Posts by committeechairman

43

New Atlanta Assembly Hall Has raised 3.4 million Dollars... GONE

by James Jackson in

jw
friends

they announced last week that the new atanta assembly hall has thus far raised 3.4 million dollars.

my local told that will become the society's come may 1. i wonder how that will go over with the ones who have been contributing to this fund..

committeechairman

It is going to be very interesting. Generally, I don't think the actual implications of the letter have sunk in with most elders. They don't understand it. When they do, though, it is going to be intense. A subset of elders will be livid and will passively-agressively fight the directive, others will just comply. Publishers really don't care anymore about any of it and with a few exceptions will just keep on trucking becuase it doesn't affect them personally other than having to fill out yet another financial survey.

What will also be interesting is to see how the funds are used. It will tell us a great deal about how much of a real cash flow issue the organization is having. Personally, I believe most of the money is going to disappear and there will be very little building in the field, regardless of the heavy needs right now. I think the organization is having such a huge cash flow issue right now they need this just to stay afloat. And I think this is the case regardless of any litigation judgements or settlements. The contributions have just dried up for reasons of the economy being truly horrible and, more importantly, people inside the organization are just so beat down that they do not want to contribute any more.

112

All appointed men are being told they have to pioneer now!

by stuckinarut2 in

yes, you read correctly..... all appointed men have been told in a new letter that they have to pioneer to "set the lead" whenever there is a "special" campaign month.

they use some scripture saying that these ones have to show by example.... so for any of us who are appointed and have learned ttatt, it is going to be very hard to fade during this time!.

.

committeechairman

This is a virus that strikes most BOEs every so often. Someone (usually the COBE or SO) decides that all appointed men should pioneer so they can say this to the rank and file: "We're ALL PIONEERING in [FILL IN THE MONTH]...why not you?" They trot out old BOE letters, KMs, etc etc to emphasize this as a pseudo-requirement. It isn't.

It usually comes across as just stupid. Also, most of the elders and servants DO NOT MAKE THEIR QUOTA. Some don't put any more time in than they normally do.

Quick way to kill it: suggest in the meeting that evening and actual, honest to goodness, realistic times when people will be home scheduled field service be instituted for the month with the SO in charge. Watch the whole thing completely wither right before your eyes.

It's posturing, nothing more.

127

OK..Seriously..Has GOD ever answered your prayers????

by DATA-DOG in

look...i am not an atheist.

even so, i have never had one prayer answered my entire life.

the only thing that would even come close was learning ttatt.

committeechairman

He used to. A few years ago He stopped. I know this sounds sarcastic but it isn't. I'm not sure why He stopped.

69

Your Experience with Resigning as an Elder

by committeechairman in

i'm considering resigning as an elder.

i'm not planning to fade or stop as one of jehovah's witnesses, just stop serving as an elder.. i have responsibility in the congregation and in circuit, district, rbc, etc.

and i'm completely exhausted.

committeechairman

Undercover:

What you mention last about "juggling everything the WTS throws at the elders" is right. You should see the sheer number of things just in the congregation we are expected to do (no one gets them done) and additional items to "serve kingdom interests" are just staggering. I think most elders would agree that the workload for an elder has jumped exponentially over the past ten years.

One of the things about serving as an elder that can make it untenable is that we're supposed to do everything. So, if you serve as an elder, you still are supposed to do everything that publishers are supposed to do. You can have two private meetings after the meeting but you're expected to clean the KH. You can have 150 hours of district and RBC work to do outside the congregation, but you are expected to show up and "be visible" in the field ministry anyhow. etc etc. It is different from being willing to do menial tasks, you are expected to actually do all of that.

But we don't. And it drives me crazy.

69

Your Experience with Resigning as an Elder

by committeechairman in

i'm considering resigning as an elder.

i'm not planning to fade or stop as one of jehovah's witnesses, just stop serving as an elder.. i have responsibility in the congregation and in circuit, district, rbc, etc.

and i'm completely exhausted.

committeechairman

FullTimeStudent:

That is a great suggestion. My friends that have resigned did so in one fell swoop, not in a gradual manner you suggest.

69

Your Experience with Resigning as an Elder

by committeechairman in

i'm considering resigning as an elder.

i'm not planning to fade or stop as one of jehovah's witnesses, just stop serving as an elder.. i have responsibility in the congregation and in circuit, district, rbc, etc.

and i'm completely exhausted.

committeechairman

Tunnis:

Many of the folks on here have served as elders before. Even if they are no longer Jehovah's Witnesses or even if they are opposed to JWs, I value their opinion and experiences. Of course, the organization can say that I can't contact various individuals all they want, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to do everything I'm told.

Phizzy:

Thanks very much for your comments. You are absolutely right that the positions and attention you get from them is absolutely addicting. I found myself on pins and needles (still do) wondering if I would get assigned special privileges for district conventions and circuit events.

69

Your Experience with Resigning as an Elder

by committeechairman in

i'm considering resigning as an elder.

i'm not planning to fade or stop as one of jehovah's witnesses, just stop serving as an elder.. i have responsibility in the congregation and in circuit, district, rbc, etc.

and i'm completely exhausted.

committeechairman

I'm considering resigning as an elder. I'm not planning to fade or stop as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, just stop serving as an elder.

I have responsibility in the congregation and in circuit, district, RBC, etc. and I'm completely exhausted. i'm so far behind on all the work that I will never catch up. I seldom get to spend any significant time with the family and I basically am working from the time I get up in the morning till the time I drop into bed seven days a week.

My health is failing and I just can't keep up. A lot of what is going on for elders disturbs me, not sure if because I'm getting old and change is becoming harder to deal with or what. However, the bottom line is that I just can't keep up with all of this. I need to stop.

That all having been said, two of my friends stopped recently and basically described it as wonderful not to be in this grind anymore. They both had similar levels of responsibility that I have. However, they don't really get treated all that well. Kind of persona non grata stuff.

So, I thought I'd cast a wider net and see what your experiences were. I'm really looking for experiences, not so much opinions but if you have one I'd be happy to hear it.

Thanks for reading this post.

CC

22

Looking for BOE letter regarding DF'd at memorial

by Dutchdelight in

last year i decided to attend the memorial.

i came in last minute and ended up sitting at the end of the row.

when the symbols were passed out they skipped me and gave to the person next to me.

committeechairman

There isn't one. Several Watchtower references might apply:

I think this is the one that some elders are operating under:

*** w56 6/15 p. 383 Questions From Readers ***
. A disfellowshiped person is no member of Jehovah’s congregation and may not be served the emblems by those serving at the celebration of the Lord’s evening meal

However, more recent references clearly indicate that those who attend and are disfellowshipped should be served:

*** w58 8/1 p. 478 Questions From Readers ***
It is not for you or anyone serving the Memorial emblems to act as the judge, but to allow the emblems to go to anyone in the audience as these are passed along in the normal manner of letting each one have the opportunity to partake.

*** w76 2/1 p. 76 “Keep Doing This in Remembrance of Me” ***
. We do not invite disfellowshiped persons to attend. But if such a one is present, there is no reason to be disturbed if he is seated in a row with others and proceeds to partake of the emblems. Such a one is not counted, in any case, as a partaker.

This implies he would be served, otherwise he would not be able to partake.

Just curious, what part of the world are you in? If in the USA what part of the country are you in generally?

CC

7

Will the Dress and Grooming Guidelines for Bethel Visitors Morph to This?

by committeechairman in

from this: http://tinyurl.com/l7qa77e.

to this: http://tinyurl.com/abhv6yf.

north korea only allows 28 state approved haircuts.

committeechairman

Fixed it. Try again!

4

Juan V2 on the RBCs

by L3G in

i hope juan viejo2 will not mind if i repost his comment from the hot thread on firing the dos being an early indication of a much bigger project the gb has in mind:.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/277270/5/will-firing-the-dos-be-the-first-step-to-a-new-watchtower#.uzcp_f21wxc.

he was responding to my request for more info on how the reported disbanding of the rbcs fits into this overall plan the gb has in mind to reshape the org.. surprisingly, i've been fortunate to meet many former jws who were very active volunteers for the rbc new builds.

committeechairman

I've been working on this one for a while since the letters came out on this.

The deal is that in most of the metro areas of the US Kingdom Halls are very overloaded and the RBCs are very far behind in building new Halls. They seem to do OK with remodels but the new projects can take years and years. Based on everything I've been able to determine, it looks like the way the RBCs work may change, since the direction is to take the way construction works in other countries (where groups of full-time construction servants do all the projects) and the way RBC has worked in the US and that the two operating models will be fused together somehow.

The folks I talked to seemed to think that it was a possibility that the RBC organizations in whatever their new form will be would help with organizing local volunteer help and would operate in more rural areas where there is not as much of a need for new KHs - these RBCs are not as far behind as some of the ones in the US metro areas. It looks like those would come under direction of the new Local Design/Construction department at the branch office. The metro areas where the need is greatest would probably have LDC field offices that the guys who used to be RBC would report in to. It sounds like full time branch appointees would be in oversight - not so much local folks who can't work full time during the week.

The main idea here is that work has to go on during the week - seven days a week - and not just on the weekends. This is the main impetus behind the change as I understand it from the folks I talked with.