by Quarterback 28 Replies latest jw friends
I moved into this new cong for over two years now. We have this younger couple that are part time CO's. I know that they would be busy serving a cong when they are asked to do so, but that is not too often.
When I go in FS, everyone is wondering where the heck these guys are. They don't show up at the arrangements. They are phantoms, I only see them appear when the regular CO appears.
They are Reg pioneers, so they must put in 70 hrs a month. How is this done?
i know a couple like that. Maybe they are are same people
It's called "lying on your time report"
No, Hoser.
I think that there are more of them alike
Most congregations have pioneers like that. We had a sister in our cong who was very rarely seen out in the ministry but always boasted 2/3 through the month that she "had her time in now" - it used to really annoy other pioneers who really struggled to get their time in and always supported the arrangements.
Some are just winging it - fake hours etc. The couple you mentioned have the advantage of being temporary COs , so that kind of blurs things a bit. I've a relative who is technically a regular pioneer but he does a lot of RBC stuff , occcasionally fills in for the CO , special committees - DF appeals etc. People in his congregation say exactly the same about him and his wife - they hardly ever meet with the groups , turn up sometimes at meeting for field service to lead the group then go away doing "calls" or "society work" etc.
In fairness , there are some pioneers who are pretty anti-social - they only like to work with their pioneer partner or husband / wife and have enough route calls and studies to basically do very little ministry with the groups.
It's not done. I & my wife have been sickened by it for years. She has often made the statement that the number of hours reported in the year-end report should probably be cut in half, and that's being generous. Her own regular pio grandmother was a joke to the family; she would go off in her bedroom and write letters for a few minutes and come back a short while later and claim she had her time in for the day.
I saw that kind of stuff often. Wow - the stories I could tell. It burned me up. For one reason, I always had to take up the phantoms' slack - handling entire congregations and (literally) entire cities because the phantoms were off doing whatever phantoms do. I'm talking about reg pios, elders, ms's. Heck, we even had CO's who were phantoms in the sense that they wasted time and tried to do as little real work in the ministry as possible.
There was one who would, when his group had barely started working, tell the group "hey, I was at sister Green's house and I knocked over her expensive antique vase". Always, someone would ask "did it break?" He woud then say "did I hear break", and off they'd go to sip coffee and chew do-nuts. I heard one elder say something kind of negative about it because he was in this CO's group, and they drove 30 minutes to a rural territory, worked a few doors (from the car), and then went all the way back to town for the break. Then after the long break, there was time for one lame, dud return visit, and then it was time to meet for lunch.
If these guys love the ministry as much as they claim - if they really think it's as critical & life-saving as they claim - why do not their actions show it? What they love is the title and the glory. "They love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues." - Mt 23:6 (NIV)
In fairness , there are some pioneers who are pretty anti-social - they only like to work with their pioneer partner or husband / wife and have enough route calls and studies to basically do very little ministry with the groups.
But according to what I've been instructed by the org many times over many years, it shouldn't be that way. They should be visible and available to take the lead and help others. When I was a reg pio (and wife, too), I asked a CO if she and I could work by ourselves some of the time. He told me no - that we needed to be visible and available at the cong meetings for service.
I don't think what you said is "in fairness". I don't excuse those people at all because I was about as anti-social as one could get in that, although I truly believed in the ministry and was extremely zealous and self-sacrificing, I didn't want to be out at all. I dreaded going out. But I did often, almost daily, sometimes all day. And when I did go, I would have MUCH preferred to only work with my wife. But we split up and worked with nuts & slackers & weaklings all the time.
I don't excuse them one bit.
The only way it can be done is with creative time keeping.
I used to have a "friend" who regular pioneered without going out in service by using that method.
I'm sure he's an elder by now.
Magnum, I sense a great deal of loathing and contempt in your post, I used to feel the same way.
Believe me, I have seen it all from the long-time elder who insisted on working door to door non-stop until noon, a CO who actually encouraged mid-morning breakfast runs, to publishers who had perfected the "pioneer shuffle" (you know, the opposite of speed walking).
As the song by Idina Menzel says, just "Let it Go".
JustVisting - I'll think about what you said. Maybe I will be able to let it go one day. But it's very difficult. Consider this example. Suppose you called the appliance repair man out to your house on a Saturday morn outside his normal working hours because your refrigerator wasn't working. He got up and made a special trip to your house 20 minutes away. However, when he arrived, you found out you had just accidentally unplugged the frig. I'm sure you would feel really bad about inconveniencing him and would certainly pay him for his trip out.
Now think about that - you would (I hope) feel bad about the fact you inconvenienced him for 40 minutes on a Saturday morn. Well, I was inconvenienced every Saturday morn - not just 40 minutes, but 4 hours at least - every Saturday morn of every week for at least three decades. And not just Saturday morns, but most other morns of the week and lots of afternoons. And I got no compensation; I actually paid a whole lot of money to be inconvenienced.
Also, consider this. suppose you worked really hard at a really hard job for thirty years and were supposed to have a big retirement and reward at the end. Well, what if at the end you found out that you wouldn't be receiving anything - nothing for all the decades of sweat, misery, frustration, etc. - NOTHING. Not so much as a thanks. And the company wouldn't even hear your complaint. And the way you found out was almost trivial - just a couple of sentences in a company newsletter - as if it was trivial.
Yeah, it's gonna be a while before I can let it go, but maybe I should try. As I said, I'll think about it.
For all I know, your situation might be like mine - similar experiences. Maybe you're just better than I am.
