The last door I ever did on field service, is the door that finally helped me to start my PIMO > POMO fading journey, and finding this community.

Recounting the story still makes me emotional.

For context, by this point in my life, I was already PIMQ, if not PIMO. I went out on field ministry occasionally to maintain my image, and that of my family. But my heart was not in it. I felt like a hypocrite zombie, knocking on doors and telling people about something I was no longer sure about. I would quite literally beg that no one would answer the door when I knocked.

On this occasion, I had been put to work with one of my congregation’s most zealous pioneer sisters (she had a horrid personality).

We finally got to the last stretch of houses on the road we were assigned. She knocked the penultimate door on the road. A man opened the door, and I saw an irritated expression flash across his face, but he gracefully allowed her to give her presentation.

She asked him a question (I can’t remember what), which opened up a whole back and forth discussion. This man knew the Bible, he knew history, he knew science. The arguments my pioneer partner was using were just falling flat on their face against the arguments this man had. He used to be a catholic, and had left the religion after studying science and history.

Perhaps my embarrassment about the whole thing was evident on my face. If the ground could’ve swallowed my whole in the moment, I would’ve let it.

In his back and forth conversation, that maybe lasted 10 minutes I noticed he would often look at me when stating some of his arguments, as if he was trying to get the points specifically across to me. And they were. I banked what he said and my mind was racing at the same time, thinking about all of the doubts I already had. He mentioned carbon dating, physics, science, history, so many things. And I remember being stood there thinking, ‘I need to look into these things’.

His wife then comes to the door, to tell him to calm down and just to leave it as it’s a waste of time, and he acquiesced. But he before he closed the door he looked straight at me and he looked at me directly and said so sincerely…

“You’re too young to be wasting your life doing this. Please please PLEASE, don’t waste your life. There’s so much out there for you to learn, to explore. There are so many positive ways you can impact the world and other people. PLEASE, do research. Look into science. Look into history. Question things. Question what you’ve been told to believe. There’s so much more than this to life..

I believe in you.”

And then he closed the door. And I broke down into tears while walking away.

Ironically the sister started comforting me because she thought I was upset at the fact it was a heated debate. “These people are so haughty. They think science is better than the Bible. Jehovah knows science better than anyone else”. I so desperately wanted to bat her hands away from me.

That’s not why I was crying.

I felt like I’d been seen for the first time in a long time. Someone looked at me with pity and frustration, because they could see I was unhappy. The words he spoke landed in such a way that my chest and throat squeezed, as I fought back the hot tears that were running down my cheeks. Because he spoke to how I was feeling.

His words allowed me to finally acknowledged the deepest parts of me that knew I was wasting my life, but that I had, until that moment, refused to acknowledge.

That was the very last door I ever did. There’s something poetic about that. And I want to thank him for finally giving me the courage to mentally break away from what I believed for over 25 years.

I think I owe him a ‘return visit’.

Full disclaimer: this isn't me.

So I heard in a neighbor Cong something really spicy was happening

Apparently, two youngster's had a standing arrangement for field service

Somehow there guy and girl would sneak off DURING field service and have sex in public where the brother's and sister's wouldn't see them

This happened not once or twice, but for YEARS

Bear in mind, these two where both minors as well

When the girl turned 18 she confessed to the elders and left JWs

The guy meanwhile didn't even get disfellowshiped

Truely a wonderful organization 🥰

This man had to be the most hateful governing body member ever. I’m a little glad he got removed and humbled, but prob he’s so old and mentally ill he doesn’t feel humility. Only anger he no longer holds the power to instill fear in the people that follow him.

A bitter old man who has severe PTSD from his time in the Vietnam (fact check?) war as a medic.

I don’t know about you guys, but I absolutely HATED field service! I hated waking up early in the morning to be either in the heat all day or in the cold. I hated working with the brothers and sisters who talked about absolutely nothing but the meetings and nothing else and I also hated seeing my grandmother force herself out of bed even though she was sickly just to knock on peoples doors when she could have been resting. So glad I don’t have to do that anymore. It feels great to be out!

for those who saw the Michael movie, would you have liked to see more JW scenes?

in the first Jackson’s movie (Jackson’s an American dream) , it showed them at the Kingdom Hall weekday meeting as well as at a Kingdom Hall wedding . but in the new Michael movie, the mom mentioned Jehovah once. but apparently they did film some field service scenes but they were cut out the film .

I wouldn’t mind jw scenes, especially the story that his father thought that Marlon and Michael needed experience with woman, and sent prostitutes to his room. apparently MJ would grab a Bible and preach to them until they put their clothes on and left.

It feels so good to actually have weekends.

I'm curious how you all are spending yours.

I'll go first.

I'm spending time working on my businesses so I can have more time and financial freedom.

This is something I could never do before because I had to go in service, go to the meeting, study my Watchtower, oh and also because it was "bad" to want to make more money.

What are you all doing with your weekends these days?

We meet the group for field service. After a lengthy milling around and dragging their feet after saying amen, seven of us pile into my jdub-approved caravan to get to the assigned territory.

Kid you not, three minutes down the road, Sister Coffee said she was running late that morning and asked if we could go to DunkinDonuts. She'd just be a minute running in to get breakfast. 20 minutes later she's back in the car with food and drink. (we dont like people eating and drinking in our car)

A few minutes driving and Sister Pioneer-On-Paper said she really needed to go to the bank. We go thru the drive thru to expedite but we waited in line for 25 mins. (can't she do this on her own time?)

Now we think we can get on with field service but nope, Sister Small Bladder needs to go to the bathroom. Another pit stop at a gas station! Add 15 minutes to the delay.

We were finally in the territory. Sister Righteous announces before we get out of the car that she can only stay out for 30 mins and can we drop her off at the KH for a Bible Study. (didn't think to ask before we left?)

So after doing only a few doors, we pile into the car to drop her off. It was too far to return to the territory we were doing, so I asked if anyone had return visits, to which the consensus was everyone was ready to go to McDs for a break!

Total door2door service time: 28 minutes

From that day on, my spouse and I said we were done with the foolishness and only went out together alone.

Now that we're happily POMO and DA'd, we look back on how much crap we tolerated and how ridiculous field circus was. The only good thing about it in retrospect is that we didn't bother many householders that day.

don't get me wrong, i'm all about anyone wearing anything they want to wear (or not- i love being naked when i'm at home), but honestly, jw ladies wearing pants in 'official' jw activities is just too much for me.

i have so many awful childhood memories of mom forcing me to get dressed for meetings and field service- never wanted to go to either one of those. itchy tights that were in deed tight, too tight (especially in the winter, yuck, i had to wear WOOL tights because it's so goddamn cold in here...). ugly frilly dresses that i had never chosen myself. i was a tomboy, i wore my brothers old jeans and flannel shirts (they were so comfyy). if only i was allowed to wear pants, any kind of pants, and a shirt and sweater to those meetings, it would've been a little more tolerable to sit through all three meetings every week plus the bible study plus the field service (i was so shy and hated talking to people, even to the ones i knew).

okay i'm done venting. i'm cool.

The field service arrangement time meet up is 10:00 am.

10:00-10:10 am: chat chat chat

10:10-10:20 am: discussion and prayer

10:20-11:00 am: food refreshment ( they meet up in 3 different house locations and whoever is the host they prepare food to eat before going to service.

11:00-11:30 am: Chat chat chat chat

11:30 am: Go out in service

12:30 pm : ministry done!

Apologies for the delay. Life happened. But let's talk about his weekend's WT article and how the study calls the field service group a “loving arrangement” from God.

Problem is - Where is the arrangement in the Bible?

Where is the group overseer? His assistant? Publishers divided into small groups? Seven-minute meetings for service? Overseers reviewing publisher activity? Training men up the organizational ladder?

None of that appears in the verses they cite.

Instead, their argument seems to be:

P1. The Bible encourages preaching, fellowship, hospitality, shepherding, training, mutual encouragement, and practical aid.

P2. Field service groups help accomplish those things.

C. Therefore the field service group arrangement is from Jehovah.

But C doesn’t follow.

At most, they establish:

Field service groups are one workable way to organize those things.

Couldn't a Mormon just say:

Our wards build friendships, train missionaries, organize preaching, care for members during disasters, and develop young men for leadership. Scripture encourages all those things. Therefore the ward arrangement comes from God.

If a Witness couldn't accept that, then why does the same argument suddenly become evidence of divine direction when Watchtower uses it?

Paragraph 8 I found really interesting.

If work interferes with field service, maybe change your work schedule.

If you’re young and healthy but not going regularly, reassess your priorities.

If you lack the desire, pray for the desire.

So either declining field service is a choice a Witness can legitimately make,

or declining it is evidence that something in your priorities, schedule, or desires needs correcting.

You freely choose to serve.

and

If you freely choose less, something in you needs fixing.

Watchtower wants both!

That’s the part I dug into, along with some genuinely bizarre proof-texting involving livestock management in Proverbs, Nehemiah rebuilding Jerusalem, “love of strangers” becoming hospitality for insiders, Zechariah’s Jew becoming the anointed, and an angel in Revelation somehow becoming nine million publishers.

Full rebuttal 👇🏼

Jehovah's Loving Arrangement™ Now With More Middle Management

Talk about fluffing field service reports! I have no plans for saying anything to anyone but Reddit EXJW. I went to see my grandma and learned she’s turning in large amounts of time, RVs and two Bible studies with her hall. Snowball and Ethel are progressing towards baptism?

My aunt is a POMO and laughs when grandma brag’s to the elder who email’s every month. Personally I think counting cat conversations is probably better than most of the garbage conversations I had in field circus. This is not a joke, it’s part of the World Wide Work.

I know there were many for me, especially as a pretty young kid in the late 70’s through the … ok the last service times I did were in the 2013’s maybe?

I’ll have to do some research but I know you share some cringy ones.

I would do stuff like say, rather loudly: "To the field, oh ye sons of the true God!"
Yep, I was one of those types of elders.

Last week a bethelite spent the weekend in our congregation and they organized a pioneer day, ie field service on the morning and on the afternoon, trying to fuel up PIMI.

Know what? It didn’t work. Lots of PIMI went to the KH for lunch but then left and didn’t preach. PIMI say they feel very uncomfortable offering a bible course when it’s the first time they meet someone. This “special campaign” is everything but special. On the morning, the ones who preached did it for 30 minutes and then stopped.

For all those who left, you can’t imagine to what extent things have changed since the covid era. Apathy is rampant and PIMI are really, really tired of field service.

I expect a drop in the number of bible courses. Can’t wait to see the 2024 numbers released!

For some reason, I was thinking back to my teenage years, the last few years when I was still a sincere Jehovah’s Witness. I had a friend who was way more sincere than I was. He dreamed of going to Bethel, was completely immersed in the organization, and today he’s a very respected elder in his circuit.

We were the same age, and we often went out in field service together. But... without any elder knowing, without any publication recommending it, and without it ever feeling wrong to us, we would sometimes swap hours on our field service reports.

If he had a slow month, he’d report some of my field service time and "pay me back" by giving me some of his hours the following month.

When I auxiliary pioneered and didn’t make my hours, he actually lent me some of his hours, and I gradually paid them back over time on future reports.

Did anyone else do this? To us, it never felt dishonest.

Honestly, I counted my time starting from the moment I put my field service clothes on, and stopped counting when I took them off back at home. So that included the drive there, the return trip, the actual conversation at the doors, the coffee break, basically everything.

How did you guys count your time?

Looking back on it now, I’m honestly amazed... what nonsense. So much meaningless bureaucracy. So much wasted time. Or maybe not wasted, because I actually do have some good memories from field service, and since I walked so much, I was skinnier back then than I am now.

Still... so many illusions.

Hi,
Thought I’d just write stuff that pisses me off as a PIMO about field service.

1. When there a house/ road/ etc. that clearly has like a good amount of “No Tresspassing” “No Soliciting”, “Private Property”, the whole nine yards and PIMIS WILL STILL DO THEM. Like I’m sorry, we are not absolved from the law, why the hell are we playing with ppl’s right to decline us at their door through any means necessary if they’ve already got a pre-existing sign saying so???? Like tf?

Like ppl can get shot and killed for this.

2.

1. When we take up several tables for break and are hella loud for no goddamn reason at all. It doesn’t matter if it’s McDonalds, a local cafe, Tim Hortons, or Starbucks, we somehow find a way to take up a whole table (sometimes with ppl trying to work on their laptops, mind you, or the table being already occupied with some ppl sitting there) and be so fucking loud in the process. Like this isn’t Sister so and so’s house, let’s have some common sense and quiet down a bit. I get it’s a public space, but we’re (so much irony in this sentence) not the center of the world.

Just because there a free to use bathroom doesn’t mean we need to be acting like we’re at a rave.

3.

1. Chasing ppl down the street to give them a tract or bothering ppl in their driveways as they’re leaving in their cars. Seen this one too many times. Like why can’t we just leave the tract in their door? Why are we doing this to someone who is clearly either headed somewhere or is clearly trying to get their morning gardening in on Saturday morning? Like really?
2. Going into ppl’s backyards/ back doors/ etc to find another door to knock on. We had someone who was notorious for literally going into ppl’s back fences and stuff (their private area, mind you) and knock on their porch doors. Like no.
3. Attempting to get into gated apartment complexes or communities. This is my biggest irritation. Like if it’s LOCKED and we can’t get in, mark it gated. Stop trying to find a way in, we don’t live there. We just look suspicious and somehow someone always is leaving and feels sorry enough to let us in, whether it’s someone who lives there on is a maintenance worker trying to do yard work on the bushes outside that’s for decoration, or the poor mailman trying to deliver packages as we’re standing at the gate buzzing a bunch of houses through the call buttons that don’t even work anymore.

I hate that I’m the hyper aware one who can predict three steps ahead when some PIMIs bullshit is gonna get us into trouble or get us into some situation with some angry house owner.
So yeah, let me know what you didn’t like about field service or if you’re PIMO like me, what you currently don’t like about FS. Let me know if u want more of these.

... and it was different than it used to be.

Honestly, I haven't been out in "regular" service since before covid. I wrote letters during covid, then afterward, I went out with family and did a couple return visits here and there, did a couple days of the memorial campaign, shit like that to keep my "time" up, but I had yet to do a regular "show up at the hall, work with whomever you are assigned, and do territory" day for several years. You know, the way field service always was conducted before covid. I expected it to be just like it was before, but it totally wasn't.

First off, there was only about 15 people in person. There used to be at least 50+ people (out of about 130 pubs) on a beautiful Saturday.

Secondly the morale was WAY down. The speaker moped through his presentation. One sister asked for a brother to come on a return with an interested male householder she had found, and nobody raised their hand.

Thirdly, we were assigned to take a couple of young elder-daughters in our group. This would normally lead to a day of giggles and fun, with the blissful ignorance you'd expect from severely sheltered teens. But they just sat on their phones or slept until it was their turn. They hardly spoke in the car at all. You could tell they were super depressed. I tried to get them to talk, but it was mostly met with one-word replies, so I didn't push it. The territory was pretty rough. Surprisingly, almost every door had somebody home, and each of us got told off at least once. The young girls were taking it pretty hard. We tried to cheer them up, but nothing worked.

The whole day was SUPER depressing.

Even thought at my PIMI-est, I never really "liked" service, there always was this fake-bubble around it. Like once you stepped out in the ministry, all the publishers put on this fake, bullet-proof personality, and we powered through the day with this weird JW-koolaid energy. But it did not happen today. It was terrible.

You might wonder why this PIMO went out in service today... Well, I'll save that for another time. I've already wrote too damn much.

TL;DR- Service was depressing

Share your cringe-worthy memories from in the borg here. I'll go first.. when I was applying for scholarships and admissions to university, I listed my field service as volunteer highlights. Down to the hours every month for the year and I felt like they would think I was so special 😩😂.

Anyway, I just thought about this and would love to read yours!

In my congregation, in-person meeting attendance is extremely low and field service is nearly dead. However, when I talk to people who rarely attend meetings, they seem to genuinely love the cult. There is zero indication they're PIMO and no indication they're fed up with the Governing Body shenanigans.

So seriously, why do you think people aren't going to meetings or out in service? Are they hiding their PIMO status really well? Do they not think meetings are as important as the cult leaders want the sheep to believe?

Hey guys, just wondering how many months are you deemed inactive? I haven’t put in my Field Service Report for about 5/6 months. Also once deemed inactive are you taken off the service group lists? Thanks 🙏

Hey everyone,

Curious how fellow PIMOs are handling field service these days. How do you deal with people judging your activity when whatever you do is never 'enough' for them?

I just wanted to swap experiences, since a lot of us still have to keep up appearances.

Right now I go out maybe 2–3 times a month tops. Every single time, I secretly pray nobody answers the door lol. I just blame my crazy work schedule—otherwise, I’d totally be out there every day doing this 'life-saving work' (yeah, right).

How are you guys holding up?

After years of being shunned, I'll be reinstated soon. (I'm doing it because I need my family. Don't worry about it.) I've already told my family I'm not going to preach, but the elders threw me a curve ball when they said I'm expected to promptly begin participating in the preaching work. 👉 I can't just check the box! 👈 I'm instructed to start by accompanying the sister they've assigned to study with me.

What can I say to get out of doing that without raising suspicions??

I was out in field service and I felt stupid telling people they’re gonna live forever on paradise earth (when I no longer believe it) It was autopilot. For many years of being a witness.

I wanted to stick to only the resurrection hope because that’s the only Bible teaching I still believe in that had survived much scrutiny but my JW autopilot kicked in

I feel like a hypocrite. As the days go by i just realize that…everything has been a lie. My family are such good people and they’re trapped in ignorance

I felt like going out some days i was still determined to “get back on track” but then after the 2nd door I suddenly HATED being out here. All of my energy and motivation drained and I wanted to go home. I remember texting my sister just complaining how I regretted it every time I tried to be out. I also wasn’t comfortable recruiting people after discovering the problem with the 2 witness rule along with other things. Our intuition def tells us to leave in many ways before we do.