They don’t have enough elders and ministerial servants because they don’t actively recruit the right kind of men in the first place. They don’t give them any kind of real training for the job. They play congregation politics with recommendations and appointments. They don’t listen to legitimate concerns or take counsel very well. They only want “company” men and “yes” men. Now the WTS complains about the lack of elders! If the Society wants to know the real reason for this lack, it only has to look in the mirror.
The arrangement was never a good one because there was no real effort to do things according to the first century model. Those congregations appointed their own officers. They didn’t send recommendations to some central authority in Jerusalem or anywhere else and then waited for approval. Think how impractical that would have been given the speed of first century travel and communication. Instead, a congregation selected from among themselves those men who were loved, respected, and trusted. In that way, the best teachers and shepherds held positions of responsibility and even then there were still problems as can be seen by reading the New Testament. But at least everyone in the congregation—including women—had a say in who served.
Since the WTS is really interested only in controlling others, it is no wonder that there is a shortage of men serving as elders and ministerial servants. And we have all seen men who had no business being entrusted with any kind of serious responsibility holding offices and privileges for which they were grossly unqualified. But then the old adage “as ye sow, so shall ye reap” is certainly manifest in the elder arrangement nowadays.
Quendi
