CO Visits=encouragement?

lifestooshort

When I was still a JW I remember my feelings of confusion caused by the CO visit. I just found them so discourging. I knew what he was going to say. And I was not expecting commendation. Everybody would scramble into action before he even arrived. Hall would be cleaned, arrangements for who and how the CO and his wife would be recieved/entertained. FS cards would be reviewed. And through it all I found it so discouraging. I even asked an elder why can't the congregation and publishers be commended. It was supposed to be a privledge just to get a visit and opportunity to grow spiritually, benefit from the CO's experience and wisedom. Yet I couldnt wait for the week to be over. Your thoughts on CO visits, please.

DesirousOfChange

COs are [or at least WERE] as different as night and day. Old timers were typically much kinder and humbler and understood the struggles of hangin in there long-term. The new boys are/were men who had had had "hands laid upon them too hastily" [1 Tim 5:22]. This seems to be happening all too frequently recently. They are all big-headed from just coming out of the MTS schooling and think they have been given all the answers. I see lots of new boys as I think they are cheaper to send out -- less medical bills to care for.

To call it self-sacrificing is a joke. They all get mucho dinero $$$ from the green-handshakes and make a better tax-free (it's a gift and non-taxable) living than most typical R&F JDub who is washing windows. Plusa cuchy apartment, a new car, and anything they desired paid by the circuit. Who could ask for more?

Old tyme elders who have been around the block a few times, don't get too excited about the CO visit anymore and are glad to see him move on. Newbie elders and those seeking assembly parts put a little brown shoe polish on their noses so you won't know they've been kissing the COs @$$ all week long. It must be especially hard for an older, long-time, sincere elder to sit there and listen to a kid who is not yet dry behind the ears act like he knows it all and has all the answers for everyone and everything in the Cong. After all, he learned it ALL at the MTS school. Doesn't matter that he has no life's experience.

DOC

OneDayillBeFree

I hate CO visits now... Because the current CO was the reason I started pioneering... He basically pressured me non stop and told me that furthering my education would mean nothing in this world which is about to end any second now, that Jehovah was waiting for me to serve him and wanted me to serve him more fully while in my youth... What a bunch crap... Sad thing is I still kinda believed back then.

But anyways, my CO is single and surprisingly still a hand full. I never did like CO visits. It was like a famous person was coming to town. And then the talks, and the spiritual spanking and the "encouraging" the sheep to do more and more and more cause "brothers we are not high enough in bible studies and we need to give more money to the org". Blah blah blah.

I only liked one CO in my whole life and only cause he was realistic and didn't really go by the book.

Turns out he turned down the opportunity to become a DO and stepped down from being a CO. Now him and his wife are in some beach far far away in Florida enjoying their lives as a d'Od couple.

But anyway I can't wait for this CO's last visit this year... Cause after that pioneering and preaching are going of the door completely! So this CO visit I will go with the flow and make a big deal... I'll wash his feet w my tears and give him gifts and a farewell card with $20 and everything...(that Ill take from the contribution box of course) and I'll be there at the airport to say my final goodbye. I'll shed a tear of joy as I'll never see him again but I'll make it look like i don't want him To leave... And as soon as he boards that plane to Alaska, I'll go to the elders and quit my 2 years of regular pioneering for the wtb&ts of ny.

Thats just my experience with the CO's... Your CO may differ

Heaven

According to my Dad, CO="Stirring Up Trouble".

WTWizard

I don't call them hounder-hounders for nothing. They will hound the hounders, guilting the congregation if their field circus time is "low", and stirring the people to cracking down on rules like listening to "bad" music or doing anything in lieu of field circus.

BroMac

onedayillbefree: no one is forcing you to pioneer. your pressured yes, but you do have choice dont you. dont allow yourself to feel intimidated by him. they get off on it. there job is to increase field service and look for those who they think can pioneer and 'encourage' them to reach out for fine spiritual goals. looks like he picked you out.

BroMac

finallysomepride

CO Visits=encouragement to stay away for the week

sabastious

If the congregational hours are up, CO's are nicer...sort of and, if not, get ready for some guilt!

-Sab

NoRegrets

My wife was raised in a tiny, rural, congregation. After we left the area when we got married, a younger and VERY ARROGANT CO came through. The in-laws were too far from one of the CO apartments(as were other congregations in the large, rural circuit) so the CO would need to stay in someone's home. He was such a snob that he refused to stay in anyone's home and made the impoverished cong. put him up in a local motel. Now, some of the publishers in the hall did live in some semi-squallid conditions, but there were a couple of just fine accomodations he could have chosen from. Nothing fancy but adequate. My father-in-law used to really steam about how that CO wasn't in that role to "live the high life" and had taken on a "position of sacrifice". He could never make the connection that maybe that CO wasn't the "spirit appointed man" he was supposed to be. Anyway, this was the same CO who a couple of turns later rotated to the Minneapolis area where we were. We witnessed first-hand how he was living high with Prince and Larry Graham! He also had THE MOST PUTRID ASSEMBLY PART EVER interviewing Larry Graham! It was a pivotal moment in opening our eyes toward our exodus from the org.!

lilbluekitty

CO visits for me were never encouraging and so at the end of each meeting that week when the brother would say something about "let's be thankful for this interchange of encouragement" or however it was it was worded, I would be all annoyed and be like, what encouragement?

There were a few COs I really liked though, Bro. Marlowe and Bro. Hurst (sp?) were both kind and funny, especially Bro. Hurst because he was a big, fat jolly man who made the funniest jokes in his talks and when my mom was in pioneer school, he was one of the instructors and they were always teasing each other back and forth. But some of the COs we had afterwards were just awful or seemed to not know what they were doing. The last CO I had down here in TX, I don't remember his name but he was quite young and single and I have this feeling that he was secretly gay, I don't know why. Either that or a woman-hater. He wouldn't talk to any sisters, not even elder's wives. The bros. had wanted him to meet with me since I was new to that congregation and it never happened, (Which was fine by me!).

CO Visits=encouragement?

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