Thought on “0 hours” reporting

by FFGhost 83 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Vidiot

  no-zombie - “…we can be sure that the Governing Body isn't making these changes to somehow lighten our load.”

  Agreed.

  The way I see it, any appearance of mainstreaming/conscientious reform can only be just that…

  …appearance.

  Why?

  Because one of the most integral aspects of mainstream religion is (either explicitly or implicitly) abandoning the claim of being the only path to salvation, or being the only group with divine favor.

  And after nearly a century of insisting that they’re “God’s Exclusive Earthly Organization”, that is simply unthinkable for the Watchtower.

  To do that after all this time, everything they’ve said and done to reinforce that premise will have been for nothing.

  They’d be eliminating any remaining incentive to even BE a Jehovah’s Witness.
• 

  no-zombie

  Why I said that the Governing Body only changes things because it benefits them, can be seen in nearly every big change they've made.

  For example, why were District conventions reduced in length from 7 to 3 days long? Because attendance was dropping off, and it cost them money to rent these facilities. Why was the Watchtower and Awake magazines shrunk until our letterbox junk mail, are thicker? Because the Organization realized that householders were just throwing them in the bin and they were wasting money. Why do Kingdom Halls have no building insurance? Because the Governing Body, knew that they could save the premiums by getting its free labor force to repair its damaged properties for nothing.

  Its just the same pattern now repeating but in organization context. So you can bet the Governing Body hasn't dropped the reporting requirement for nothing ... particularly since its been such a great tool to pressure conformity.

  The reasons will manifest themselves in due time, however we may have to wait until next years AGM to see if these changes are part of a trend.
  
• 

  Journeyman

  I agree with Vidiot. The org depends on the idea of being "God’s Exclusive Earthly Organization" for at least three reasons:

  1. it's their theocratic understanding of the Bible - that only one, small body of people has been selected by God, in opposition to the majority of religion which is in Satan's control;
  2. it's the only way they can maintain control, especially as they are now having to admit they do not have any special 'revelation' or 'powers' directly from God;
  3. it's the only way they can attract new members, by appearing to offer something special and different.

  Therefore, there are some 'red lines' that they really cannot cross due to their fundamental teachings and their need to 'stand out'. Otherwise, they'd become just like any other supposedly Christian splinter group.

  Appointing women as elders is one such red line. It just will not happen.

  However, they might create a sort of 'administration' role for women - a cut-down version of the ministerial servant role perhaps - so that they can do things like literature, accounts, platform, and so on, but NOT teaching to the congregation. I can't see they'll ever change that.

  Where I do agree with dropoffyourkeylee though, is that removing the reporting of hours helps to lower the bar to find men to appoint. That's an important factor in trying to ensure the survival of the org in the short-to-medium term, as it is losing young men (and older ones who are burning out).

  So that's a third probable reason we've worked out for this sudden reversal of decades of reporting hours:

  1. To hide the drop in overall numbers and hours in most parts of the world;
  2. To make it easier to appoint men;
  3. To reduce the cost of printing and distributing physical literature.
• 

  Vidiot

  The problem with lowering the bar for “qualified brothers”…

  …you inevitably end up stuck with lower-quality brothers.

  Not unlike the consequence of discouraging education and - by extension - intelligent people…

  …you can’t help but end up with a worldwide body of morons.

  😏
• 

  NotFormer

  Everyone gets a participation trophy 🏆😺!

  Are they continually "lowering the bar" with a view to eventually allowing women to do certain tasks in the Kingdom Halls? Not that allowing women in is "lowering the bar", but the old chauvinists in the GB probably think so.
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  dropoffyourkeylee

  The change from hours-reporting to yes/no-participation-reporting is one of the most significant changes in JW-land for many years. It may take quite a while, decades even, to play out, but what it will do is change the character of the leadership. Generally (borrowing from business management), changing criteria for leadership means a different skill set is needed to be successful, and to ultimately advance within that organization. Up to now, the WT has been modelled on advancing people with the personality and aptitude for being successful sales persons; introverts need not apply. These people define success as enthusiasm and skill in a door-to-door sales environment. Changing the requirments means that the non-sales person who despises door-to-door sales may now have a path towards leadership. I wouldn't call it 'lowering the bar', but 'changing the bar'. The effect over time will be dramatic for the JW world.
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  NotFormer

  dropoffyourkeylee, That's an interesting observation, that changing the business model changes the skill set required to advance within that business model. I wonder what type of people they are now trying to advance within the system?
• 

  Dagney

  I don’t believe the corporation cares at all about the R & F at any personal level, only at the grand total of “active” they can use for their charity status.

  As the source of qualified men diminish, they will prob revisit the body of elders model. They already have alternative ways of handling matters when needed. Canned programming is already in place for meetings whether in person or by zoom and fewer men are needed. Is there still a ministry school? I’m so out of touch. They can just have an online course at the org, since D2D is no longer important.

  I wonder what some elder and full time servants, and pioneers think. Does any of it matter anymore? The business model, and it is a business first, will evolve to preserve the corporation.
• 

  pepperheart2

  in a big city with over a million people the jws had 4 or 5 trolleys going and they all had magazines printed in either 2021 or 2020.

  why i think the watchtower is going for zero hours is so that they do not have to print as many magazines each time so saving money.because if you are going from door to door you are more likly to give out magazines or even single page tracts that they fold up (these days) but most people on the trolleys they just stand there by the trolley with nothing to hand. and if the numbers do go down in a country i dont think the corporation is really bothered esp if ut is in a western country where they can sell off the kingdom hall
• 

  XBEHERE

  If I remember correctly, if there is a 2/3 majority on the elder body vote, the minority elders must support the majority decision, thus it becomes unanimous. Probably same with GB

  Yes. Depending on the CO often they "prefer" certain things to be unanimous such as appointmernts. Otherwise we've been told in the past to submit a letter explaining why. Honestly though this was all B/S since the CO made the final call regardless. I felt like he was trying to root out disenters by exposing their viewpoints. My opinion anyway