I have heard some talk about each hall having a direct link, much like the regional conventions will to the international conventions. Whether each hall will have a projector screen or just audio remains to be seen, but you can see how it will save manpower (overhead costs.)
Why the Clean out of top Management
by Poztate 35 Replies latest jw friends
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TheListener
Perhaps the long term plan is to only have one elder in each congregation, sort of like going back to the days of the congregation servant. The newly unappointed elders would be assistants to the congregation servant - just like the old days before 1972.
Since the over 80s elders won't be eligible for this position it would fall to a younger more zealous brother than a feisty old older one.
This way the CO would only have to control one person, discipline or replace one elder per congregation if they didn't tow the line.
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metatron
We need to pay attention to the whole picture. What I'm seeing is bizarre.
Where do they think these new elders are going to come from? Are young men lining up to be appointed? Who wants to be a toady appointed by the all powerful CO?
I still see many rural/small town congregations that are barely alive with few, old and sick elders.
These changes are a combination of cost-cutting, 'devil take the hindmost' and simple arrogance.
metatron
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Ignoranceisbliss
im not much of a conspiracy theorist. I usually think things are done for more simple reasons , but some here make compelling arguments. I know that in northern michigan two Kingdom Halls have been dissolved in the last year. Hail, and ossanique (I have no idea how to spell the second one). These were combined with another hall about an hour away. Also the vast majority of the halls in our area are getting projection systems That can stream from bethel. Very interesting.....
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sir82
COs & DOs are not "top management". They are the middle managers.
I too wonder about the sudden imposition of age limits. As Metatron said, there ain't exactly a long line of 20- and 30-somethings clambering to sign up for elderhood.
Of course, one possibility is that they are utterly clueless dunderheads who are making changes on a whim with no real thought about long term consequences. But I mainly think they have some grand plan in mind, and these steps are just a few of many that will eventually take place.
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Socrateswannabe
Ignoranceisbliss, I am also skeptical of conspiracy theories. Most of what has been posted here is possible, but I'm in favor of a simpler answer as well. 80 year old COBEs and 70 year old COs are not going to cut the muster anymore, in a world of streaming videos and electronic communications. The WTS has surprisingly embraced technology because it drops their operating costs like nothing else can, and these old guys are probably resistant to the technology or the Borg thinks they are not tech savvy enough to keep up even if they wanted to. The same goes for DOs since most of them seem to be pretty old. Plus with the DOs, someone at World HQ woke up one morning and had the brainstorm that the DOs job was completely superfluous. That was the easiest decision they ever made. All of these decisions have been made without considering the human element (the heartbreak of ending careers for people who have given their lives to a cause), but that's the way big corporations operate, whose only consideration is the bottom line.
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gingerbread
We have been close to a number of Circuit Overseers in the past couple of decades. A few years back they all began to share the sentiment that the WT was being run much more like a 'business' - more than ever before.
The Watchtower is rebranding itself into JW.org.
A "new" 21st century Jehovah's Witnesses is emerging.
ginger
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jgnat
COs & DOs are not "top management". They are the middle managers. - sir82
Ditto. Corporations clean out middle management all the time as a cost-saving measure. The WTS is also very poor at succession planning. If they have too many old dudes in the middle layer, how can they train and inspire the next generation of suck-ups?
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new hope and happiness
Old timers i any organisation often become placid. And wishing them no harm i am sure this fact slows down, so there dubious activities, and there ideas no longer stir and invigarte and make ( indirectly) MONEY.
I think money to any organistion now is simply Didgits on a computer screen. That is what money is now. Its not in a " Publishing company" anymore.
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sparrowdown
So is the jury in on this yet, are they becoming more cult-like since this post from 7 months ago?
GBTV is definitely here.