by JH 7 Replies latest jw friends
Why is it that if you don't go to any meetings anymore since a while and you're inactive, the elders wont bother you, but if you continuously go to half of your meetings, the elders wont be satisfied and will be a pain in the as*?
I wonder what an elder would say if a JW would say, "I like going to only half the meetings". More than that I get tired and I lose my joy....
I know it's all about control. And if you're not there, they don't have to control you, but still, why don't they look at the benefits a JW believer could get by going to a meeting here and there, and still hang on. If the elders really cared about the inactive ones, they wouldn't complain when they see them only once in a while.
Remember, that half a glass of water is full of deadly poison. The way they see it is that if you go occasionally you are not quite dead and may get revived but if you don't go at all you are basically dead spiritually and beyond hope of revival, a waste of time.
Of course greendawg is right. I know an Elder who considered Sunday his 'day to Jehovah'. So Phil went out on field service every Sunday morning, to the public talk/watchtower study every Sunday afternoon and did his talk prep and congregational paper work each Sunday evening. Some people are very well organized. Phil Hardwick was previously a country cop. Many do attend half the meetings. These are known as slackers and not to be trusted till they wake up to themselves and their weak backsliding childbearing ways. Some are better at 'getting away' with 'poor meeting attendance' than others. I'm not as well versed as some are in this but I imagine the trick is to attend enough meetings not to warrant an encouragement visit from an Elder or two. The thing you don't want is to have them "worrying about you". Speaking of which, I'm worried about you JH
Think the elders take the view that "add a glass of champagne to a barrel of sewage you get a barrel of sewage; add a glass of sewage to a barrel of champagne you still get a barrel of sewage". In my experience the elders are always slightly wary of those who have 'fallen away'; perhaps they see us as sewage!
When I stopped going, I got one or two visits then nothing. If the elders ever call on me again, I will ask them why they have spent 10 hours per month in field ministry (we all know they all do their duty!) for the last 3 years but have never made 10 minutes for one they once claimed to have loved as a brother.
Eyeslice
Awwww poor brother eyeslice ...pats him on head ... I'll come 'round and bible study with ya
There's no such thing as being half-way into a cult. It's either all or nothing.
