carlos

I have fallen in that trap too at times. I have some workmates who have strong political ideas and at times I have tried to reason with them about political matters. Although I was careful not to break my neutrality, they didn't view it like that. In the end, discussing political matters won't take you anywhere. It's much better to focus on God's kingdom and what it will achieve.

Tyler, we’re well aware of the warnings from the Slave, and we do our best to follow them carefully. For example, we recently had this part at the meeting that included a very relevant video: https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/202023178 One danger our publications mention is that discussions can easily slip into criticism or negativity. That’s very true. So the staff works hard to steer conversations back on track when they start heading in the wrong direction, or to stop them entirely if members won’t cooperate. Another danger is apostates. To greatly reduce that risk, new members here have limited access, and all of their posts are reviewed by a moderator before becoming public. We also have other measures in place to detect such individuals. As a result, apostates are extremely rare here, and when they do appear, they’re removed before members ever see their posts. So, I’d say this is quite a safe and clean place. In any case, when some spoke negatively about Jesus, he replied that “wisdom is proved righteous by its works.” You can apply that same principle here: take a look at the forums, see the kinds of conversations we’re having, and decide for yourself whether this place helps or harms your spirituality. As brother Splane says in the video, when you visit this place, how does it make you feel? Encouraged or discouraged?

Hmm, Christians reject the mark of the beast, but I don't see how this would be a problem for Christians. If the government wants us to have a digital ID we have no problem with that. In fact, where I live we don't have a digital ID but we do have a compulsory identification card that you need to show to get most services, and so on, and we gladly comply. On the other hand, that id card hasn't prevented illegal immigration in the least.

Fiona, IMO it's really difficult to pioneer and be a helpful elder when you cannot attend half of the meetings in person or join the congregation in service. Maybe the local elders can give some suggestion that doesn't involve living so far. I hope they do.

While the Ignore feature is fine to ignore members you find irritating, if someone posts something that is borderline apostate it would be better to report it to the moderators. Of course that kind of posts are not tolerated here, but they might have overlooked them.

That's true. And He has appointed elders to decide what attire is acceptable and what is not in a given congregation. Those elders cannot judge what's in your heart but they can decide who qualifies for certain privileges and who doesn't. Jehovah trusts those elders, how will He feel if we don't trust the ones he appointed?

I think the relevant principle here is in Romans 15:1: "We, though, who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those not strong, and not to be pleasing ourselves." A "weak" person, that is, a spiritually immature Christian will insist on his right to dress or arrange as they wish. When they are counseled about their appearance, they will try to rally support for their cause. In contrast, a "strong" Christian, that is, a spiritually mature Christian, doesn't care how nice he looks or how entitled he is to look that way. Instead of asking: "Is it wrong to wear this or that?" he will ask: "How will others feel if I wear this or that? Will they be offended? Will they think my appearance is not proper for a Christian?". Am I strong or am I weak? There is nothing wrong in wearing a nose ring, an ear ring, in dying your hair purple or whatever. It's all in the context. In Jesus time it was normal for men to wear a robe and a mantle. Today in most Western countries that would be considered very inappropriate. The key is how the local friends and people in the territory will feel about it. When we are in doubt, asking the elders for their opinion is a very good option since they know well the local feelings. Where I live a brother or a sister with a nose ring will probably not be considered exemplary. They won't be allowed to go in service with the congregation nor have any participation from the platform. Certainly they won't be approved as pioneers or to do cart work. In other places the situation can be completely different and those ornaments can be considered perfectly normal. The elders cannot tell anyone how to dress but they do have the authority and the duty to decide who is an exemplary member of the congregation and who is not.

Osito, the brother didn't say he is testing various functions but that they, that is, the brothers developing JW Library at the branch, are testing different functions. On the other hand, if anyone here is working with the branch to test beta versions, obviously they wouldn't be allowed to share anything until that new version is released. Please do not ask the friends to reveal confidential information.

Osito, just download the software, enter a random congregation number and name, and see what the interface looks like. Introduce a few invented publishers and play with the different functionalities. The interface is reasonably easy to use, a few aspects could be made simpler in my opinion, but it can be used as it is. If you like the software and the body of elders decides to give it a try, then uninstall everything and install it again, this time using your real congregation number and name. Create a number of real publishers and then have all the relevant elders install it too. They have two months to check if they like it. After that time, if the body decides they want it, someone will have to pay the license. It doesn't matter if it's the coordinator or anyone else.

I'm not sure I'm understanding. There is already an Appearance setting on JW Library which allows light mode, dark mode or follow the system. Is that different than what you are suggesting?

In general, the software is reliable and works fine. Sometimes updates introduce bugs, and then they quickly release a patch that corrects them. You can (and must!) do backup copies regularly, so in case of a serious bug you can always go back to the previous version. In my congregation we are not using the Territories functionality, so I won't comment on that aspect. When publishers send their hours, the secretary and his auxiliary can see who has sent their report and who hasn't yet. Group overseers see the reports of their group. Then at the end of the month you can calculate the S-1 form automatically. It saves a huge amount of time from receiving the reports through Whatsapp and then adding all the details as our secretary used to do before. He's saving some 10 hours of work every month. Publishers use a mobile app named NW Publisher that is synced with NW Scheduler. Elders use NW Scheduler to schedule, then publishers receive the notifications in NW Publisher. When a publisher is given any assignment, whether a talk, a demo, a prayer, chairman, reading the WT, or also audio/video, attendant, cleaning, conducting a meeting for service, cart witnessing, whatever, they receive a notification in their NW Publisher app. They can see a list of their assignments for the next weeks. Then they receive an additional notification one week and one day before the assignment. When a change is made, for example a brother cannot have a talk and another one is selected, both brothers receive a notification with the change. I am the midweek meeting overseer and this software saves me countless hours. In the past I had to manually prepare over 120 slips a month and then send each one of them to the friends by Whatsapp. Now NW Scheduler takes care of all this automatically. Any of the elders can create an account and pay the subscription. One month before the end of the license all the elders using NW Scheduler will receive a notification so that they can decide how to pay the next subscription. The test version of the app is functional but limited in some aspects. For example, you can only create a reduced number of territories. It's enough to see how it works.

Osito, we don't have any special contact with the branch. Members sometimes send suggestions to the branch about the software, and they sometimes take them into account. You can send your suggestions too.

I think we are all changing COs now in September. It might be good to wait and see what the new CO says.

Lori, there are no instructions about that. Logic dictates that it should be given as soon as possible. On the other hand, usually there is not a brother assigned to check the mailbox. So some time might pass since someone has the idea of checking it, finds the letter, finds it's for a sister from another congregation and finds someone to hand it over to her. It's easy to see how any of those steps might take more time than desirable.

I think once you enter the details for your circuit, NWS automatically shows other congregations in your circuit using NWS. If you want to show congregations from other circuits, you have to add them as John explained above.