by karter 36 Replies latest jw friends
My Mother told me of 2 young guys that have been appointed Elders.
I could'nt belive it these guys have zero life experance and both their wifes walked out on them after a few years of marrage.
Another one cooked his brain on drugs and his talks are painfull to listen to....all over the place and stumbles through them.
Is it due to alot of young ones (60 to 70%) leaving and the pool to pick from is getting smaller so lowering the bar is the only way????
What age are they? Up until recently it's been really rare for anyone under 30 to be appointed.
they are always lowering the bar, look at the current grade level of the watchtowers.
When I was a dubbie the youngest you could be appointed as an elder was 25.
Shocking!
Peace
Most of the MS I knew were from 20-25. Elders were 30 and over. My experience only. I knew an edler who did the accounts even though he was an elder- he was good at it.
MS , literature servant, Ministry School ( this one is more important due/ it's half a meeting and you do need some basic ability to speak ) what is the other, book study , oh wait , has it been eliminated?
women used to do the literature when there were not enough men. It is just passing out mags and accounting. Anyone with a HS edu could do that.
Appointment has little to do with ability, despite claims in the Watchtower literature. It's a popularity contest and the result of being a drooling JW robot for a few years. With Internet access proliferation, intelligent, experienced elders are going to become more and more rare. Curiosity is a symptom of intelligence, while people who mindlessly do what they're told with no regard for "why" are usually pretty stupid. Gradually, truly spiritual, good-hearted men are being replaced with retarded Society suck-ups who crave power more than desire to serve.
The young are leaving in droves, because of free access to information, online. One way to keep them is to reward their loyalty to the cause with titles and positions. Many will take this bait and "sell their souls" for glory before men, despite knowing it's a crock. Unfortunately for the congregations, the character of men like this will cause much misery to those who regard these man-made titles and positions with awe and respect. This group of "organization worshipers" will gradually grow smaller, as it will mainly consist of the woefully ignorant, stupid, brainwashed, technologically-challenged, and/or those with ulterior motives for remaining in the cult.
A major challenge they have is in the arbitrary standards they’ve established for one to “qualify”. An unwritten rule that they have (at least this was the case when I was a MS) is that one must be getting at least ten hours a month to qualify as a MS or Elder. I have never seen the organization present (or even attempt to present) any Scriptural foundation for requiring a man to submit a certain number of field service hours in a monthly report in order to qualify as a Christian elder. This kind of standard is completely foreign to the New Testament.
I have known many fine brothers who were very helpful to the congregation who never got appointed to anything because of their “lack” of field service time. Ironically, the organization had no objections to these men providing resources and labor at Kingdom Hall projects.
I have known several brothers who had to step down, or were removed not because of any bad conduct on their part; but simply because they could not regularly generate the expected amount of field service time. This only puts added strain on the remaining Elders who are already burned out.
I’m wondering when, or if anyone at headquarters is going to begin rethinking these silly field service time requirements they have in place. Just think how it would improve the atmosphere of a congregation if instead of four elders, all of the sudden they now had nine or ten?
I’m wondering when, or if anyone at headquarters is going to begin rethinking these silly field service time requirements they have in place.Just think how it would improve the atmosphere of a congregation if instead of four elders, all of the sudden they now had nine or ten?
I cannot imagine this happening, especially if my wife is any indication. She measures my 'spirituality' as well as the spirituality of many churches on the basis of how much effort they put in to preach the gospel to others. If all of a sudden they allow people to move up to the rank of elder without the field service requirements, this would be very disillusioning to her and others like her.
Jeremy C,
You are quite correct, the whole JW thing is about Salvation by Report Card.
In their skewed way of prioritising matters, the main (or even only?) measure of a person's "spirituality" is that numeral appearing in the "Total Hours" column of the Monthly Report form. Never mind that this figure can just as easily be a bogus one (by the admission of many who post here on this Discussion Board).
So, yes, it is marvellous what an impressive total of monthly hours will achieve:
- conversely, any brother with low Field Service Hours has the proverbial "Snow flake's chance on a hot shovel" of ever making Elder or Ministerial Servant.
Further proof, if it were needed, that the WTS is just a book publishing company hiding behind the facade of religious virtue.
Bill.
The standards went out the door a few years ago. It's all about 10 hrs a month. The children if they are not publishing and putting 10 hrs per month of Elders/MS's they are not appointed. They are holding to this because the National Average is 7.5 per month in North America.
They are trying to get their groove back. They figure that if they hold some to that standard, then they maintain their control It's got nothing to do with the qualifications in Timothy, and Titus. They may consider that material for qualifications and discover some weakness in these, but will overlook it. The 10 hr qualification in not scriptural, but, non-negotiable.
