Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry
I'm sure you know since we've had this conversation, the degree of shepherding the saints is relative to those who walk through the door. You go to a meeting and the brothers and sisters will rejoice to see you. My point is when you're not at the meetings, no one misses you enough to visit.
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In one locality I was in, I attended a certain prophesying meeting in a district for a while (a couple years). People were happy enough to see me. There were a handful of elders in that particular meeting. After a while I couldn't stand what I was hearing any more (HWMR, only HWMR, and more HWMR) and the rote "amens" that were repeated without any thought to what they were actually "amen-ing", so I dropped out and didn't go anymore. Due to various circumstances I continued to see those elders in other areas of my life over the next few years, but not one of them ever asked me how I was doing, mentioned that they noticed I was gone, asked why I'd left, or showed any concern towards me at all, even though I was actually continuing to help them out in other ways. At the time I was truly blown away. As a matter of fact, no other saint in that meeting came after me to see what happened either. It has been kind of a punch to the gut to see how little I mattered.