My dad came up to me the other day and handed me the MP3 of the recent visit to my old congregation. We both decided we would listen to it and discuss it together, despite the fact that neither of us have been to the meeting in over 18 months.
It was nice to hear all those old voices again but it was also a little bit sad. As regards the talks, they were pretty much the standard I expected them to be. They were mostly about irrelevant matters which Christians should not really be concerned about. All the important stuff was given a 10 minute discussion in the service meeting which the brother handled extremely well. All the rest was useless nonsense.
What I did manage to pick out from the recordings is how much this organisation has spiraled out of control. As I haven’t heard a talk now in 18 months, this was the first time that I have listened to their explanations of scriptures since doing my own personal reading of the bible. I must say that I believe they are way off! The talks were very decontextualised, full of cold council which I do not see in the bible, and worst of all, I was shocked with the way the CO simply said 'Basically brothers, we need your money!' I just couldn’t believe it! They went from suggesting donations to asking outright for money and then making you feel guilty about not giving it to them. My goodness! I was just shocked. I knew the organisation had issues and I have not felt it was the truth since leaving, but now when I hear these talks It totally defeats me how all the other brothers just swallow this BS hook, line and sinker when so many of the teachings and principles are so CLEARLY man made and unscriptural.
I have so many old friends trapped in this religion and I fear for some of them very much.