by RULES & REGULATIONS 37 Replies latest jw experiences
long ago had become a revolving position. AH, the revolving position, a breath of fresh air. The Dominators hated that so much. from presiding overseer to school servant. The time of the big increases. Part of my assignments as special pioneer was to neutralize super egos and bring sanity back to dysfunctional, gridlocked congregations. Underwhelm them with power from above (the branch).
pete zahut said:
I was once in a Congregation where the original Presiding Overseer (and his wife) continued to rule the roost even though i long ago had become a revolving position.
Can someone explain what a revolving position is? I have an idea what it means but can someone please clarify?
An Elder , also a friend at the time was a regular in ,giving talks at our circuit assembly`s till one day the other Elders in that circuit thought he was getting a bit up himself , and that he needed to be brought down a peg or two so what did they do ? They didn`t assign him any more talks on circuit assembly`s anymore , and you could see he was visibly upset by that.
I have seen power politics rear its ugly head a number of times in congregations and I still didn`t wake up . now banging my head against the computer desk .thud , thud , thud ,
smiddy
The revolving position was a great idea. It stopped power hungry men from having too much power. I have only been with two congs in over 30 years as a Witness and in both of them the presiding overseer had to be "taken out" as he got way too big for his boots. In both cases the revolving position idea had been changed to what it still is now, where a presiding overseer, or coordinator as he is called now, serves indefinitely, and unless the circuit overseer gets involved and takes action, it is very difficult to remove these men. This can take a long time. One of the two I mentioned was bossing everybody around for well over a decade.
Our KH when I was growing up had two "clans" of elders and their families (isn't it funny how the holy spirit so often selects families of existing elders or presiding overseers?)
Anyways ... they battled, constantly. Sometimes it was public arguments in the form of comments from the platform I think our hall was beyond dysfunctional, it's a wonder the WTS didn't nuke it from space to be sure ...
The backstabbing and intrigue that went on would have put Henry VIII court to shame.
Actually that is a good point Simon , I have been in a couple of congregations where clans existed .Family dominated , father and son , Son in law ,all Elders in the one congregation , what power they existed in the congregation .That was in S.E.Qld.
In my first congregation an influential family had there eldest son as presiding overseer as they were called in those days and his younger brother was his assistant 2IC if you will. , this was in Vict. Aust.
As a side note : 2 IC`s wife played the piano at our wedding in a KH ,, she later committed suicide when 2IC was convicted of pornography .
Very sad.
smiddy
I loved the congregation fights between 2 congregations....white shirt or white shirt; mustache or not, 2 piecings in one ear or only one (called NY for that). Want a mustache, just switch congregations.
There's always a hierarchical structure on elder bodies. Normally its the COBE on the top and he has minions that rank in subsequent order the rest of the service committee usually falls in the top 3 or 4. The rest of the elders are "bantha fodder" and have no real power to speak of.
The CO comes in and gets the scoop from elder 1-4 early in the week then puts on a pretense of an elders meeting with all the elders on Friday to "discuss" issues and appointments even though every decision has been predetermined.
I can almost guarantee this is the formula for most elder bodies and CO visits.
