Somebody mentioned getting flack for having get togethers for studying...the Society is SO damned scared that there will be some MOB mentality if more than their PROSCRIBED little groups get together for anything other than THEIR PROSCRIBED activities. Paranoia much? It reminded me...
When I was first coming in, the congregation I was in had a boatload of kids...a ton around 8-10 years old. They looked so unenthused at the meetings, that I thought I would help make it interesting for them. So I designed a WORD SEARCH for them on my computer every week, using the Watch Tower Article. I alternated that with a Cross Word Puzzle that they had to go to specific paragraphs, find the answer to the question I posed, then fill in the Cross Word puzzle. If they gave them to me at the end of the meeting they got a candy. They loved it! The elders however...did not. They SHUT me down...said that doing this was inviting people to put NON SOCIETY MATERIAL in front of their youth and they would have no part of that. The kids were soooo bummed and so was I. The parents told me that they couldnt even get their kids to open the magazines before my games and they were happy I made it more interesting.
Also, I used to really study my articles thoroughly. I had time at work in a one man office to do this. I would look up the texts they cited in the bible, COPY the bible page on the Xerox, then cut out the cited scripture and paste it on a page. I did thta with all the cited scripts in the whole article. Then I would copy THAT page and I made a couple extras for my friends. Well...shit they slammed the door on THAT too! Saying that not only did that DISCOURAGE people from doing their OWN studying but that they preferred that I physically look up the scrips in my BIBLE during the meeting and not be looking at some kind of paper like it was a worldly SCHOOL room! What WITH these bozos?? CONTROL FREAKS
No more can the brothers say anything even REMOTELY of their own opinions either during talks. Stick with the outline do not deviate to the right or left of CENTER.
When I first started going out in service, nobody explained to me how to use the time sheets. I simply filled out a line for each day I went out and then after I had all the days of the month, I would do totals and put those on the last page and staple them together. After three months an elder came up to me and shook my time sheets in my face. "Will you STOP doing this please? Its wasting paper, its not necessary and it wastes the time of the service brother having to go through all that paper to find your totals!" And he walked away. I wasnt even BAPTIZED yet!!
you guys run into that cold heartlessness?