by minimus 71 Replies latest jw friends
I have been to church services, where the real minister or pastor has done an alter call of sorts. Basically, anyone who wants to come down to the stage can go down and declare their acceptance of Jesus.
I have seen thousands go down and do that, and that one talk by the pastor made more of a difference in those peoples lives than millions of hours spent knocking on doors.
Freedom.......subjective and your experience, not that much difference from mine. Come on now....
Such an interesting thread - and I can only write about my experiences with 30 yrs active jw woman.
I liked going out in service with the other women.....particularily in the country & long coffee breaks. Nice friendships sometimes.
I didn't like going out with my children or anybody else's children...kids just don't like it for some, unknown reason.
So the love I was sharing with strangers was the love of *saving* them from being killed by Jehovah or living in a Paradise Earth by Jehovah.
lol - it's perfectly clear why the preaching work is a "life saving work". The life you save is your own & your kids....and maybe someone else.
We were taught that few persons would "just die" at Armageddon...old age, sickness. The vast majority of adults & children dead at Armageddon were to be killed by Jehovah God - in the "Day of His Vengence."
Hey Scoob! Please respond to my post a page back, here's a snippet:
It's obvious to people, Scoob, that the preaching work, though undertaken by many sincere people, of whom I was one, would grind to a halt if the requirement of reporting time on a slip of paper every month was eliminated. You know that it's true. Deep down, Scoob, you know it's true.
(okay, the tone of voice here is of curiosity:) Do you agree that reporting hours should be eliminated?
Do you agree that this would make a huge difference in how many actually go out in the preaching work?
I'm not being belligerent, Scoob, I sincerely want to know if you think that counting hours isn't a control mechanism. Just a yes or no, I won't even respond to it, I'm just curious.
Me Me!!! Can I answer??? Reporting time or not reporting keeps people under CONTROL because if you don't report time, they call you for the reason. If you don't have a BS, they may call you as to why. Stop reporting and tell brothers and sisters that "sacred service" includes helping the congregation's needy and see how many go out in service.
There is only one role, one job for a good JW. It does not matter what his or her talents might be. Jamming all people in to a single role is NOT Christian. Even first century christians performed many acts of service that were equally honored. Like serving tables, sewing clothes, hosting travellers, and on and on. Romans 12:4-8
Very good point jgnat, and a very interesting (and cute) story told by your Pastor.
JW's try to make us believe that all EVERY Christian did was preach and teach people. They say you couldn't be a Christian unless you were a preacher. Jesus told his immediate disciples that were with him to make disciples and teach. Does this mean that EVERYONE is obligated to do this today???
When in service, jws seldom talk about the work, or techniques for doing it better. They seem to have two main concerns - getting through the morning and taking coffee break. How many really are mentally or emotionally involved with what they are doing? I seldom saw that, and here's why - most normal people can't be. It doesn't mesh with what most people are and what they enjoy doing. If a jw tries to go over a presentation in a car or talk extensively about the magazine article they are featuring, aren't they seen as 'over-zealous' or maybe even self-righteous?
Most jws are giving up a lot just to be out there. As a result, they feel that there's not much effort that they want to put into doing it especially well. And again, who can blame them?
Another thing: how many jws really count time strictly to the Society's stated rules of doing so? They in reality want to devote as little time as they can to this work, so they find ways to inflate the appearance of time spent. And once again, I never would blame them a bit. It's not natural to want to do it the way the Society wants it done. In fact, we had one sister who was very 'by the book' in that regard - and she was widely viewed, even by the elders, as being "righteous overmuch".
Also,during the meeting for field service,the one taking the lead would put himself with the best ones to pal out with,ie.coffee,lunch,telephone witnessing,back calls oops! I mean return visits.
When my wife would stay home I was always getting certain ones that the elders did not want to spend their service with.I did not mind,I just knew what they were up to.I would work with anyone and many wanted to be my partner in the field service
.When the Bethelites came out on that rare saturday ,it was to hang out with whoever could take them out,forget about really encouraging weak one in the field.
Remember when they had that program where the pioneers would help all the weak ones to grow strong in the service,well it never really was put into practice.
Now,Bro.Blueblades you and ( Bro.we don't give a hoot about ) will work together in that territory no one wants to work.
