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.
committeechairman
JoinedPosts by committeechairman
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11
What book do they study with ''newly interested ones'' ?
by ThomasCovenant inas title, when starting a new ''bible study''..
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NEW BOE LETTER - It just got exponentially harder to "fade"
by sir82 inhere is the text of the letter:.
february 2, 2014. .
your brothers,.
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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.
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committeechairman
I am currently serving as an elder.
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Earthly Organization Reset - What Would You Do?
by committeechairman ini'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?
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committeechairman
So, Frazzled, do you think that all organized religion eventually goes the wrong direction and starts to hurt people instead of helping them?
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Earthly Organization Reset - What Would You Do?
by committeechairman ini'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?
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committeechairman
One more question - what about reports and reporting? Done away with or retained and simplified?
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Earthly Organization Reset - What Would You Do?
by committeechairman ini'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?
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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.
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VERY CONFIDENTIAL LETTER - Child abuse 10/01/2012
by WatchTower87 inconfidential letter child abuse http://adf.ly/auxbu.
to all bodies of elders.
the congregation secretary should arrange for this letter to be retained in the congregation permanent file of policy letters.
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committeechairman
OnTheWayOut:
I won't presume to tell you how to feel about this. I only offered the information to give additional insight. I can still see how having to call the branch might appear to hinder reporting to the authorities, but I can say that the branch office did nothing other than encourage us to report it right then and cooperate with any follow up.
I will say that the main reason for us calling in was to (1) make sure we were in compliance with local laws - no mention ever of protecting the corporation and (2) make sure there is a record of the incident so that if this comes up in another congregation or later on someone knows what is going on.
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VERY CONFIDENTIAL LETTER - Child abuse 10/01/2012
by WatchTower87 inconfidential letter child abuse http://adf.ly/auxbu.
to all bodies of elders.
the congregation secretary should arrange for this letter to be retained in the congregation permanent file of policy letters.
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committeechairman
I've been debating for a while about whether to post this or not, but here goes.
Over the decades I've been serving as an elder I was fortunate enough not to have to deal with a child abuse case in the congregations I've served in. Until now (within the last year). Situation came up and I'm not going into detail about it but I will explain what the branch office did. We called as per the instructions in this letter and the response from the branch office with immediate: contact the authorities. The only issue they had with us calling was that we had not called the branch office soon enough and had not reported the issue to the authorities quickly enough. It was made clear that we should immediately (like when we hung up with the branch) report this (along with advice about the best way to report it) and that we should cooperate with authorities in their followup investigation and we could do so in the clear identifying ourselves as elders in the congregation. No cloak and dagger stuff. I had always worried that if a situation like this came up that I would have to choose whether to continue to serve as an elder or report the matter to the authorities and I had already decided that I would resign as an elder and report to and cooperate with the authorities, so this was a welcome relief.
I'm sure this comment will whip up a firestorm of other comments. I'm not saying that what the organization does is perfect; some things have been quite broken in the past. However, it appears that in this case what is happening is correct.
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Questions During Meetings...Grounds for Suspicion?
by Cold Steel inwith so many meetings during the week, it seems like the opportunity to raise questions would be rich.
i just wondered how probing questions are handled in most kingdom halls.
are they taken as an indication of an inquisitive mind or a potential source of stumbling for weak members?
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committeechairman
So - when I have served as the Watchtower Study Conductor, I typically would take a question like this and ask the questioner if I could, for the sake of time, talk with them about the question after the meeting with whoever wanted to listen. That worked well and seemed to keep everyone (including my fellow elders) happy.
I agree that most elders would not know what to do in the situation described though.
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How long will it be
by joe134cd injust wanting estimations on "how long do you think it will be before the society allows internet witnessing as another avenue of preaching".
i feel it will only be a matter of time.
they have to do something to counteract all the negative stuff.
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committeechairman
I give it less than 12 months. The brothers and sisters are sick of going to try to talk to people who do not want to be talked to. They are tired of going in the field ministry on Saturday or Sunday and no one is home or answers their door.
It is interesting that there has always been this side chatter in the publications about evening witnessing. If that's really the way to do, why not then officially change the primary meetings for field service to a weekday evening? Or put the public meetings on Saturday and the door-to-door ministry on Sunday? I've never been able to understand why the schedule is stuck on Saturday when we find the least number of people home.
I do think there is basis for adjusting the ministry method from the first century method of door-to-door (which is only tangentially mentioned and it isn't clear that this was the main evangelizing method) to one that works now. If we fast forward 20 years and say for example that it is unsafe or unhealthy to step outside our homes...will we still be required to go from door-to-door just because that is what we think first-century Christians did? It seems more reasonable to stick to the primary mission of Christians: to make disciples.
Sorry for the rant. It is quite difficult for me to be patient and wait for the glacier-speed changes of the organization right now.