Sheep and Goats

Category: Meetings

  • They Put in Some Hours

    The sister in the Watchtower Study who decided not to go to law school, but work in a bank instead? I like the reason she gave. It’s not that she didn’t like law, thought it too hard, or was afraid to exert herself. She looked down the road and saw a roadblock: the near impossibility of finding part-time work. She wanted to do the ministry full-time. Just read a Grisholm novel to see the hours that lawyers work, especially new ones.

    There was also that great illustration on how having goals makes each decision easier. If you know you want to go to Ithaca, for example (and who doesn’t?),

    (http://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2008/06/few-odd-fellows.html)

    each intersection is a no-brainer. But if you don’t know that you want to go to Ithaca, each intersection calls for pouring over the map.

     

  • Who Doesn’t Need Encouragement?

    In that Watchtower Study about encouragement, it turns out that everyone can use it and everyone can give it. When it came to the paragraph on elders as recipients, the congregation we visited showered them with quite a few nice remarks. ‘I think we’re going to stay on this paragraph for the rest of the meeting,’ the conductor quipped.

    Yeah. If they are shelter from the wind, the rainstorm, or the roasting sun, then they need a coat of varnish now and then – maintenance, the same as you would maintain any barrier. It turns out that they don’t need much; they are mostly self-maintaining. A little bit of encouragement will do, especially coupled with cooperation and acquiescing to the lead they take, not unlike how Hebrews 13:17 puts it:

    “Be obedient to those taking the lead among you and be submissive, for they are keeping watch over you as those who will render an account, so that they may do this with joy and not with sighing, for that would be damaging to you.”

    When it came to encouragement that anyone might give anyone, a verse cited was Philippians 2:3; do it “with humility, consider the other superior to you.” This led someone to observe ‘How can that be? How can two persons each regard the other as superior?’ The trick is to look for the one or more things in the other person at which they are better than you …there will always be something…and then hone in on that quality. Failing that, the trap will be that someone gives encouragement in a looking-down way, or a patronizing way, undermining its intended effect.

    How many people really give encouragement, anyway? It certainly is not the pattern outside of the congregation. Look at social media and it would appear to be a scarce commodity indeed. It is good to surround oneself with people with whom encouragement replaces ‘cutting’ as a M.O.

    Then there was that part about Paul needing encouragement, and even rescue “from the unbelievers in Judea,” as though they actually came after him, and were not just the apathetic persons Christians typically encounter. One begins to wonder if he is not speaking of unbelievers in the congregation making trouble, for battling apostasy is a steady theme in the Greek Scriptures; there is not an NT writer who does not deal with it.

  • He Literally Stole the Illustration

    Every Witness has heard the one about the 40 different writers, from wildly diverse backgrouds…some kings, and some day laborers….over a period of some 2000 years. What are the chances that they will write a coherent book? And yet the 40 that are Bible writers have done so, steadily advancing the theme of God's kingdom arrangment developing.

    The speaker Sunday followed up with a comparison I have not heard before. It was that of 45 United States Presidents, all cut from basically the same cloth, over a far shorter period of time. Yet, would anyone say that they advance the same vision? Just ask Obama and then Trump.

    The speaker also flashed a $20 bill on the overhead screen. The point was that it contained telltale signs, and that if one put a few minutes into the effort, one could tell whether it was counterfeit or not. He likened it to similar signs that the Bible is authentic.

    The $20 was used early in his talk…in the introduction. The speaker thanked the chairman for leaving it in place on the speaker stand when introducing the talk. Apparently, another chairman had removed it, thinking it some inadvertant leftover from another activity. (thinking it was a tip, the speaker said  ) Thus the chairman had, quite literally, stolen the speaker's illustration.

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  • It Will be a Plate of Cookies for the Memorial at Least

     
     
    My wife's student went to her first Sunday meeting last week and we traveled a few miles to accompany her. She doesn't get out in public that often and had been stressing. She got real sick (nothing contagious) the morning of, but she figured it was the devil and decided to come, come – uh – heck or high water. It is a very warm congregation, and who could possibly have found fault with the speaker? She enjoyed it a lot.
     
    She had previously been fretting about the Memorial, which she also plans to attend."The thing is, I just don't know how many will be there," she says. Anybody that knows her knows what she is thinking – how many will there be to cook for? since that is her M.O. She has a plate of cookies in mind, at least.
     
    Wait till she sees how the bread is passed around but nobody touches it. They will have to stop her from passing her tray of cookies afterwards to feed all the poor hungry people. Cookies


     
     

  • With the Bible Reading it is Wash, Rinse, and Repeat

    It could not have been a better fit. The water flowed from the throne of Ezekiel's temple, which could not have had literal fulfillment because they would have had to build it on a spring and they didn't.

    Later during the same meeting, the Bible Study covered all the schools held throughout the organization. Comments thinned out as the study progressed because nobody had gone to the latter schools so they had nothing to say off the top of their heads.

    Okay? The water is the 'life-giving' spiritual food. And where is it more manifest in the schools, some available to all and some more specialized? Yet the schedule for the Bible Study is months old. The schedule for the Bible reading? Maybe a century, as it is 'wash, rinse, and repeat.' Temple-of-Solomon-Exterior

  • The Key is to Muzzle Ray Rattyon

    Once our elders muzzled Ray Rattyon, comments at our Kingdom Hall took off. Not immediately. There was dead air for a time, as the friends adjusted to the idea that they  too, might get a turn.

    There is nothing worse than a brother or sister who rattles on and on. Congregations that find the friends do not comment can fix the problem by gagging the windbags. If they do not, the average publisher rolls his eyes and gives up. In time, he gives up preparing.

    Thirty seconds or less. Elders should insist upon it. They need not be like Hitler over it, but Mussolini is okay.  It's not the end of the world if one or two slip by occasionally. But it is if it becomes a torrent.

    Elders should be reminded of it (privately). They will come on board, for it is counsel from Bethel. They all know it. They just worry about hurting Ray's feelings, but with tact, they can explain it to him in a way he will accept. They probably do not even have to speak with Ray. They should simply state the '30 second or less' goal frequently, Rather than 'encourage your comments,' it should be 'encourage your comments in 30 seconds or less.' Not only does that allow for more comments, but it helps Ray to speak and think more concisely, which is a good thing. if he learns to do it here, perhaps he will learn to do it at the door, and householders will not flee in terror as he approaches.

    Don't discourage Ray. It's an adjustment for him. He's been in the truth forever and he really does have good things to say. Thank the congregation when it keeps comments brief.

  • Ezekiel Comes Home After a Hard Day’s Work in Israel

    After Colombine, newspeople said that grief counselors had been dispatched, with the same air as they might use reporting that fire fighters had been dispatched to the house fire. “I’d love to hear what they have to say,” I told one woman in service. Her eyes got big. “You have an interesting job!” she exclaimed.

    But it’s not as interesting as Ezekiel’s.

    “Honey, I’m hooomme!”

    “Ezekiel. How was your day?”

    “Great! Today I bored a hole through the wall and carried out some luggage.”

    “Daddy, Daddy,” the children come running to embrace him. “That sounds like fun. Can we do that?”

    “Ha, ha, you’ll have to ask your mother first. Remember, she didn’t like it much when you crayoned on that wall.”

    “How did you get that bump on your head, Ezekiel?”

    “My boss had me cover my face so that I couldn’t see where I was going. Some of the guys at the assignment – it really is a rebellious place – said that I should report him to OSHA! Some of the other guys asked me what it meant that I was doing.”

    “And what did you tell them?”

    “I told them it meant they were toast.”

    “Oh, honey, I’m so proud of you!”

    “Thank you, dear. It was almost as fun as my gig last week, lying on my side naked staring at a brick.”

    “It’s a wonder you didn’t catch your death of cold.”   

    I have a lot of comments the spiritual gems portion of the meeting this week. The trouble is, will any of them be 30 seconds or less? (Highlights from Ezekiel 12)

  • Gestures to Spice Up Your Talk at the Kingdom Hall

    Every Witness is on the lookout for gestures to spice up a talk.

    The best gesture I have ever seen was given by a wiry birdlike brother who pointed out that, while Jehovah takes care of the birds and they need not be anxious, they also do not tilt back in their easy chairs. Birds are always working, he pointed out, and then with his own nose, rapid-pecked at the podium as though pecking for seed!

    I can also picture a 'gesture' to use if you were trying to convey the overwhelming and unsuspected power of sexual attraction to inexperienced young people who chafe at whatever restrictions their parents may impose. I haven't used it yet, but I will.

    I would be as if in outer space, slowly and leisurely approaching a black hole, so as to casually look into it. It would seem so enjoyable, until I suddenly yanked myself by the tie into the microphone.

    I mean, it's powerful stuff, that sexual attraction. One of the five things that Solomon couldn't figure out. (Actually, he didn't learn from experience much did he?) 800px-Black_Holes_-_Monsters_in_Space

  • The Judge of the Earth Always Does What is Right

    Though some carry on about it more than you think they should, nobody can ever say that in a lifetime of service to God, you won’t experience some injustice. It is not business-as-usual routine, but when it does happen, it can be serious. All the more so because you expect trouble from the general world, but not from the brotherhood. When it comes, it throws you for a loop. It is like the verse quoted in the Watchtower study this week, Psalm 55: 12-14:

    “For it is not an enemy who taunts me; Otherwise I could put up with it. It is not a foe who has risen up against me; otherwise I could conceal myself from him. But it is you, a man like me, my own companion, whom I know well. We used to enjoy a warm friendship together; into the house of God we used to walk along with the multitude.”

    The study article was illustrated with one real-life injustice, and one from the scriptures. A Brother Diehl from 1949 is mentioned. He caught all kinds of heat when he decided to marry. Brothers were all serious back then about single persons in the circuit or Bethel work remaining single, a situation that was not resolved, legend has it, until Brother Knorr himself married. Now THAT’S human! Let nobody say that these guys aren’t. Diehl could certainly be understood if he bellyached about it, but it wouldn’t do him any good. All he could do was get others stirred up. So he waited it out. He was right, but he didn’t make a big deal over it. Eventually, everyone came around. He took it on the chin for a while.

    The example from scripture is more serious. Joseph was sold out by his brothers and ended up in slavery. A silver lining eventually materialized and he became a big cheese in Potipher’s house, then he was slammed again and sent to prison for 13 years. Believe me, I would whine plenty about it, but if Joseph did, there is no record of it. What the record shows is that overall he allowed it to mold him:

    "But now do not be upset and do not reproach one another because you sold me here; because God has sent me ahead of you for the preservation of life … So, then, it was not you who sent me here, but it was the true God, in order to appoint me as chief adviser to Pharoah and lord for all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt." (Genesis 45:5-8)

    He didn’t know he would be appointed chief adviser to Pharoah until he was, and had he moaned forever about his kidnapping and later imprisonment, he wouldn’t have been. Everyone could have understood him bitching, but it wouldn’t have done him any good. People screw things up. Usually, their motive is not bad, but sometimes it is, as in Joseph’s case. Often, you don’t have the power to fix things. You do have the power, however, to make them worse.

    (‘The Judge of the Earth Always Does What is Right;’ the Watchtower, April 2017 – study edition)

  • It Is Not So Different Than Back in the Day

    Futzing along at a meeting, paying rapt attention as always, a tab descends from the top of my iPad and withdraws. 'Georgie likes your photo.' Amused, I slowly turn around. The lad is sitting three rows behind me in the center section.

    It's not so different from the old days, when John Dean would peruse Mad Magazine, disguised as a Watchtower magazine.

    Photo: Per Olof Forsberg

     

    Tom irregardless and Me. No Fake News But Plenty of Hogwash  Image