It was inevitable. After dodging the bullet for a few weeks, the elders finally made their way to our house today. At first I thought I wanted to get them to come sometime after March, you know - put a kink in their 'theocratic arrangement,' but they were too insistent on coming this month regardless of our circumstances.
We started off with a little chit-chat about this and that and the one elder who led the call informed us directly that the visit was primarily for my benefit, not the wifes. He said that they were there under the direction of the Society to visit all inactive ones. He handed out to us a homemade typed piece of paper with a few lines and scriptures annotated on it. The topics were simple and to the point. He had in his hand an original document which looked like something given to him from the CO, I'm guessing, as there was no Corporate print at the top. His paper seemed to be the outline for what he gave to us. Quite simply, our sheets contained various examples of "lost sheep" and refered to Acts 20:28 three times.
Rbi8 Acts 20:28 ******
28Pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the holy spirit has appointed YOU overseers, to shepherd the congregation of God, which he purchased with the blood of his own [Son].
The overall theme of the paper was that the elders were making these calls because they did not want to be bloodguilty by not reaching out and finding inactive ones and helping them. Which then led into the reason for the call... Unbeknownst to me, it seems that the lead elder already took it upon himself to assign me to an elder in the hall(the one accompanying him today) to go over topics in the new Worship book. What irked me about it was that he practically said that I was going to study this book with my assigned elder. He went into how we didn't have to study each chapter in succession from beginning to end, but I could pick out whatever I wanted to study. He then asked for my opinion on the matter.
Here was my crisis of conscience. After he asked for my opinion and all eyes were then on me, I paused and looked down for what seemed to be like a minute or so.(At this point, soooo many thoughts were running through my head as to what I was going to say. Should I just say "no, thank you" and leave it at that? Should I speak right up and say I don't believe this and that anymore? Why in the hell did he automatically presume that I would study this book?) I raised my head and said(paraphrasing here), "I really have a good foundation on the topics in this book already. It is almost a word-for-word copy of the United in Worship book which I have been through several times. I have other topics that I am interested in that I would rather go over which are not covered in this book. Topics that I have been researching myself." Both elders looked a little worried after I said that, and they did somewhat of a nervous shift in their chairs. They didn't ask me what it was that I wanted to go over, but instead, the lead elder told his fellow elder(my assigned one) that we should make arrangements on the side to meet up and discuss whatever it is that I want to bring up. He did stress that we meet weekly and to not miss hooking up.
In the end, the lead elder talked about how he had to make a report back to the CO on all the visits. It seems that in these reports, the elders have to write down the 'heart condition' of those inactive. The reason I think this to be so, is because he asked me what he should write down for my report. He was being jocular the way he said it, but I know it was true. He said, "So it would be ok with you if I wrote down you were doing cartwheels over this visit?" I didn't care one way or the other what he wrote down. I knew he was simply following orders from the top. Nothing more, nothing less.
In the past, I recall shepherding visits that encompassed more material than today's visit. I remember getting encouragement to attend the meetings, to go out in field service, hold family studies, and to pray more. I was expecting those very same encouragements today. But they were never brought up. The basis of their visit was shrouded in a "shepherding call." That is what they called it. This was no shepherding call. Here I am inactive, yet they did not ask me if I needed help in going out in service. No encouragement to rejoin the school. No questions to see if the wife and I study regularly or read the bible together. Like they said, this call was directed towards me, not my wife. But in the end, they only wanted me to study a book. That was it.
And by the way, I did record the visit. Nothing exciting happened, but you never know.