How HIGH did you climb the ranks as a JW? Did you like the STATUS?

by unshackled 77 Replies latest jw friends

  • Morbidzbaby
    Morbidzbaby
    My aunt was one of them...an old hen that thought she ruled the other hens...with her rooster. Bad scene.

    So she tried to rule the roost by virtue of the position of the cock, but no one established the pecking order??

  • QuitWastingTIME
    QuitWastingTIME

    I never even became an MS. Many times it was pressed on me. I guess "holy spirit" prevented me, heh. I had every privilege you could think of without actually becoming an MS and acquiring those responsibilities. I was never recommended because my service time didn't average over 10 hours a month on a consistent basis. Also, I think it was seen that I didn't have patience (hence my name, ha) for decisions that relied too much on bureacracy rather than action. I also was self-righteous and followed the rules as much as I could, thereby clashing with the PO's son and friends who were basically PKs.

    As for the guy who said his reading assignments were taken away and replaced with a sister, no offense to you personally because I don't even know you or if this even applies, but maybe you just weren't a good enough reader. Gawd, that's one thing that totally urked me, the amount of readers who... well... just couldn't read. That's what you get for discouraging education, right? Seriously though, they chose readers based on service time or basically any qualification OTHER than abilitiy to read well for an audience. Made me zone out every time and in my head I'd fast forward to the end. How to deal with the stress mounted from poor reading and consequently a boring study? Video games!

  • av8orntexas
    av8orntexas

    Regular pioneer. I hated it. I did it because my congregation was one of those that had a 'good' reputation, and well.....I just couldn't sit on the sidelines now could I ?

    At least 7-8 brothers out of like 10 of us went off to Bethel. I knew thats not what I wanted to do. I went to the Gilead meeting at an DC and thankfully I had a medical condition ( diabetes ) and they said right off the bat,that would probably disqualify me.

    Pioneering sucked. I had no car,no job. I was in college full-time and milked that as much as I could, saying I had classes,exams,BS,etc I realized that most of the people I knew wouldn't give a rats aS$ about me if I weren't a pioneer. I did it to fit in and get people off my back about regular pioneering or going to Bethel. When people said lets work some more territory I secretly cursed them under my breath. This is back when it was 90 hours and we were doing 100 like a bunch of dummies,mainly to impress people. I was getting up at 5am starting at 6 and working until 12/1pm,then going to class on some days. Man I was TIRED. I envied my friends who did have full-time or part-time jobs. But as soon as I could I loaded up on 16/17 credit hours a semester. I HATED having to be the first one to meet the group.....and then usually lead out the group. I liked regulars because they stuck with their partners. Got your own territory ? Good, get the hell out of here. Got your own car group ? Sweet,be gone. I wanted to come in late. Sit in the back and let some other brother do the text and ask all the questions.

    To be honest, I was looking foward to pioneer school because supposedly there were always some pretty good looking 'chicks' there. Boy I really get a chuckle out of what I thought back then. It's beyond crazy and stupid. The longest two weeks of my life. I got tired of people asking me

    "Oooooh you went to pioneer school ?" "Wow, tell me all about !" Even though I was a pioneer it was never as big a deal to me as some others made it out to be. I did because I felt I had to. Not too mention all the brothers and sisters stopped bugging me about when I was going to put my Bethel application in. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........Never ?

    When I came off the list it was like what the hell ? What did you do ? Like had you had to do something bad in order to come off.

    I did everything I could. Though I never got to be MS, I read at the bookstudy from time to time ( I was being groomed,but moved right before I think they were going to appoint me. At least this what a former elder told me after I moved ) I did magazine and book room. I worked the mics. Aisle and stage. The ABSOLUTE WORST thing I did was assist the school overseer. On Monday nights before the school I had a copy of the TMS schedule just like him. I would hand out the slips every week and all. Anyhow, I had to call everyone on the schedule and ask if they were giving their talk the next night. I HATED that. you could tell most were busy and YES, they were going to do it,so leave them alone. I hated when brothers back out because if I were able to give it........I wound up doing the talk. Except I hadn't studied or read any of the material myself, so I usually pulled the talk out of my a%$ in the bathroom a few minutes before.

  • on the rocks
    on the rocks

    Substitute elder,book study conductor,public speaker,auxillary pioneer,acted in 5 dramas @ D.c.:))))))))))))))))))))))

  • the max
    the max

    As (JAMIE) pointed out she was a non person because she had no penis, I was a non person with a penis, In 9 years, I got as HIGH as an assistant on mikes ha ha ha, Im laughing as I write this. The person I studied with, came back to hall to do the sunday talk, I was sniggering and joking with him about my meteoric rise in the corp, as i adjusted the mike, we both joked that it would only have taken me 7 years to do a medical degree !!!

    I can look back and laugh at the absurdity of it now,I remember how comical it was all us drones forced to reach out,I hated that aspect, the competitive environment that was fosterd on us drones, My then wife was the biggest culprit, she wanted status in the cong, and I was Her means of achieving it, or so she thought, at the end of the meetings, I could,nt wait to get out of there, grab some beer, and get back in time for RED DWARF, my reward for sitting through that turgid crap. STATUS, my honest assesment of my status,Lets just say the power and authority of reaching ASSISTANT on mikes after 9 years didnt go to my head !

  • wobble
    wobble

    I was a regular pioneer for a short time in my teens. In my early twenties I was appointed as a M.S, resigned in 1981 (?), was asked a couple of years afterward to accept MS again, told them to wait 6 months till C.O came again.

    By the second visit, a year later or so, I was told that I undoubtedly qualified and should accept, so I did. (late 1983?)

    I never wanted any status ,or even thought about MS being such, the "Servant" part resonated with me.

    Soon after being made MS again, I think it was the very next meeting, an Elder decided to "lean" on me, so just as he was walking away from having given me a"talking to" as he thought, I said "hang on, take this with you would you?" as I scribbled a note, "what's that?" he asked,

    "My resignation" I said. He then became conciliatory and more or less begged me not mention what had gone on,(the other Elders were aware that he upset a number of people), and not to resign.

    I said ,"O.K, but give me any more rubbish like you just did and I will go"

    I had no more trouble with him or any other Elder after that.

    In succeding years I was asked to accept the post of Elder, I always refused, I saw nothing for me in the position, it was too "Organizational" and political, kind of removed, aloof, from the R&F bros. Not for me.

    In spring 2006 I heard that this same Elder had said they would have to call on me to determine whether I had studied properly with my sons, who had both left the religion by then.

    I did not wait for him , or anybody to start that kind of nonsense, I resigned forthwith, saying simply "I do not qualify".

    Another Elder told me later he admired my stance, one of his sons had left at that point, but he still clung on as Elder, status was too important to him I guess.

    The whole thing is just part of the farcical JW/WT set-up that is just so wrong and silly, that it would be funny, if it were not so destructive and un-Christian.

  • Aussie Oz
    Aussie Oz

    I did not climb the ladder.

    I became a regular pioneer because of pressure as a young married man with no 'responsabilities',

    i became a ministerial servant because they appointed me without consultation or notice. I there after struggled to be 'worthy'

    i moved where the need was great partly to get away from an incestuos small town congregation.

    we were welcomed as 'special' and that did not sit well with me either. I did not like status but my now ex wife sure did.

    In short my whole theocratic career was one of being pushed up the ranks not climbing.

    oz

  • dozy
    dozy

    Elder. Wasn't really bothered about the "status" - just kind of blundered my way up in the ranks by default.

  • Millions
    Millions

    MS, regular pioneer 11 years, Ministerial Training School (as it was known back then) and subsequent reassignment, elder, secretary, circuit assembly speaker a few times before I stepped down as elder.

    Didn't really have time to consider whether or not I liked the high profile, you just had to get on with it. I enjoyed the ministry a lot, mainly because I got to talk to people with real opinions and interesting lives.

  • WTWizard
    WTWizard

    I was stuck behind the rag counter for a while, and did not like it. I got the assignment as the assistant for the Theocraptic Misery "School(??)" for a time, until I started dogging it (I did not like the way Jehovah was treating me, so I started dogging his assignments). I also handled the mics for a while, until I started missing too many boasting sessions on purpose. I never did become an assistant hounder or an auxiliary pio-sneer.

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