Pioneering- A social event?

freedom96

I was never a pioneer, so I don't know. I am just guessing from the ones I knew, and by their actions. The posting a little while ago about pioneers who were on welfare made me think of this.

I wonder how many pioneered simply for the social aspect of it, compared to how many really felt it in their heart.

Here is an example to think about. There certainly are missionaries from many different religions who will go to a foreign country to talk about the bible. They will go to a place that clearly is a 3rd world country, because it is in their heart. They will survive sometimes in horrible conditions, maybe even dangerous. No one makes them go, they go because it is really something they want to do.

How many pioneers were pioneers because they really wanted to??

Was it because they were pressured into it? From others in the hall, maybe family members did it? Maybe the elders suggested it? Because it was expected?

OR, was it a social event? Time to hang out with friends, go have that coffee break. And having the added praises for serving Jehovah probably fed the ego some.

Maybe it was an excuse not to have to face the real world. Getting a job, etc. Maybe it was easier going door to door?

Any thoughts?

Mulan

I really felt it was the right thing to do. I had it as a goal for a very long time, and when my circumstances finally allowed it, I signed up. The first year and a half were great, but after that it deteriorated for me. Two months into my third year, I had to quit................I was so negative and couldn't pull myself out of the hole I was in. (I don't mean time)

For me, it wouldn't have been a social thing. Some of the other pioneers were great, but there were some that made it miserable too.

The woman I was with the most, used to say that we did it for "the Glory". We always laughed about that, but there was also some truth to it. It was neat to be introduced as a pioneer, or have my husband tell someone his wife was a regular pioneer. That did feel good. We had lots of perks too, but it all involved work and study.

Francois

Did you ever notice that people who were converted to the JWs from other religions were LOTS more fanatical than people who were raised in the cult?

Me? I was raised in the cult, so I was blase' about it. But I knew some people who were converted, and MAN were they ever horrified at my idea of field service. You know, slow down to about 80 mph and throw in an old WT through the doors of a laundromat and THAT got our time started. Then slooooooowly to the nearest Awful Waffle for a leisurely breakfast with the scattered, covered, smothered and topped - leaving another WT and its companion magazine the Awake! (an entire college course in 32 pages) to keep the time going. Then a long drive to an unassigned rural territory...what am I telling you for. You all know the drill.

My point is that the converted were the real fanatics. Or they were in my experience. How bout yours?

francois

czarofmischief

My parents were converts - and they were the strictest people about keeping their time going and whatnot.

After my brother went insane, I loosened up a lot. Then things just kept falling apart, and the strictness just wasn't working or accomplishing anything - like no stopping for more than 15 minutes? Give me a break, literally...

It was the Oakdale Diner's pecan rolls that converted me to the Breakfast Club - one hour sitting and drinking coffee and eating those tasty nectar joys!

CZAR

wednesday

Yes, Francios, i totally relate to your version of FS, at least at the end. There was a time i took it very seriously.Once a pioneer sis studied with me. We taalked about this subject, as she and her hubby were converts. She said many of those raised in the org. were whiny spoiled babies who expected the org to do everything for them and balmed the org for their own problems. She said, we took the truth for granted, and did not realize how bad it was on the outside and really did not appreciate the spiritual paradise we had. She said we were emotionally immature and did not know how to function in life and wanted to blame the org for all our problems.

She was very active, and well liked. She was actaully one of the few people i knew who could not imagine why a jw would not be friendly with their neighbors, or coworkers.she of course blamed this on the individual jw interperttion, not the org tellng us eveyone was evil except jws.

Mulan

Hahahahhahahha. I was raised in it...............I was really strict. It bugged me to no end, when people didn't do all they were supposed to do.

Where were you guys? It wasn't that way in my area!!

pr_capone

I pioneered because I felt pressure to do so. It was what I had to do in order to put my hat in the ring for a position as a servant. That is the ONLY reason I pioneered. I was so burned out after pioneer school that I would not even talk at the doors, I would let everyone else handle them.

Gamaliel

I wonder how many pioneered simply for the social aspect of it, compared to how many really felt it in their heart.

I was raised a "third-plus-a-half generation JW." Yet, for me it true belief in the new system. Rather than graduate HS in 1975, I quit school even before I turned 16 to try get in 3 or 4 years of pioneering before the Great Day. I know I was naive -- I was baptized when I was 10 -- and had "vacation/auxiliary" pioneered for a couple months every year since 1967. It was based on true belief from 1972 up until mid-1975. That's when I heard my father try to dampen the enthusiasm of a fellow elder who was way too passionate about 1975. (His fellow elder had already returned from "Gilead Missionary" in Ecuador when the wife got pregnant.) I could see that my own father didn't completely believe in 1975, and he sometimes joked that the apostle Paul would have screamed bloody murder if he found out that we JWs were demanding that field service slips be turned in. I wasn't supposed to overhear these ideas. But somehow they didn't sink in until a few years of service at Brooklyn Bethel. (Even there I auxiliary pioneered a few months.)

I wasn't very good socially anyway. I had a few JW friends, but I don't think I was a very good friend socially. I was more of a loner who, even in my teens, spent a lot more days hiking alone through several hundred acres of mid-Missouri than spending time with friends.

I knew that a lot of my pioneering partners were partly in it for social reasons, and I enjoyed the ease of it for the first two years. But I soon found I could easily get all my pioneering time to nearly 100% Bible Studies and spent less time with the others, unless they wanted to accompany me on Bible Studies. (I was more of a JW recruiter on the University Campus where my father worked and taught so it was easy to get as many Bible Studies as I wanted.)

Was it because they were pressured into it? From others in the hall, maybe family members did it? Maybe the elders suggested it? Because it was expected?

I know that the pressure for me came from those ideas planted by the "Kingdom Ministry (KS)" about how good it would be to spend more time in full-time service in "the few remaining months" before the end.

OR, was it a social event? Time to hang out with friends, go have that coffee break. And having the added praises for serving Jehovah probably fed the ego some.

I'm afraid I was a bit self-righteous on that count, and I always felt guilty about the way we handled rural territory. 6 of us would work rural territory and two people would be in a house for up to an hour. (We were kind of talkative in rural Missouri.) Part of the reason I didn't like the coffee breaks was because my mother started pioneering a couple years after I started, and she was one of the worst offenders at finding an excuse for another coffee break. Hmmm, come to think of it I was pioneering daily with two good-looking sisters for two years, and then my mother came along - no wonder I left them for 100% Bible Studies.

Maybe it was an excuse not to have to face the real world. Getting a job, etc. Maybe it was easier going door to door?

Definitely. The moduls operandi of most any witness to some extent.

Gamaliel

Edited by - Gamaliel on 2 February 2003 0:37:49

happy man

Intresting Gamalieil, and how commes that you leave us if you was so devoted, myself never was so sure tahat this was the only thruth, but If I must bee in some religion, JW suit mee fine.

ChristianObserver

An observation from an *outsider* who recently saw a group of Jehovah's Witnesses whilst away from home.

I was sitting in the car checking some details for a funeral which I was about to attend and I saw 2 ladies *ambling* and chatting along a lane with very few houses in it. Something about the way they walked alerted me and I watched them puzzled for a moment. They walked very slowly to the furthest house and entered the driveway. As they were walking down the drive, 2 other ladies hoved into view, walking at the same slow pace and chatting to each other.

There was nothing out of the ordinary in their way of dressing, but it was this slow walk which seemed so unnatural on what was a very chilly day. The second pair of ladies turned into one of the first driveways and called over to the first pair of ladies, indicating the 3 house in between.

And then I saw a magazine cover in the bag of one of the second pair of ladies and the penny dropped. At the same moment a gentleman appeared - alone - and at the same slow pace - and he then stood chatting to the second pair who had had no success at their first 2 doors.

In normal circumstances I would have made time to speak to the group, but on this occasion I could not risk being late for the funeral.

One further observation, though, and I don't know if it is a general impression of other non Jehovah's Witness UK'ers or just me - but I had never realised that we were expectred to pay for or make a contribution for the magazines! I had always thought that they were given away free - as seems to be customary with the Churches over here which have a budget for printed materials if an *evangelism* project takes place.

I have never been asked for payment when I have accepted the magazines, and I have always been polite and grateful to the people at the door, but I had NO IDEA that payment was expected. The idea of paying for such materials is alien to my own experience and alien to my own views on evangelism.

Am I alone in that view, or is it a *UK* thing...? Are things rather different in the US...?

Just wondering...

Pioneering- A social event?

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