Selling stuff was a popular thing where I went. There was always some party to sell pots, pans, soap, you name it. A lot of the bros and sisters got into selling some product called melleleuca. i never learned much about it, but i think you had to SELL it in order to BUY it. Wierd.
gitasatsangha
JoinedPosts by gitasatsangha
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39
Dub Fads
by In_between_days inwhen you were a jw, did you witness a rather large enthusiasm from your congregation for passing fads?
what i mean is, one dub would start something and everyone would join in?
this was especially prevelant with the women of the congregations.. for instance, for a while every female dub was undertaking this strange diet where they basically drink this really odd and particularly disturbing looking mushroom that they kept in their fridge.
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42
What Were You Told That You Had To Work on By The Elders?
by minimus inthe elders feel obliged to have you work on at least, something.
what did they tell you?
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gitasatsangha
No, I was just happy, and was sharing a joke with someone. And chewing bubblegum.
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42
What Were You Told That You Had To Work on By The Elders?
by minimus inthe elders feel obliged to have you work on at least, something.
what did they tell you?
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gitasatsangha
"Reach out for more opportunities in the congregation"
"Hit the national average for six months and you'll be a ministerial servant"
"Take direction from the elders regarding your children."
"Don't take that girl out to the movies (between you and me she's going to be Publically Reproved next thursday, can't tell you what for)"
"It's alright to have questions brother, but don't voice then openly. You could stumble someone."
"You can't date my daughter"
"I don't like the way you are looking at my daughter."
"We will have to reprove you publically for interfaith. I hope that from now on you will draw closer to Jehovah"
"You need to be a better influence on new ones."
"Your attitude is very negative."
"The Memorial is a solmen night, please try to act accordingly."
"Your car only has two seats, and needs a muffler. You shouldn't take that car out in service" (But Brother Stickupthebutt, she'll do a quarter mile in 14.5!)
"People perceive your attitude as very negative."
"Brother you can't give any more talks till you shave the beard off."
"Brother I don't know why, but the other elders asked me to talk to you about this. It's like their AFRAID of you.."
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12
Will the Watchtower crumble one day?
by JH inwhat would it take for the watchtower org.
to crumble and fall apart?
do you think it has already started?
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gitasatsangha
The problem is that the Watchtower is a doomsday cult. They HAVE to have 1914 or else they have to come up with some other theory that is actually plausable enoguh to pass by the majority of their members without sending to many more away, like the 1975 diaspora.
Without it they have only the vague sometime-in-the-near-future armagedon of some Protestant groups. If the Witnesses become just another Protestant sect, they won't be able to maintain strict hierarchial control for very long. For one thing the magazines will be tedious, boring, hackneyed, and unimportant (ok EVEN MORE tedious, boring, hackneyed, and unimportant then they are now), secondly the local congregations will probably naturally start to draw away from HQ as a result of the magazines and KM's being less and less effective as a control means.
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SARS here to stay
by Simon inscary stuff:.
by maggie fox, health and science correspondent washington (reuters) - an alarming new respiratory disease that spread from southern china to virtually every continent within months is probably here to stay, health experts say.
world health officials moved quickly to try to contain the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome once word got out, but it was carried too quickly by person-to-person contact and is now probably entrenched in the population, they said.
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gitasatsangha
SARS is clearly a potential worldwide epidemic.
It is obvious then, we must invade Syria.
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20
Wacko Talks
by gitasatsangha inshare one of the odder/funnier talks you've heard (where the manuscript went out the window, along with any degree of decorum, preferably).
one time a brother had a 15 minute part and he spoke very calmly and relaxed.
he smiled all the time, but the part seemed aimless.
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gitasatsangha
sorry.. no. I know soem witnesses who were friends with the jacksons, but I never asked them what one of wacko jacko's talks were like.
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15
What happens to old worn out Kingdom Halls?
by gitasatsangha inseems like there are differnet tier's of kindgom halls.
the old hall i went too was orginally supposed to be large house, iirc.
when our congregation outgrew it, it was sold to a company next door that build coffins and caskets.
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gitasatsangha
That's a good question. I think in the case where a congregation sells their hall and moves in with another hall, they keep the money, because they are still an NPO. That was my experience at one cong that did so. The elders sold the hall (to a coffin factory), then shared another cong's hall until their's was built (which took about three or four years due to inadequate funding).
The building committee loans are pretty strict. A congregation must follow their plans and advice to the T or they risk having to fund it all themselves. Which, in one case that I know of, they decided to do. This was in the eighties and the congregation was very wealthy.. full of phd's. One of the elders was a locally famous archetect who designed their Hall. It looked nice, had high ceiligns with very adequate sunlight. This man could have desigend churches! (chuckle)
I only know of one congregation that was forcibly dissolved by the Society, with its territory divied up among neighbors. I don't have the full details about it, except that a later CO called the people involved in the decision "Hatchet Men". As for what happened to their funds, and property, I dont know but no doubt it went to Brooklyn.
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12
Will the Watchtower crumble one day?
by JH inwhat would it take for the watchtower org.
to crumble and fall apart?
do you think it has already started?
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gitasatsangha
Watchtower is a hierarchial structure. If it falls completely there will be no real witnesses left. What will remain will be isolated pockets, much like the Bible Student groups, but that will be the end of Jehovah's Witnesses as a juggernaut cult.
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20
Wacko Talks
by gitasatsangha inshare one of the odder/funnier talks you've heard (where the manuscript went out the window, along with any degree of decorum, preferably).
one time a brother had a 15 minute part and he spoke very calmly and relaxed.
he smiled all the time, but the part seemed aimless.
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gitasatsangha
Share one of the odder/funnier talks you've heard (where the manuscript went out the window, along with any degree of decorum, preferably)
One time a brother had a 15 minute part and he spoke very calmly and relaxed. he smiled all the time, but the part seemed aimless. He referred to a few scriptures but they were commonly used ones. Finally he started going on and on about how unified "God's people" were and as an example he started playing a tape recording of a convention in some african country, with the songs being sung in kiswahiili.
All well and good. But it seeminly wouldnt end. This tape seemed to have been edited to have a bunch of kindgom songs in kiswahili. After about ten minutes of this he finally looked up apologized and said that he really had no idea he was going to do a talk till the night before and he hadn't prepared. Then he sat down amid nervous laughter. It was a wonderful experience.
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15
What happens to old worn out Kingdom Halls?
by gitasatsangha inseems like there are differnet tier's of kindgom halls.
the old hall i went too was orginally supposed to be large house, iirc.
when our congregation outgrew it, it was sold to a company next door that build coffins and caskets.
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gitasatsangha
Seems like there are differnet tier's of Kindgom Halls. The old hall I went too was orginally supposed to be large house, IIRC. When our congregation outgrew it, it was sold to a company next door that build coffins and caskets. so.. now it stores extra inventory. What a fitting end.
What type of hall did you go to? Did you all outgrow it, and what happened to it?
1: Grand Dames of the Witness world: (I.E. on par with the Stanely)
2: Assembly Halls
3: Rich Congregation Halls.. not built by the book, built to taste (and some of these are actually rather nice). The still look like kindgom halls.
4: Plain Jain Windowless Quicky Build Rancher (the majority I reckon.. nothing much to tell.. one size fits all..the blue izod shirt of Kindgom Halls)
5: Old Worn Out Hall from early seventies or even older
6: Older hall which wasn't even supposed to be a hall but which was converted into a a hall. (These get interesting.
7: Rented Property
8: Banquet Room (went to Memorial at one in a Ramada Inn once)
9: Mobil Home Trailer (once used occasionally in SW Virginia as halls.. probably before KH's needed liability insurance)
10: Someones home.
12: Third world lean-to thingy right outta the yearbook!