Not enough reaching out

by pillsbury 15 Replies latest jw friends

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  pillsbury

  The Society has really been pushing hard lately (I know, like always) to do more and reach out. There is at least one reason for do this that I can think of. I have many friends around the country and they went to the elder school last year. In all the cases, it was brought up that there were far more elders than MS's at their respective schools (elders and MS's go to different schools). For most of them it was about a 2 to 1 ratio.

  This is a great change from 15-20 years ago or more. There always, for the most part, used to be more servants than elders. Now it is reversed. As the current elders start to die off or quit there is not going to be enough replacements to backfill. As has been brought out before here, the younger generation is just leaving and the ones that are staying around are not doing much. I think the sqeeze is already being felt and is just going to get worse as time goes on.
• 

  metatron

  I noticed this too and told the C.O. about it. I said the "B team" isn't there - the elders of the future are missing.

  He had no reply.

  In addition, I think the quality of the guys they're getting - relative to their demands - is in decline.

  metatron
• 

  Elsewhere

  They're starting to feel the "Brain Drain". This is when all the good and competent people leave an organization or company out of frustration for an intolerable internal culture.
  
• 

  DanTheMan

  The elderberries were always trying so hard to get me "regular" in service - "We could use you brother, if you would just put in 10 hours a month in service you'd be an MS in no time" was what they would say. There was a bit of desperation in their voices when they would say such things.

  No way, I didn't want the "privelege" of counting people at meetings, cleaning the toilets at assemblies, keeping track of territories, having an unspoken expectation of me auxillary pioneering 2 or 3 times a year, being the junior elder on shepherding visits, doing the announcements or the bible highlights at the TMS (zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz), etc.

  And as Metatron alluded to, some of the guys they have as ministerial servants are laughable. The "Z" team is more like it.
• 

  metatron

  Actually, this is wonderful news because a lack of elders means that disfellowshipping could decline

  and the Society's hold on congregations will erode.

  Even better news is that this sets the stage for more legal trouble because you have fewer capable men

  to handle problems. It's going to be quite a struggle with the trend towards more and more child-like, dependent Witnesses

  on the one hand and fewer elders on the other.

  metatron
• 

  95stormfront

  because you have fewer capable men to handle problems.

  I'd hardly describe the JW elders I know as being capable of anything.....
• 

  RubaDub

  As has been mentioned in previous threads, the "brain drain" as many call it is a direct result of the lack of new converts (new blood) coming into the organization. Instead, any "growth" in numbers is simply a result of inter-breeding within the organization.

  When you look at the baptismal candidates, the majority at every assembly I have been to in the last decade or so are children in their early to mid-teens.

  Thinking back to when I was growing up in the borg, many of the brothers could stand up and give an hour talk with nothing more than the bible in their hand. On Sundays, if the schedued speaker had to cancel, I recall my uncle several times simply scratching a few scriptures on a piece of paper and giving the entire talk. At times, even on the same subject that the scheduled speaker was to give.

  COULD YOU IMAGINE THAT TODAY ??? Without the Outline to read from, the vast majority of younger elders and ms's wouldn't know where to begin.

  How many of the elders or ms's under 40 years of age could do that today ? Most would appear like a deer caught in the headlights.

  When people are discouraged from any type of critical and analytical thinking, when research is defined as simply reading from an outline, what else should we expect.

  ***** Rub a Dub
• 

  shamus

  You mean if I go back now I can finally become a Ministerial Servant (tm) ???????????

  I'm going back... thanks all at JWD!

  Ministerial Servant, Brian. (aka, toilet cleaner)
• 

  stillajwexelder

  Why would you want to raech out -- be truthful -- with all the lawsuits going on -- if you handle a judicial case wrong -- the WTBTS wil lleave you on your own - -I would no longer want to be an MS or elder -- to big a risk of having my ass sued off
• 

  Winston Smith :>D

  Many good points brought out by all here...

  When people are discouraged from any type of critical and analytical thinking, when research is defined as simply reading from an outline, what else should we expect.

  ***** Rub a Dub

  The "dumbing down" of a JW has been taken to an extreme. Besides the Sunday outlines, the R&F are not taught to think for even the smallest items.

  The presentations for FS are now in the OKM's. For a Sunday WT Study, answers outside of the material found in a WT are virtually nonexistent and are not encouraged. The new schoolbook now gives sisters a larger array of settings, and the brothers only have to read a #2 talk now.

  And the WT uses convoluted reasoning in it's literature;

  "Friends, it is a known fact that more ice cream is consumed in the warmer months than during the colder months; therefore it is readily obvious to a person of discernment that a higher consumption of ice cream contributes to warmer weather."

  "As representatives of Jehovah's earthly organization, we therefore must be guarded with the amount of ice cream that we consume. While it certainly is a matter of conscience regarding how much ice cream each person decides to eat, would it not be a more loving attitude to forsake ice cream altogether rather than risk the possibility that we are contributing to global warming?"

  "Revelation 11:11 is quite clear what will happen to those ruining the earth. Do we want to lose Jehover's favor and risk our everlasting life because we indulged our imperfect cravings and contributed to ruining God's glorious creation? Friends, may that never happen!"

  Look for the above to appear in the ?QFR?s?

  Who can grow intellectually in an environment like that? The WTS and it's members are going through intellectual atrophy, and with no end in site.

  Why would you want to raech out -- be truthful -- with all the lawsuits going on

  stillajwexelder

  Gotta spread the losses around to everyone I guess