by sspo 29 Replies latest jw friends
For all the years you were in the Borg, I was wondering how many of you received a friendly shepherding call from the elders?
That was part of their responsibility as elders but in over 30 years i never received one and I found that was the case with many in the cong.
Did you regularly receive a visit?
I only got one from two elders when I didn't turn in a FS report in six months. That's when I told them I wanted to "take a break". One of them was nearly in tears, while the other one told me I would be toast at armageddon.
What fine shepherds!
When I became an adult, or got out of high school in 1972, I got married and became very active, pioneering for a year and also being a ministerial servant. I dont recall them making sheparding calls to me. I can understand why. I was in the thick of things with them all.
How long have you lived in Iran?
Anyway, to be fair, the insistence that the congregations organize shepharding is only about 14 to 15 years old, not more- still they were supposed to care for the flock.
Also to be fair, many rank-and-file object to visits in their home by two elders, so the elders do the shepharding out in the ministry or after meetings by meeting with folks, but they say the elders never called on them at home when asked, even though they offered to do so, but were turned down.
Also, many cong. members are depressed and sick. Elders did much crisis shepharding- handling one emergency after another and ignoring those that seem to be doing fine.
Finally, these men are inadequate for the job. There really is not enough training provided to men who have to keep people under the heavy burdens from WTS to go to all the meetings, study beforehand, participate in the school and the recruiting efforts, save up money to go to 2 circuit assemblies and 1 district convention every year. Remember, these men are under the heavy burden as well, not just dishing it out for their masters.
onthewayout
very good reminders, elders do have many responsibilities and many problems of their own.
I can remember one sheparding call. An elder and ms came to my home. I sat there stunned as I listened to the elder. It was like a mini public talk, like I wasn't even there. It was so rehearsed. The topic: Supporting the KH financially. After they left I thought to myself, why were they here.
During the 21 years while "in", we had one shepherding call.
They figure if you're attending mtgs. and going in field service that you're just fine. You don't need encouragement.
juni
Supporting the KH financially. After they left I thought to myself, why were they here.
What the hell was that ? Never heard of elders shepherding someone and talking about giving money.
Oh well, nothing shocks me anymore.
I was in for 27 years, and received a total of 5 shepherding visits. 3 of those 5 visits were in the last year I was a JW, and were not to really "encourage" me, but to determine my status as a potential apostate.
While I was an Elder in the 1980s, I went on many shedherding visits. What we did was looked at the congregation in three groups, 1.) Excellent Examples, doing very well, 2.) Average, doing okay, 3.) Weak, needing assistance.
We scheduled our shedherding calls on the "weak" as we were trying to keep within Jesus words of leaving the 99 to find the one sheep who strayed. So, if you were an average to strong JW, this is likely why you received fewer or no visits. Once in a great while we would get the notion that the strong need encouragement too, so we would schedule them in as well.
We had a body of Elders of 7 or 8. We often had 5 or 6 Elders show up for shedherding, and we took along 2 to 4 Ministerial Servants for training. So, we might have 5 pairs, and meet with two families per week each, for a total of ten families. Over a month that was forty families, or just about the entire congregation. That was the ideal schedule. It never worked that way for all kinds of reasons. I would say that at our best we covered the entire congregation once a year.
Jim Whitney
I pay much attention to the fact that I receive no shepharding at the moment. I don't want any, but I know they are not living up to their jobs. They are allowing my fade to go well.
When I resigned as an elder, the organization told the elder body to "snatch him out of the fire." I know because I asked them what the letter said, and they said. When they told me this, it was during the CO's 15 minute visit with me, blowing me off for a dinner arrangement. Since then, I have turned in 2 months of zero preaching, and the elders have not offered to talk to me at all. These are the same elders that know how the CO botched his shepharding effort, and the same elders who are supposed to "snatch me out of the fire." So, when I say they are inadequate for the job, I speak from personal experience. They are managing other crisis members, and don't know how to "snatch" me up.
I am ready to tell them virtually nothing when they get around to snatching me up. I will just say I am fine, nothing new. But I enjoy seeing how badly they are performing. I know that an elder can at least act as if he cares by offering to listen to problems, showing some concern. They will do something before the next CO visit (unless they are really inadequate).
