by 5go 40 Replies latest watchtower scandals
I remember one stomach churning pioneer meeting. The Co's theme was about keeping ourselves strong by reading all the literature. He then proceeded to say do you remember this article,
and what about this one and so on.
Very embarrassing for those of us who couldn't remember, but an opportunity to shine for those who could.
dare2be
Wasanelder Once has summed it up nicely. The real bitch fights took place away from the "official" meetings. Just before I "stepped down" I went to the c/o and bitched about a pain in the ass elder who had shifted in, was dictating the show and living in the "wrong" territory. So I whined and bitched and .........the c/o transferred him to another local cong cause they had an exceptional need for elders!!!!
hahaha
Depending on the CO, the pep talk could be a pat on the back or how bad you are doing and the need to be more effective as either pioneer and elder.
abr
Just think of a football game where the home team is behind 21 points going into the locker room at halftime.
My experience is that the meeting including the elders/ms was a generic outline from the Society (I posted notes on my most recent and hopefully last meeting). Usually its a lot of talk about procedural stuff and not much that would help you or anyone else from a spiritual prospective.
The meeting with the CO & just the elders deals with the local issues. It involves the CO chewing you out for various infractions of WTS rules or procedures or a lack of production numbers (similar to a business visit from your regional VP). If there's an addition to be made to the flock book, its ususally read here and you have to write it in yourself (so the WTS can deny ever giving you that instruction). Finally, there's the all important discussion of who is being "recommended". Unless you do a lot of prep work on the front end and put the brother in question in front of the congregation a few times during the week, there is the predictable push back from the CO. He'll ask a bunch of meaningless questions and look at his publisher card. Everyone in the room has to say something nice about the brother in question. If there no objections, the CO puts his stamp of approval and on it goes.
The total meeting is supposed to last 2 hours but I've been in some that lasted until after midnight. Then, its up early to impress the CO with Sat service.
Overall, boring stuff with very little value and a bad way to spend a Friday night.
Everything Doubting Bro says I can vouch for.
Generally a very boring long meeting. I hated the CO visit - too many meetings and the meeting with the CO was just one more I had to sit through.
Yeah the elders meeting I can see why they don't want people to see. It's like peaking behind the curtain. Oh my god it's a little man pulling the strings and he got no clothes.
I was trying so hard to remember what went on in the meetings. I do remember at least one CO getting us to get "down and dirty" about what problems we may have had amongst ourselves. We had one pioneer who made it very difficult for all of us. She seemed to deeply resent anyone who was pioneering other than herself. She had been the lone pioneer for a couple of years and it really threw her the year I started, because there were 10 of us that year. We all talked about her and he handled it right then and there and talked straight to her.
We felt better, but after he left, she got worse and went by herself most of the time. She is in her 70's now and still pioneering, and still making things difficult, according to my JW friend. They never do anything about her either.
The CO's would talk about our time, and how we made our schedule and if we had trouble keeping it, and getting our time in. They usually had suggestions for us for our problems. Always, the goal was for us to keep pioneering, no matter what.
There also were reminders for the sisters to remember they were to let the brother pioneers take the lead, even if we had much more experience and he was 18. That was the case too. We all did it, but it was hard. I had sons older than the teenaged male pioneers, who would actually listen to me and do what I said, but I had to keep my mouth shut with those guys and be a wise sister, let them call the shots.
Pioneer school was just fast-paced, getting through the material in the book, with some discussion. A disappointment really.
I am an ex-pioneer and I can tell you with certainty most of these posters are completely wrong.
What really goes on is discussion on various special needs topics such as:
They were mainly pep talks, like keep up the good work, or you will have to try harder if someone was low on their hours. Nothing much, really.
