Which of the 5 weekly meetings did you hate the most?

by RULES & REGULATIONS 72 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  SophieG

  For me the meeting that drove me nuts was the TMS because it was mid week and my butt was tired from working. I was checked out 5 minutes into it. I would always get assigned that talk were all you had was the topic and that was it. It got to the point where I would just wait till the last minute to throw together some crapola and make it sound pretty..all the HH had to do was nod...read a scripture...nod! Eventually I just took myself off the school, and my god… school overseer was practically begging me to stay! But I was already fading out unknowingly and wanted to do as little as possible so I could keep my sanity.
  
  When the Public Talk went to 30 minutes I was so happy, less time for a brother to bore us to death. But then you’d have that Watchtower conductor who could not keep within the timeframe and ALWAYS went over. I got to a point where I was so frustrated to be there, I would make obvious observation of the clock (glare at conductor…look at the clock…glare at conductor…flip hair..) in the back of the hall. If the WT started to go over I would just grab my stuff and walk out. LOL!

  I was not really fond of the Book Study especially because it was at our house, which meant BS pre-cleaning! If I see a Revelation Book I am going to hurl!

  I don’t miss any of the meetings…much happier, less stressed!

  Now I may go to the Memorial next year just to irritate a few folks with my beaming happiness! HA!!!
• 

  sd-7

  The Book Study clocks in at #1, especially before it got lumped in with the TMS/SM. Having to either rush home from work and then go back out all for a one-hour meeting or else wake up early on a Saturday morning after a long work week was really annoying. Towards the end, I usually came to the Book Study when it was mostly over.

  #2, definitely Service Meeting. Where was the use of the Bible? You were just sitting there waiting for them to mention a freaking scripture and they would mention maybe one and that was it. Nothing for the hands to do, unless I was stuck carrying the microphone at a time when I was probably tired since it's almost the middle of the week.

  #3 Public Talk. Same old outlines, over and over and over again. Same anecdotes, same lame jokes. Some people were even stupid enough to 'mark' people during a PUBLIC TALK, which made no sense at all, since it's supposed to be geared at the PUBLIC, not airing JW business to visitors. If they were paying any attention, I guess that could be a good thing if it helped them stay away...It was also a scenario where glory was given to a man if he could give a talk particularly well. It became a popularity contest--you'd "made it" as a man if you were giving public talks in the East Giblit congregation and people would come from miles around to hear you as if you were going to give something other than the same old Society-written outline.

  #4 Watchtower Study. I could be asleep or watching football--and I'm not even that big a sports fan--but instead I'm stuck here for 20+ nauseating paragraphs (always thankful for the 18-19 paragraph articles, if we were really lucky it could even be 17!). The reader can barely read, and it's just painful to sit there and listen to somebody stumble over this simple paragraph, skip lines, etc. It was also awkward when my soon-to-be-wife-who-was-DF'd-at-the-time would come and I was carrying the microphone. Felt like people were watching me. But then I always felt that way. People liked my reading skill when I would read--and the cool thing was that I could get away with any errors because people would assume I was pronouncing it correctly even if I had no idea how to read this German book name.

  And then the comments. Reading comprehension...the same person commenting every paragraph. It became more of a game as mike runner. I was in the cockpit of my X-wing deliver proton torpedoes or whatever....

  #5 Theocratic Ministry School. Mainly because the parts were mostly short (that's what she said ). There was a chance for a variety of people to give parts, and it was the one time you could legally stare at a cute sister--while she was on the platform! I mean, you can't go wrong there. I actually enjoyed giving talks, and tried to look for ways to present information from a fresh angle if I could. People dreaded them so much, but to me it was one of the best opportunities to encourage people far more than a simple 30-seconds-or-less comment could. So, it wasn't all bad, and thus makes #5 on this list.

  --sd-7
• 

  james_woods

  Without a doubt: Service Meeting/Ministry School.

  It was a totally worthless expense of time and effort.

  I do have a funny Service Meeting story:

  The Congregation Overseer was holding forth: "I have a word I am thinking of. It is something we all want. This word begins with 'P'" ...

  blah-blah-blah - (he is obviously thinking of Paradise). "Now - who can guess the word?"

  I was a young MS who had the job of timing the talks on the school, so I was sitting on the front row with the School conductor - who could not stand this blowhard of a CO. He had a dictionary - so he flips it open - points to the word "Panties" - and shows it to me.

  We both nearly died from the effort of constraining ourselves from laughing out loud right there on the front row.
• 

  ziddina

  Hah! ALL of them... My idiot parents, dragging me into that dmnd cult and to all those meetings - YUK!!
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  sd-7

  Dub: (taps mic to mimic door knocking and it's obvious mic isn't on; audience looks back at soundman who suddenly remembers he forgot to turn the volume up on the microphone. During that same time, the dub on stage gets the bright idea that maybe he has the mic off but it was actually already on with the sound not being turned up. So that dub moves the switch to off thinking he's turning it on. He taps the mic again and then looks back. By that time the stage-man walks up to the platform, takes the mic, and turns it on.

  TS, sounds like we were in the same congregation, bro! LOL!

  --sd-7
• 

  Tameria2001

  All of them, it felt more like they were prepping me to be a sales person to peddle their literature.
• 

  wha happened?

  meeting for field service. It was like having a long winded discussion before a prostate exam
• 

  nugget

  I struggled with all of them. My level of dislike was relative to what else I could have been doing and how disruptive they were to the children.
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  sir82

  Currently it would have to be the WT study.

  It's....just....so....frikkin'......long.....

  Still an hour. 18-20 paragraphs of 6th-grade level writing, with an occasional "fancy" vocabulary word thrown in to look erudite.

  You could read the paragraphs, ask the questions, and get the answers spit back in 20 minutes, tops.....

  but NO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O, we've got to listen to 4 different people say the exact same thing in slightly different terms....and then the conductor, because no one used the exact 24-word-sequence that he had in mind, asks a question that has already been covered 4 times....

  And that's even without considering the absolute nonsense that the articles contain......
• 

  WTWizard

  They are all crap. If I really was in a life and death situation, a rope tied to a harness on the seat of my pants is going to do me a lot more good than hanging on by my fingers. And that's what I would be using--proper equipment makes a safer and more pleasant climb.

  Not to mention, none of the boasting sessions are a real safety net. Listening to them, they constantly bash poor Satan who is only trying to free us from Jehovah's tyranny and help us develop our souls. The Circus Meeting is worst in that it helps us brainwash others more readily, but they are all horrible. I would gladly trade away every single one of the boasting sessions I ever attended for one session with Father Satan where I would be taught to master even the most basic spirituality-building, soul-building skill. Which is far better than learning to place a washtowel rag.