New Meeting attendance policy??

by noidea 20 Replies latest jw friends

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  noidea

  I couldn't believe it when my daughter came home from a weekend at her cousins. She had gone to the meeting with them on Sunday and had been approached by an elder (an uncle by marriage)..He was of course joking when he said this....He had the nerve to tell her that because I was not attending the meetings (haven't been for 7 months) that they were going to have to come to my home with a shotgun and make me go. I have heard of shotgun weddings before not shotgun meeting attendance.

  lol..I wonder if this will be new policy?
• 

  roybatty

  A shotgun was standard issue for elders here in the Chicago-land area. Without it, the Halls would be empty.
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  Dutchie

  Once an elder told me that if I didn't start coming to meetings he was coming to my house with a belt. A shotgun would be a much worse consequence though.
• 

  LucidSky

  quote:

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  Once an elder told me that if I didn't start coming to meetings he was coming to my house with a belt.

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  Ridiculous. Why should only elders get to have all the fun?

  quote:

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  "If you're going to get mad at me every time I do something stupid,
  then I guess I'll just have to stop doing stupid things." - H. Simpson

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• 

  QUEENIE

  NO TELLIN WITH JWs in regard to meeting attendance....I however do not give a tinkers damn what their policy is on any given subject so they are slowly getting the message !!!! peace ((((hugs))))

  QUEENIE and family (LISA and MAMIE kitty)
• 

  ozziepost

  This issue may not be so funny. There is more attention being given to the 'stay-aways' i.e. shepherding calls.

  The conversation will run something like this:

  Why aren't you at the meetings?

  Do you accept the Faithful & Discreet Slave?

  The elders are 'primed' to take this line of questioning.

  If you do answer as you really feel, it's likely that DA will soon follow.

  Our advice: Don't be home when they call! Or say you've been unwell and you're 'not up to it' at present.

  Of course, if you have sorted out your beliefs and where you're going, so to speak, then DA may be meaningless... so GO FOR IT!

  Cheers,
  Ozzie

  "If our hopes for peace are placed in the hands of imperfect people, they are bound to evaporate."

  
  - Ron Hutchcraft Surviving the Storms of Stress
• 

  metatron

  I think they are pushing more 'shepherding' (i.e. harassment).

  Dumping subscriptions was supposed to help meeting attendance,
  since you have to go to pick them up.

  metatron
• 

  Amazing

  When I heard things like this at the time I was an Elder, I thought of them as joking comment of concern. Sometimes, I would say that we need to visit so-and-so to light a fire under them. The desire was to get people active again.

  The summer District Conventions in 1992 the Society gave talks about viewing thosew who miss meetings as 'worldly.' Since I have not really been back except for a funeral and a wedding, I have no way of knowing how strongly they have continued to enforce this new view. It was new to me because when I was a Catholic in 1968, missing mass was a mortal sin ... and the JWs capitalized on this by telling me that missing a meeting was not a sin. So this is a change.

  Sometimes, the Society comes out with blazing glory programs that fizzle and get dropped. Many lifelong JWs see this, and often do not take the Society as seriously as those who are converts.
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  ThiChi

  In 1995, I gave a talk based on a Kingdom Ministry of that year that stated that even though someone is not attending meetings, that does not mean that they do not love Jehovah or the Organization.......I believe the Elders where just showing their concern.

  "Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once" - Buckaroo Bonsai
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  noidea

  ThiChi..

  I agree that it was intended that way also..I do think that he should have said it to me personally instead of my daughter in front of a group of people. My non-attendance is not for her to defend. She politely told him that I was a big girl and knew where the Hall was....out of the mouth of babes.