in

it seems to me that this is a no-brainer but i have been out since '96.. so based on your personal experiences what do you think?.

lots more - a bit more - just the same as always - less - a lot less?.

if you think more or lots more can you spot a time or event when it started to change?.

committeechairman

To answer the original question - my impression is that we've come almost full circle from the way the organization operated in the 60s.

Consider: in the 40s-mid 70s basically you heard about the President of the Society and that the "Society says". Some old-timers still use that terminology, although it is frowned on. Very directive and there was a visible single person who was in the lead for the organization. Basically, his word was law. You still had some "in the blind" kind of direction going on in that branch office letters and even phone calls many times involved not having a name associated with it - only a desk or desk symbol. The authors were not allowed to sign their name much like the authors of literature and magazine articles are not published. It was just "The Society Says".

Then, this transitioned to a Governing Body and the Faithful and Discreet Slave, which diffused the powerbase. The President of the Society became less prominent and the power structure became more obfuscated. Finally the officers of the Society and the other corporations really just became figureheads that were signing off on corporate paperwork, checks, contracts, etc. So then everything was from "the slave" - totally diffused/obfuscated. Direction from "the slave" was more even-handed and balanced (but not completely - still lots of old school quirks - fiery attacks on new technology, etc).

Then in the 2001 and on timeframe, slowly you began to see a huge distinction made in the literature about "the anointed" and all the class distinctions between them and the "other sheep" - so many that it became pretty uncomfortable. Emphasis on the mediator for the "little flock" only - etc. Lots of mentions of the Governing Body and direction from the branch office. Guidelines because more sharp and dogmatic. Lots of double-talk such as "disfellowshipping does not remove blood ties" but "only necessary business with disfellowshipped relatives" and the definition of "necessary business" varyied widely from "it is up to you" to "don't even talk with them about someone else in the family dying" and lots of emphasis on applying the principle in 1 John about "not even eating with such a man" to family so that no association was possible. This direction is so extreme that I expect any time to see an adjustment that allows disfellowshipping of relatives who associate with disfellowshipped relatives. Like, I expect that any second now.

This change in tone got louder and louder and more sharp until finally we got the GB=FDS. Now, eight men have taken the place of the old "Society President." This is a huge, huge mistake in my opinion. Now the direction, especially to elders, is orders of magnitude more prescriptive and very very dogmatic. It is very easy to get removed now. Lots of disqualifiers and triggers for the body to review your qualifiations per policy (they don't have a choice, for instance, if you declare bankruptcy - this autmatically requires a review of your qualifications). Not much latitude locally about key issues. The only teaching part left in the congregation is the monthly "local needs" and now the branch offices have started to tag on to BOE letters instructions to cover part of the letter in local needs parts. This is going on to the point that the local bodies of elders might have to wait two or three months or more before they can schedule a local needs part for needs that they have locally.

Once again sorry for the long post but I'm personally really uncomfortable with the place we're in now. I'm happy that we're embracing technology and expanding the ways to do the ministry (I still think we need actual radio/TV/Internet broadcasting - not just the material on jw.org) but I'd like to see us abandon house to house ministry altogether. I don't think this is sustainable. We need to turn our attention (especially elders) to shepherding 100% of the time and helping people with their load - encouraging and refreshing them. I think people will continue to leave in great numbers unless there is a drastic swing back to center where the Governing Body, Branch Committees, Traveling Overseers, and the elders are Christlike in their reasoning and not the master's over their brother's faith. At the risk of really causing trouble I see a pattern developing similar to what was going on with the Jewish religious leaders in the first century and their hundreds of rules and tradition. Jesus made it clear how he viewed this over-the-top approach - it was wicked. The friends will eventually give out under this load unless either Jehovah's Witnesses proper or some other group for association offers an alternative that refreshes and relives the honest hearted ones and lets them focus on praying for and being influenced by God's holy spirit.

10

What do DO's do when not visiting assemblies?

by Richard_I in

jw
friends

let's say they attend a dozen circuit assemblies.

that's only 12 weeks they spend with a congregation.

what about the rest of the year?

committeechairman

So they do a variety of things:

- Attend Circuit Assemblies - so this might take around 10 to 15 weekends a year

- Attend a Special Assembly Day - so would take 1 weekend a year (they do not organize SAD but usually are the visiting speaker for one)

- Serve as Chairman at one or more District Conventions - this would take 2 weekends roughly

- After some Circuit Assemblies they serve with the CO the week following a Circuit Assembly for a workweek where they assist, formally shepherd, and complete a PQR report on the CO and his wife if he is married. The PQR is like an annual performance evaluation on an employee. It is used to determine if someone should stay in their assignment (are they still qualified) or if they should be removed or should go on to an assignment with more responsibility. This would be an additional 10 to 15 weekends a year.

- They do teach the School for Congregation Elders. Since these are mostly complete, some US DOs are going abroad to teach as well.

- Special projects for the Service Department/Governing Body/Branch Committee. DOs (and some experienced COs) work on special projects while in the field. Sometimes they work on these projects and do not serve congregations during particularly busy parts of the special project. An example of a special project might be a new procedure the branch office wants to get input on or have drafted, assist with other new organizational initiatives. In some cases, they return to the branch office temporarily to work on these.

- Special Committees - when a particularly nasty issue arises (especially where it is a judicial issue where more than one appointed man is involved) they might serve as the chairman of a branch-appointed special committee in the field. This might involve some weeks of time to handle.

- Regional Building Committees - each RBC is assigned to a DO who oversees it and performs an annual review with the committee, usually in the December - March timeframe.

You can see that all this fills a "service year" up pretty much. You might notice that you get a substitute DO more often than a sub CO. This is why, especially the special projects and special committees part of this.

Sorry if the post was too long. Just wanted to share what I know. I'm looking forward to your comments on all of this, some of which you may not have been aware of. Someone commented about DOs being "rock stars" - they are indeed very very powerful in the organization. If you hack one of them off, you can generally kiss your "spiritual career" goodbye.

11

What book do they study with ''newly interested ones'' ?

by ThomasCovenant in

jw
friends

as title, when starting a new ''bible study''..

committeechairman

Yes, it is the What Does The Bible Really Teach? book. The Doing God's Will brochure is studied along with starting pretty early in the program to get the student familiar with the organization.

91

NEW BOE LETTER - It just got exponentially harder to "fade"

by sir82 in

jw
friends

here is the text of the letter:.

february 2, 2014. .

your brothers,.

committeechairman

As a currently serving elder, when I read this letter I just heaved a sigh and slouched down in my chair. There is so much required of us as elders and I feel overwhelmed as it is - but to regiment this further just will push some elders to the point of resigning as many have already in my corner of the world (somewhere in North America). I agree with the comment earlier that most organizations do not require those in leadership positions to continue to do all the work required of everyone. There have been nights where I was clearly expected to go clean the bathroom because our group had the cleaning when I was also supposed to meet with someone to qualify them as an unbaptized publisher plus have another conversation with someone who is having difficulty and handle many other issues all on the same evening. The midweek meeting is the one that stresses me out the most. After that night, the rest of the week is much less stressing until the weekends when the stress peaks again.

I am just not sure that the GB really understands how stressful it is to serve as an elder and hold down a full time job and handle everything else, especially if an elder is a family man.

186

Just out of curiosity, how many elders (current & ex) do we have here?

by mrquik in

jw
friends

me.

committeechairman

I am currently serving as an elder.

35

Earthly Organization Reset - What Would You Do?

by committeechairman in

i've been reading and posting comments on this site for a while now (about a year) and the comments i see indicate that many who are here have good ideas about what would be required if either (1) jehovah's witnesses were completely reset and the whole framework of belief and organization were started over or (2) if a completely new organization were built.

this assumes, of course, that you believe god exists and that he is interested in human affairs (i know some of you don't).

it also assumes that you do not believe that the "heritage" of jehovah's witnesses has such great weight and importance that it precludes putting all beliefs and procedures on the table to examine them and change them if necessary.. given all this, what do you believe should be the beliefs and organization of true worship today?

committeechairman

So, Frazzled, do you think that all organized religion eventually goes the wrong direction and starts to hurt people instead of helping them?

35

Earthly Organization Reset - What Would You Do?

by committeechairman in

i've been reading and posting comments on this site for a while now (about a year) and the comments i see indicate that many who are here have good ideas about what would be required if either (1) jehovah's witnesses were completely reset and the whole framework of belief and organization were started over or (2) if a completely new organization were built.

this assumes, of course, that you believe god exists and that he is interested in human affairs (i know some of you don't).

it also assumes that you do not believe that the "heritage" of jehovah's witnesses has such great weight and importance that it precludes putting all beliefs and procedures on the table to examine them and change them if necessary.. given all this, what do you believe should be the beliefs and organization of true worship today?

committeechairman

One more question - what about reports and reporting? Done away with or retained and simplified?

35

Earthly Organization Reset - What Would You Do?

by committeechairman in

i've been reading and posting comments on this site for a while now (about a year) and the comments i see indicate that many who are here have good ideas about what would be required if either (1) jehovah's witnesses were completely reset and the whole framework of belief and organization were started over or (2) if a completely new organization were built.

this assumes, of course, that you believe god exists and that he is interested in human affairs (i know some of you don't).

it also assumes that you do not believe that the "heritage" of jehovah's witnesses has such great weight and importance that it precludes putting all beliefs and procedures on the table to examine them and change them if necessary.. given all this, what do you believe should be the beliefs and organization of true worship today?

committeechairman

I've been reading and posting comments on this site for a while now (about a year) and the comments I see indicate that many who are here have good ideas about what would be required if either (1) Jehovah's Witnesses were completely reset and the whole framework of belief and organization were started over or (2) if a completely new organization were built. This assumes, of course, that you believe God exists and that he is interested in human affairs (I know some of you don't). It also assumes that you do not believe that the "heritage" of Jehovah's Witnesses has such great weight and importance that it precludes putting all beliefs and procedures on the table to examine them and change them if necessary.

Given all this, what do you believe should be the beliefs and organization of true worship today? Should it be highly organized and centralized, loosely associated, or not organized at all with individuals handling their own worship? What beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses today seem unscriptural to you and really should be changed, and why do you think so?

I'm looking forward to the discussion. This is my first new thread for initiation of a new discussion.