Slow motion pioneers

by 1Averagejoe 33 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  1Averagejoe

  Observing our local unemployed pioneers and how long they take to get to their first or next call, usually taking the longest route to get to one they know won't be there anyway. Along the way it's gossipy this and that.

  Pioneers? Picture the early secular pioneers in their field whether it was search for gold (rush) or the J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie did they accomplish their goals with such slacking?

  Back when I was a regular pioneer it was 90 hours all while holding a job. Okay, okay, I was that brainwashed. Moving on.. It was then stressed "don't count your time but make your time count." - groan!

  Yet In my congregation none of them are reaching their targeted hours. One didn't even have a bible study after three years at it that she had to be given a "born in" to do the second book.

  Circus Overseer didn't even mention their poor performance in his last visit, probably afraid they'll have to be stopped all together.

  Any similar observations in your area? If so, what gives?! Give up already!
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  purrpurr

  It mostly seems like a social club these days. More time is spent chatting, getting coffee and takeaways than actually knocking on doors.

  I know of several who have admitted to me that they inflate their hours "I'm sure I must have in the past forgotten to count my time when informal witnessing so I add it on when I'm short that month" yeah right (!)

  I also know of one brother who regular pioneered for years and never got his hours in! But strangely enough the elders never did anything about it.
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  _Morpheus

  Yea i too pioneered when it was 90 hours and worked a regular job... Sigh..... I would say even then (early 90's) there was a definite social element but that serious element was strong. Now it really does seem to have swung to be almost totally social. Not just people standing at carts, in all phases. They tap lightly on doors, they slow walk all the time, return visits are always people not at home. Its always too hot or too cold or too rainy.. In the old days it was neither rain nor sleet....

  its awesome! Nothing better than seeing a doomsday cult peter along with no real sense of urgency :)
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  millie210

  I pioneered for the first time at 20 and it was 100 hours.

  I used to end up with laryngitis because my pioneering was hard core genuine due to my pioneer partner being an 80 yr old widow with a lot of vim and vigor.

  I quit pioneering to have a family and many years later jumped back in and the whole scene of pioneering was quite different.

  It was basically a bunch of people barely going out in service in the morning with the publishers and then meeting back for lunch and then long afternoon hours drifting around doing useless stuff. Things like studying with people with Alzheimers in nursing homes who basically didnt know they were even there and certainly wouldnt remember! But hey, it was sitting down and climate controlled so the pioneers went for it.

  Another thing, there is a LOT of gossiping and the accompanying judging that goes on during those long afternoons of doing "nothing" that some call pioneering.
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  eyeuse2badub

  100 hours per month when I pioneered back in the late 60's. I was trained well by a long-time pioneer on how to s t r e t c h your time. My favorite was find a shady porch, hope no one was home, and just rehearse your 'sermon' to the householder, who's 'invisible' presence was most appreciated.

  just saying!

  eyause2badub
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  Designer Stubble

  My wife pioneered for over a decade, 90 honest hours a month, while holding a Job...

  Seeing the dubs now sitting next to a cart, gossiping away while writing their easy hours is a complete joke.
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  TheWonderofYou

  With 17 I made streetservice at the railway station, in front of a bakery, even schoolmates passed by and sometimes a young hot sister .... even after 30 y she greeted me last year, that astonished me. Later I got known for my special street service, not standing but walking around. I threw away many mags cause i bought too much, i worked 2 years only 25 hours for pioneering, but i could not cope with the hours most time.This was depressing for me. The eteneral single life was depressing too.i was sometims euphoric and sometimes depressed. Wanted to be an example, finally what other way is in the truth? Or better work, save money, found a family, but where is the girl, not one to find........ waiting ..................it was a time of doubt too. The blood issue became a monstrious important thing in my mind. I was not happy in pioneering, the whole lifestyle as jdub became senseless.
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  stan livedeath

  i was a 100 hours a month pio in the UK in the late 60's--from age 18 to 21. my time included lunch breaks--travelling from a first call--even if no-one home--to the group meet up. visiting the elderly in the cong--doing odd jobs for them----and the sick. lighting the coal burning boiler at the KH in the winter.

  all a total waste of time. just a social thing really--there were quite a few of us. i never bought anyone into the cult. quit at 23.
  
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  Juan Viejo2

  eyeuse2badub -

  I was also a JW back in the 1950s and 60s. While going to jr. high and high school I would always pioneer during my summer break. If I remember correctly, in those days vacation pioneering was 70 hours. I would ride my bicycle to the territory and then begin to count my time and stop counting when I left the territory. I hit every house in that territory. That's what I did because I truly believed that Jehovah was watching me and that if I cheated on counting my time He would make me pay dearly.
  

  I always had this vision that on Judgement Day, while cleaning up after Armageddon, I'd hear a booming voice from heaven that would call down at me and say,
  

  "Sorry young brother, but you aren't going to make it through. You skipped a home on Prince Albert Drive that had someone who lived there that was ready to accept the Truth that very day. But the next day that person was killed in a car accident. Because she had done some very bad things before and never learned the truth, I have to leave her dead - all because of you." And then a lighting bolt would drop down from heaven and turn me into pot roast.
  

  I'm serious. That's what I really thought. But then I would see elders ("servants" in those days) skip houses or sit in their car and chat while others were knocking doors. I'd hear gossipy sisters talk about only doing houses on the shady side of the street so they wouldn't get sunspots on their face or neck. I realized early on that I was the often the only one in service that day that truly believed that the holy spirit, Jesus, and Jehovah gave a shit about our group doing door-to-door the way we had been taught at Ministry School.
  

  When I finally left when I was in my early 20s I never looked back even though my wife continued going for about 5 more years and my parents were "serving where the need was greater."
  

  Now I look at JWs and their less than half-hearted preaching work. Elders come to my door and stuff an invitation into a flower pot on my porch rather than knock on the door. When I've caught them doing that, they just reach down, pull out the invitation and hand it to me - and then make a speedy exit. I see them on the street lazily walking along and skipping houses. I love watching them as they walk by and admire my wife's flowers or notice someone getting a new roof or taking a look at someone's new car, but then skipping those houses. When I was going door to door I knew to use all of those things as conversation starters - not an excuse to just take a lingering look and then go to the next house.
  

  So yes - I think that modern door-to-door witnessing is really a waste of time. JW.org is a far more powerful tool to get the word out. But potential converts will look at JW.org a few times and go WTF and never return. At least that's my prayer to the white-haired, white-robed guy in the sky sitting in his ivory and gold throne surrounded by white-haired gold-crowned Jesus and his army of white-haired white-robed angels.

  JV
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  freemindfade

  Forget pioneers yes they have a slower pace. Congregation elders omg. I worked with plenty that would do anything and everything not to even walk up to a door.