...and real spirituality equals heresy!
privilleges equals spirituality
by stillin 31 Replies latest jw friends
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prologos
they are appointing MANAGERS! ask them a bible question, or have you read this interesting point in the mags? ZERO comprehension, interest. thats why the lurkers are lurking.
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Chaserious
I liked sitting in the back as an attendant and all. It's a good excuse to not really pay attention and get up and walk around every few minutes to check on the thermostat, seat latecomers, count people, and so on. Same thing with working at the conventions. This one Class A elder used to like me, and he always got a job running a cushy District Convention department like public relations or literature so he would always bring me on board. It was way better to walk around and do stuff or sit in a suite than sit out and have to listen or even take notes.
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jgnat
Whenever hubby claims that human government fails (haven't found the secret to eternal life), I tell him I wouldn't trust the local elders to fill a pot-hole. I tell hubby that is what secular government is good at. Keeping things fixed.
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hoser
...and real spirituality equals heresy!
amen brother!
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zed is dead
Time is currency.
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?me?
though i have been a witness for around 20 years, i have never been considered for MS. about 10 years ago i did get to read for the wt regularly and even squeezed in a closing prayer at the service meeting. was a mic handler (though never an attendant_] . i was fairly regular in service, about 2 times a month so they like me and also was in the rotation for the HOME book study to pray and read every 4 weeks or so.... but that disappeared when we got rid of the separate meetings at a home and brought it to the kh, now ONLY MS's and ELDERS are good enough to read in front of 60 people when i would read for up to 20.
now , though i love helping on the rbc(i have a specialized skill that we are short of in our state), i rarely go out in service, so i am one of the few MEN or baptized teens at our hall that dont do any thing , no mics, no stage, no sound, no attending, no reading(even scriptures for the oral review} , and you know what???? i like it that way. i can put up with the fact that all the men in my family are elders, but i am not. maybe my lack of spirituality does come through, as i get older i am just a more cinical person. not that i hate religion,or the organization, but i do resent it to an extent . and i find it very hard to really care that much to do that much. fortunately my wife is kind of in a similar frame of mind. we do our best to serve JEHOVAH, enjoy friendships with other witnesses, and be the best people we can be on our own terms. we dont have any desires to go out and do crazy stuff, but we are liberal about things such as entertainment, gambling, drinking, etc. maybe we will change when we have children, but right now we are doing all we can to do what we can to not be that couple that comes only 2 times a month and has no friends in the hall..
ok, so i guess you see that i do not care about privilleges...
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DATA-DOG
?me?
You are not cynical. You are just realizing that they will use you. You said it yourself " (i have a specialized skill that we are short of in our state)"
If you did not have that skill then how concerned about you would they really be? I have no doubt that you are a spiritual person. That is the problem. The corporate and legal mindest is what rules the WTBTS. The Elders are just following orders because in reality they are less spiritual than you. It may sound harsh but it is true. They need the fleshy physical Organization, and they are loyal to it above the Christ. I went through several Elders meeting, was stripped of all priviliges. Why? I dared to question the service hours=spirituality rule. In my hall you must have a certain number of hours every month for a year. Not an average number, a set number.
So if I was to get 20hrs, then 5, then 11, then 15, then 4... That is not good enough. There is no consideration for personal circumstances. All the Elders care about was visible works. I am dead serious. Not even James 1:26-27 matters. They only care about what you are publicly seen doing. They try to justify it by saying that the sheep would get restless if they did not have visible leaders. I am serious! They said that " we lead the sheep, the sheep do not lead us". Do you see their physical, corporate, legalistic thinking? Remember this Company is run from the top down...
Please hang in there. Go to jwstruggle or anointedchristians.com ( I think that is it ) or 21stcenturyChristians w/ Bro ED. Just keep learning and asking questions! Do not be afraid to make sure of all things. You probably are not or you would not be here!
Peace
DD
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cobaltcupcake
My ex-husband resigned from being an elder because of the lack of "spirituality" on the body. He couldn't take it.
A couple of years later he was at the district convention and went to volunteer to be an attendant. The bro at the desk asked, "Are you in good standing?" Ex answered yes. Then the desk jockey asked, "Are you a ministerial servant or an elder?" Ex answered neither.
The desk idiot shot ex a look and said, "I thought you said you were in good standing," and refused to sign him up as an attendant.
It's all about numbers anyway. Number of hours in FS, number of comments, number of meetings.
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stillin
it's nice to see this thread resurrected. It's still a pet peeve of mine.
Where I am in life, grappling with inconsistencies like this, trying to "make things fit" is a position that none of the "mature" ones have a CLUE about! And they never will...not their problem!