by sparrowdown 71 Replies latest jw friends
In our congregation at least, maybe only 2/3 of the "students" with assignments would bother to show up on any given night. Often there would be even fewer, and they'd end up cancelling the 2nd school rather than having 3 impromptu substitute speakers.
I imagine many if not most congregations had similar issues. So that's at least part of it, I suspect.
cappytan - "...not enough brothers reaching out."
Yup.
Fewer and fewer "qualified" (and willing) guys.
Never underestimate the power of passive resistance.
I see the elders becoming nothing more than glorified ushers at the GBTV show.
And the MS's like an IT department. Or possibly the other way round, but the MSs are usually younger and have more computer skills.
Either way the info will increasingly continue to come from the big giant heads on a screen.
Alright, I have been quiet on this subject because I am still not sure if I believe it. I would be quicker to believe it if it wasn't for those absurd new names for the meeting segments. Digging for spiritual gems? Really? But I digress...
If the school really is over, I can totally understand. I can't say too much without blowing my cover, lol, but I know at my kingdom hall, we have a pretty large congregation. We have the usual two schools, front and back. As you know, when somebody doesn't show for the front assignment, they get taken from the back school and moved up front, and the back school conductor can either give the talk himself, or direct his group to listen to the talk being given up front. Anyhow, what I am getting at is, I can think of MAYBE twice in the last 12 months that there have been all 6 students for both schools.They just don't show up anymore.
Same with demonstrations during service meeting parts. Seems like the brothers are always scrambling around looking for fill-ins for their demonstrations. One poor brother had 2 pairs of people cancel on him. The original ones assigned couldn't do it. Then he called around and found another set. Then they called back right before the meeting and cancelled on him. He got so upset that he just did the demonstration by himself.
Oh, and another congregation that I attended was much smaller, maybe 45 publishers. They took everything very seriously, and there were next-to-never cancellations. However, it was the same few brothers and sisters every week. We would joke that there were these 4 sisters that were "the demonstration sisters". They just always did them (pioneers, of course).
I don't know what I am trying to say. I guess that nobody takes anything seriously anymore anyway. The pubs in the big congregations blow off parts thinking that somebody else will pick up the slack (and the few go-getters end up doing the parts every time), The little congregations just have the same people do the parts every week too. It is quite a burden logistically for the elders and for the few witnesses that actually care to do their assignments. So I can understand why a change may need to be made.
I just can't see our old chairman saying "welcome to our 'digging for spiritual gems' meeting!". Ugh, it sounds so stupid. I feel like I should show up with a shovel and knee pads.
On a side note, if the Org is going to start combining congregations, I can see why they'd whack the school. They need the libraries to pack more congregations in. Can't do that if they are being used for the second school.
It's mostly a rebranding of the existing meeting. They are still going to have 3 presentations that will be between 3 - 5 minutes each. I'm sure they won't be entirely scripted and the presenters will have to do some research and adaptation. I think they will still be counseled on various points just like they were on the TMS.
Someone over on Reddit said that it was just announced that the BE book has been translated to ASL and will be released soon. I doubt they would translate it, announce it's release, and then shelve it in just a few months.
The most interesting part of the letter to me is the reduction, yet again, of the WT and Awake. I can't see how most JWs can accept that this is how Jehovah would "speed up the work".
2. The mid-week meeting has been dying in the ass for years and needs a revival
lol... that's a good one.
sparrowdown - "I see the elders becoming nothing more than glorified ushers at the GBTV show."
That would not go over well with some of 'em...
x
...although it would be a much more honest.
