As a former pioneer....I would say that the hourly requirements become an obsession. I remember every month thinking " I am not going to worry about hours". that thinking lasted about a day....because those hours are always hanging over your head. And its a vicious circle, because once you've succeed in getting your time for the month, then there was the next month to worry about.
Dinner With a Pioneer Couple Last Night
by dontplaceliterature 37 Replies latest jw friends
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Mickey mouse
^ what wannaexit said.
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chickpea
the elderly wife of the former "company servant"
(whom i heard criticized by elderettes for never
having pioneered, even tho she and hub aux pio'd
in their 70s and 80s) used to saynobody talks about time as much as prisoners and pioneers
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pirata
Metrics Drive Behavior. THE primary metric for Jehovah's Witnesses is the hours they spend in the ministry.
Imagine if they added a column for "time spent encouraging brothers and sisters" in the field service report. I'm sure, especially among elders, we would see much more shepherding work. I heard an older JW once say "Why do we spend so much time bringin people in the front door, only to have them exiting out the back door." This JW was both active in the ministry and in caring for older ones and those with health issues in the congregation.
The major flaw with metrics is that they tend to dictate behaviours at the expense of equally important unmeasured activities. This happens in business, and can affects Christian Worship the same way.
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wasblind
Someone needs to remind This couple that salvation is Gods gift,
it's not owed to them by how many hours they pioneer. Ephesians 2: 8-9
JW's are basically throwing this gift back in the face of the one who gave it
a gift is given freely, How would they feel, if they took the time to buy something
a friend really needed, and gave it to that friend as a gift. And that friend insisted
on payin' them back for it. it would no longer be a gift.
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cofty
It eventually occurred to me what a con pioneering was. I could stop pioneering, do 50 hours and be a total hero as a publisher. I could stay on pioneering do 89 hours and have to give a reason for not getting 90 on the back of my report. The only thing I would lose was the chance to sit through a patronising meeting with the co twice a year. Tough choice
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pontoon
It's the commitment they are looking for. That makes the BOE look good to the CO. The life saving work is not as important as them being able to announce XXXX pioneers this month. If a person did 150 hours a month but did not "sign up" they would not receive encouragement, they would be counseled for not signing up and being an example and following direction.
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Juan Viejo2
Cofty -
You are so right. When I was a kid pioneers had to get 100 hours, Specials were 150 (but I think they got to count meetings when they gave talks, led the WT and book studies, etc.) I think vacation pioneers were either 50 or 70 hours at the time, but my brain has dried up since the 1960s, so I don't remember for sure.
As a teenage regular publisher, though, I would go out 2 hours each Saturday and Sunday every weekend and sometimes for an hour before the book study on Tuesday night. That would give me about 20 hours per month. I was considered a superpub by everyone in the congregation, so I was giving public talks, was a frequent Watchtower Study reader, and was a Book Study servant by the time I was 20 years old.
What the others in the congregation did not know was much of that was under duress. My parents forced us to go out every Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday night. I had no choice. Even though I had an early morning paper route, I was expected to be home, showered and dressed for service by 9 AM. My father gave me a break once in a while if the newspapers were late or the weather was particularly nasty, but even so, I rarely got under 12-14 hours a month.
I was clearly one of the rising young stars in the Riverside, California congregation. Like I said, much of the time it was under duress. So when my parents left the area to go "serve where the need was greater," I stayed behind, got married and began to slow down and fade completely. My hours dropped from 16-20 per month at age 19 to zero by the time I was 22.
I look at the hours required to be an elder or MS now and think they wouldn't even be considered "average" publishers back in the day. In fact most would be facing regular counseling. I personally know of one COBOE that turns in well under 10 hours a month, and most of those hours are suspect.
If I had to do over again, knowing what I know, I'd go along with Trevor, and just use a sharp pencil and give them whatever hours they wanted to keep them off my back.
JV