The Last Days of a Pioneer (page 2)

FFGhost

Pioneering was pushed as a full time career, but you still needed to work and it just made everything unbearable.

Funny how the ones pushing the hardest for the rank & file to take up "full time service" are the ones least worried about making ends meet, either because they happen to be one of that rare breed of wealthy JWs, or are Bethelites whose entire cost of living - food, clothing, shelter, medical care, utilities, cleaning, even (if high enough up the ladder) vacations & travel - is completely paid for by contributions from other people.

I.e., the less worried the guy is about money, the more they push others to not worry about money.

Not "ha-ha" funny - "infuriating to the point of blinding rage" funny.

madisoncembre

punkofnice:

I absolutely dreaded the door knocking stuff. I only pioneered(tm) to virtue signal.

That's what is is all about. Virtue signaling. I fell most if not all of us were there to show the elders and the COs that we were bought in and loyal JWs. If left to our own choices, field service would have been a rare thing. The part about pioneering where they just pushed and pushed it on you at conventions bothered me, but I ended up doing it anyway. I foolishly felt that doing so and putting in the time would decrease the pressure, but in some ways it only increased it. Now I was a "fine example" who was held to an even higher standard because I was trotted out as the kind of JW to aspire to.

Good for you Madz. Good for you.

Absolutely love that nickname. Thanks!

I even recall an Elder(tm), saying from the pratform, the door knocking work didn't work.

Wow, that would have had a huge effect on me had I heard that. Why send us out there if they knew it wouldn't work? I felt like we were lab rats or trained robots. They wanted to send us here, instruct us to do that as a part of a brain conditioning exercise. I'd rather they had given us a dose of something and skip the pointless exercises.

It was a guilt making factory. The whole Corporation(tm), is all about getting money and assets for the Governing Body(tm)(Pee be upon them), so these gluttonous CEOs of a Corporation(tm) posing as a fake religion, can live a rock star lifestyle.

100%. Everything was tailored to what was good for the organization and their travelling representatives never let us forget it. We were told we were serving God but we were only serving them. I think that is what gets many people later and makes them bitter not only towards the JW religion but towards God. Sure, the GB makes cameos out in field service but it's never anything regular. I cringe whenever I see something published to that effect.

madisoncembre

HiddlesWife:

CONGRATULATIONS on and for your decision to leave off this "privilege of service"! I can concur with all of the other posters when they say that they HATE field circus.

I love that term "field circus"! First time I have heard it. And that is exactly what it is. One use circus or shitshow and now that I am an observed, it is clear to me how forced and contrived it is. Virtually no one really wants to do it and it's become a ritual now, every bit as much as the Pharisees in Bible times. It's an incredible burden to place upon people who are already hard-strung to get other matters in their lives together. Worldly people would ask me what I was doing on the weekend and my heart would immediately sink. Weekend or weekday, there was hardly any difference.

WT, for decades, didn't and still doesn't GIVE A DAMN about the wellbeing and safety of their members.

Precisely. As I mentioned in my blog, I am from the southern US and you have to have a screw loose to drive up to a rural property uninvited and unannounced. I can count on three fingers how many times I was threatened with a gun and once had it aimed fight at my head. But they wont change any policy regardless of what local standards and common sense dictate.

madisoncembre

Funny how the ones pushing the hardest for the rank & file to take up "full time service" are the ones least worried about making ends meet, either because they happen to be one of that rare breed of wealthy JWs

My father-in-law is one of these such people. He's wealthy even by worldly standards and is never shy about taking vacations to his beach house or overseas supposedly to attend conventions. Yet both him and his sons (my estranged husband included) are all notorious for putting in as little time in the field ministry as possible. And they are the ones giving the talks from the platform saying "pioneer pioneer pioneer!". He can easily retire and go into the pioneer work. But he has resisted it for years, and I think for precisely that reason - he doesn't want to be held to this standard. He'd rather run his company and get richer than retire into full time service.

Hypocrites, all of them. I am so fed up with all of this.

Rattigan350

The only thing that I liked about field service was the indepth stuff. Arguing the trinity and who go to heaven and other doctrinal material. I never wanted a Bible study because I can't imagine myself sitting across from someone and telling them to read this paragraph and then to answer this question, and then to tell them how to live their lives and then having them do the questions for baptism.

About 10 years ago I just stopped doing it because I just don't care about these random people we are meeting at the doors.

madisoncembre

Rattigan350:

I never wanted a Bible study because I can't imagine myself sitting across from someone and telling them to read this paragraph and then to answer this question, and then to tell them how to live their lives and then having them do the questions for baptism.

I had two Bible Studies at different times during my pioneer days. I was excited about getting one, but it quickly turned into something else when I found that I had to actually defend the organization on every point and it started feeling like I was the one taking a difficult and proctored test. So many times it deteriorated into the throwaway line of "I'll have to do research and get back to you". Elders weren't of any help since they always pointed you to WT literature. It's crazy that we were trying to sell people on making huge live altering changes and the only proof we had was of something our religion had printed years ago.

I ended up turning over my first Bible study to an older sister who was better equipped and experienced. My second one was a younger woman who thought of me as a friend and liked having me over. She wasn't listening to anything I was saying and I don't blame her. It all hammered down the point that this all had no point.

FFGhost

He can easily retire and go into the pioneer work. But he has resisted it for years

I read your blog () and the details are a little different, otherwise I would say I know exactly who you are taking about - or at least someone very similar.

The thing that chuffed my hide was, he was already retired and outrageously wealthy. Played golf X times per week (mostly a congregation gossip chat) with his other less-wealthy-but-also-retired buddies. Went out in service 2-3 times per week, exactly 2 hours per session - not a second more. Reported 20-24 hours of field service per month.

That "20+" made him look like such a "star" - double the national average! How exemplary!

But of course, if he really took seriously the words he spoke from the platform, he could have easily pioneered - 70, 80, 90, 100 or more hours per month. He literally had nothing else to do. It's a "life saving vital work", right?

Unless it conflicts with your tee time.

madisoncembre

But of course, if he really took seriously the words he spoke from the platform, he could have easily pioneered - 70, 80, 90, 100 or more hours per month. He literally had nothing else to do. It's a "life saving vital work", right?

What truly bothers me about that is not that they are getting 10-20 hours worth of time in or that they are wealthy. They pester other people to put in the long pioneer hours when they conveniently allow themselves exemptions from that rule. And you're right, this elder was totally set for the pioneer service unlike the people they loved to counsel to do so. But he didn't. That's what they give those talks about, right?

"What prevents you from pioneering?"

Nothing in their case. So when are they signing up? And if not, why not?

Foolednomore

I Pioneered for a month. But my parents and I came to the conclusion that this No way of supporting myself. So I took college courses. The elders were very angry by this action. I ask them all in a meeting. Are you going to support me? How about 100 dollars from each of you a month? They gave the usual run around. I left it that someone is got to support me. And I'm taking care of business. I started to work part time job and classes at night. My parents got counseled by the elders for it but didn't care much for what they had to say.

Rattigan350

I pioneered back in the late 80s, early 90s because the organization was growing, flourishing. The fulfillment of expectations was yet ahead. The anointed number was going down & 1914 + 80 was yet ahead. There was plenty of spiritual food and the meetings and assemblies to invite people to. The DOs and COs were good and respected. The governing body back then meant something. They went back to the 1920s and even 1914. They had history.

Now a days there is none of that.

The Last Days of a Pioneer

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