Local needs - Choose Your Apps Wisely

[New World]

Greetings friends. I'm writing to seek your thoughts with regards to the congregation use of Messaging app It's been a forum for passing information, sharing encouraging thoughts and meeting updates (just to mention a few) in recent time but an observation was made recently about its use.

 

A group of brothers now use it to do quiz with financial and monetary incentives for the publishers to "motivate them". It's just like the game shows we see on TV with monetary gains attached to answering questions.

 

Some have troubled conscience with regards to this. While some see it as a showy display of one's means of life and not spiritually upbuilding others view it differently. 

 

Is there any direction from the faithful slave on this? Any published direction with regards to situation like this.

 

Will appreciate any thoughts on this area with the recent local need on the use of messaging app.

 

Thanks

[bigvince]

@New World No published direction comes to mind at the moment, but it should be obvious to most that if we're doing something that offends the consciences of others, we stop doing it. Maybe the brother or brothers who administer the group could talk to those who are doing these things? Perhaps if these ones knew their actions were offensive to some, they would stop?

[carlos]

56 minutes ago, New World said:

A group of brothers now use it to do quiz with financial and monetary incentives for the publishers to "motivate them". It's just like the game shows we see on TV with monetary gains attached to answering questions.

 

Some have troubled conscience with regards to this. While some see it as a showy display of one's means of life and not spiritually upbuilding others view it differently.

I don't think our publications have ever been so specific. But mixing a group that has a spiritual purpose with money seems a bad idea. If they want to do Bible quizzes, that's great, but leave the money aside. That's just my view.

Edited August 21, 2020 by carlos

[GodlyDevotion]

I loved the local needs talk, and I especially loved how it helps us be careful of messaging groups. Now, as for the forum, I have several reasons why I wouldn't leave: 

• It doesn't affect my conscience. I tend to be conscious of my time spent on Instagram JW groups. And I am displeased many at times at some of the things I see on it. But I don't get that on this forum. I feel the opposite, in fact. 
• It builds my faith and love. Reading expressions of faith by experienced brothers in the truth builds my confidence very much. Why would I quit that? 
• I haven't seen any propaganda promoted by apostates. 
• I have learned different ways to research from the comments of different perspectives of brothers. 
• It keeps me spiritually alert at all times. Topics like "What convinces you that the great tribulation is near?" And "international peace and security" are so apt for this. 
• It connects me with different ideas, perspectives, and cultures. I also appreciate the loving concern being shared with people from different countries. 
• I am 24/7/365 spiritually active about the many doings of Jehovah's organization. There is no more excellent feeling than moving with Jehovah's organization. 
• It doesn't in any way violate any Bible principles. In fact, as for me, it has been lawful and advantageous. I could rationalize about Instagram and FB grps, but not this forum. 

[bigvince]

@GodlyDevotion Great points. Last co visit, the co told the servant body that if there was anything on instagram, fb, etc that was inappropriate or botheredd our conscience even a little, we should consider getting off. I did and haven't looked back. Granted, I'm not nearly as active on this forum as I'd like to be, but I try to participate when time allows.

[Qapla]

The brother who gave the talk for our Congregation did not mention GoFundMe or crowd funding.

[bigvince]

Just now, Qapla said:

The brother who gave the talk for our Congregation did not mention GoFundMe or crowd funding.

It was in the outline even though gofundme wasn't specifically mentioned.

[BLEmom]

On 8/20/2020 at 2:27 PM, Mephibosheth said:

The outline lists several messaging apps such as Discord and a few I haven't heard of. 

My 17 year old was impressed that the elder knew what Discord was. Wait till I tell him it’s coming from the top! 😂

[TrueTomHarley]

31 minutes ago, BLEmom said:

My 17 year old was impressed that the elder knew what Discord was. Wait till I tell him it’s coming from the top! 😂

Was it really (Discord) in the outline, @Mephibosheth? What were the other ones? I had assumed the local speaker put them in himself as examples. 

 

If the top brothers could knock the socks off @BLEmom’s kid with Discord (I have never heard of it) and yet didn’t mention much larger FB or Twitter or Pinterest—which if they had I would have recalled it—I think it is safe to assume they are not talking about those. Not that they have a love-in with them, either, but they were not the topic of the talk. And if they were not, surely this site was not either. 

 

Not to say they endorse it, though. They will never endorse any private site. If my house burns down and I decide it is God’s fault, and my posts thereafter reflect that, there is not a thing they can do about it. But if a writing brother at Bethel goes sour, they can just yank him and put in someone not having a meltdown.

Edited August 21, 2020 by TrueTomHarley

[bigvince]

Discord was not in the outline, but some of us have been using it for a few years.

[McKay]

50 minutes ago, bigvince said:

Discord was not in the outline, but some of us have been using it for a few years.

My father-in-law gave the talk and mentioned Discord by name and he had no idea what it is. Are you sure it wasn't in the outline?

[bigvince]

I’m sorry, I was mistaken. It is in the outline. 

[luisenriquereyes]

8 hours ago, bigvince said:

We used to have a website too, now we have our own app where publishers record time, submit it, get contact info of elders, see a virtual info boards, and so on.

May I ask what app do you use?

[bigvince]

@luisenriquereyes When we had our website, all the info was based on google sheets, now we have a glideapps app.

[nicolette]

17 hours ago, BLEmom said:

My 17 year old was impressed that the elder knew what Discord was. Wait till I tell him it’s coming from the top! 😂

I never heard of Discord too😆

[Qapla]

Discord is a messaging app

 

You can read about it on their website discord . com (without the spaces)

 

 

 

We were not told that we CAN'T use the messaging apps - we were cautioned that we should use them responsibly and take caution. 

 

When using a hammer to drive nails there are many ways you should NOT use one. Some of those ways makes the work much harder and other ways can inflict bodily harm. However, that does not mean we should never use a hammer to drive a nail - it just means we should use it correctly ... as we should with messaging apps.

 

 

Edited August 22, 2020 by Qapla

[Miss Bea]

2 minutes ago, nicolette said:

I never heard of Discord too😆

Discord?

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

Discord?

I've heard of Discord, just never used it. The negative connotations of the name did not appeal to me.

Old (Downunder) Tone

[Thesauron]

Don’t worry about the apps you don’t use, worry about the apps and services you do use, and really think seriously under prayer about how you use them.

[Brandon]

23 hours ago, carlos said:

we have one Whatsapp group for every service group. That's how we learn the Zoom ID and password for tomorrow.

Wow so no pressure on publishers to download whatsapp then 😳

[carlos]

1 hour ago, Brandon said:

Wow so no pressure on publishers to download whatsapp then 😳

It's actually no pressure because literally everyone here has Whatsapp installed.

Of course if someone doesn't have Whatsapp, we can always give them a phone call. But that means spending additional time and money, when that person could receive the info by Whatsapp as everyone else.

[Brandon]

It's actually no pressure because literally everyone here has Whatsapp installed.
Of course if someone doesn't have Whatsapp, we can always give them a phone call. But that means spending additional time and money, when that person could receive the info by Whatsapp as everyone else.

I've talked online to people in Spain who don't have WhatsApp

[carlos]

Yes, in 50 million people maybe there are two or three who don't.

 

I have a workmate who doesn't have Whatsapp or a mobile phone. She doesn't want to. But she's the only one among the hundreds of people I know.

Edited August 22, 2020 by carlos

[Brandon]

8 minutes ago, carlos said:

Yes, in 50 million people maybe there are two or three who don't.

Actually the population of Spain is 47million and if 87% of y'all have WhatsApp that means there are over 6 million people in your country who don't.

 

12 minutes ago, carlos said:

we can always give them a phone call. But that means spending additional time and money,

Or you could email them which costs nothing but to each his own

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Edited August 22, 2020 by Brandon

[Qapla]

You could drive a "right-hand-drive" car in the US, too. In fact some do. However, when someone says that "everyone in the US drives left-hand-drive cars" it is understood that the term "everyone" is a "general" term like using "man" for "mankind" - it does not eliminate females, it is just an expression. In the US left-hand-drive cars are the norm, like right-hand-drive ones are in the UK - everyone here drives them

 

When the overwhelming majority of people use a particular service/app, like WhatsApp, saying "everyone" has it should not be taken literal but, as intended, an expression that conveys the saturation use.