A Major Announcement next weekend (page 3)

JWRESEARCH

New arrange

Book study- 25m

School ministry- 30m

Service meeting - 35m

Total time of the meeting - 1:45 (without change)

worf

Interesting. I'm sure its true. Wt is desperate to try anything they think will keep the jdumbs under control.

But now the elders, and some ministerial servants, will have more things to prepare for , for one night of multiple meetings.

In congs where there are few elders and/or ms, one person might have 3 parts to prepare for: Conduct the book study, a talk in the TMS, and a part on the SM. This new arrangement will mean they have to do more juggling of responsibilities. The lazy elders, of whom there are plenty inthe borg, will probably try to get out of conducting the book study whenever they can, even though its only for about 30 min, thus putting more pressure on the others to handle the different parts on this 3 meeting night.

There will be problems.

Evil organizations always have problems, even though camouflaged.

Worf

yourmomma

slowly but surely the wts is taking away any ways that people can express themselves. they did it with the talks on the school, they did it with the wt, and now they are doing it with the bookstudy.

WTWizard

It's anyone's guess (it could be so stupid as "We will be meeting for field circus after the meeting"). I have heard that they are going to segue the Corporation Book Study with the Theocraptic Misery "School(??)" and Circus Meeting. Adjustments will be made with the timing. And, in case anyone thinks it means an extra night off, they will likely have more field circus that day.

We will find out for sure on April 28.

easyreader1970

Part of me thinks that the Society is trying hard to attract more people. One of the harsher criticisms of the Witnesses is that they are too strict and demand too much time. By getting rid of the restriction placed on being one of the "anointed" and doing away with trying to call a time for Armageddon to begin, they are slowly getting a mainstream feel. At least on the surface.

If the rumor is true about the dissolving of the separate congregation book study arrangement and they now include it with the theocratic ministry school and service meeting, they've given adherents one more free night, ostensibly, of course, for more time in the service.

Then again, sometimes I think they are going hard the other way towards becoming more exclusionist with their public and private versions of the Watchtower.

Either way, they are definitely up to something. I just can't figure out what that is exactly.

VM44

The Book Study is being merged with the TMS!

Is anyone going to get anything out of these new shorter meetings?

Alligator Wisdom

Consolidated mid-week meeting? Sounds good.

However, what will happen with the book study overseer's duties? I always thought that the WTS wanted to have a closer eye on these mini-groups in order to keep them in line and whip them into shape. By having a dedicated and assigned elder to do this, the WTS will have a tighter grip on the flock.

Alligator Wisdom (aka Brother NOT Exerting Vigorously)

P.S. By the way, JWRESEARCH, welcome to JWD and for making your first post one that no other JW elder who regularly posts here confirm it yet. Are you an elder?

easyreader1970

what will happen with the book study overseer's duties? I always thought that the WTS wanted to have a closer eye on these mini-groups in order to keep them in line and whip them into shape.

I too thought that the main purpose for this arrangement was to keep an eye on individuals, which can't really be done in larger settings. Of course the reasons for this on the surface are that this will help to encourage ones, strengthen them spiritually, and also to be able to keep in touch with members in the event of an emergency, disaster or, quite possibly, Armageddon proper.

On the flip side, I have noticed that lately thinking ones in the book study are starting to investigate things that they don't understand in the book study using outside sources, perhaps like Wikipedia. For instance, this past week someone looked up historical information on a subject in the Revelation book and made a fairly lengthy comment about it. As innocent as that may have been, information is more readily available now on the internet now. Back in the 1980's you had to take the Watchtower's word for it. Nobody was going to go spend an entire Saturday in the library trying to look up tidbits of information. In the small book study arrangement, people might feel more confident about revealing something that they discovered while studying.

er

BreakingAway

If these rumors really are true the average dub response will probably be: "Boy, with all these changes, we must be REALLY close to the end !"

dozy

I can confirm the news. POs have been given the letter , but have been told not to tell anyone (so only the PO & his wife knows , officially at least!)

This has been "on the cards" for many years - if I recall correctly, Ray Franz mentioned it in one of his books but the proposal didn't get the required majority through the GB. Many congs , especially in the 3rd world , already combine the 2 meetings , so the rationale is quite sound. Meeting attendance is on a freefall & the WTS has belatedly taken action.

It will go down very well in JW land.

A Major Announcement next weekend

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