Were Conventions, Asemblies and the Memorials boring to you?

HereIgo

Conventions always just seemed like more of a vacation to me than anything else, especially if you had to travel out of town for it, but definitely were exhausting especially toward the end of each day. For some reason I didn't mind the special and circuit assemblies too much, probably because they seemed like more of a social event than anything else and only 1-2 days. The memorial always was kind of boring to me. The same dry talk with the same dry speaker, nobody ever partook, then again I was young while I was in. Maybe that generation did indeed pass away?

slimboyfat

On the whole I liked conventions, because, for a young person, I was strangely interested in things like four-part symposiums on the prophet Habakkuk and new light on Daniel's prophecy and so on. What did get a bit boring to me, were the talks on things like how to be a good pioneer, that were very long, said absolutely nothing new, and included gems like: don't walk too slow between doors, don't waste our precious literature, and conduct progressive Bible Studies. I swear, looking back, the function of these tedious talks was purely to turn your brains into compliant mush, because there was absolutely nothing practical or interesting ever contained in them.

FayeDunaway

An event that was our only Christmas, where the most exciting part was seeing what disfellowshipped people with maybe even a beard showed up, and YAY we got to pass a glass of wine and plate of crackers down a row. Memorials were dreadful.

Conventions, where you got new clothes, were fun, only for the socializing and making and serving lunch, until they took that away too..but when we had kids, and tried to contain them in the same hard seat for all freaking day while a voice droned on...and on....and on.....pure hell.

never a jw

don't walk too slow between doors

Really? by the looks of all the people preaching in the area where I live, the advise seems to have been "walk as slowly as possible" It's hard to tell if they are walking or just standing.

zeb

initially interesting even if I thought the speakers were using 50 words when 5 would do.

Memorials? Instead of sharing the speaking load they gave it to one elder usually the worst speaker as it seems bro drone. and you could tell they were just dying to make the memorial meetings go on for another hour or so.

as time went on and the r&f would say best convention ever I would think "Huh?' until I realized they were just quoting the 'party-line' where everyone said Iwtbce.

The final prayer assumed that God is an idiot and needed the conv summed up for him as this what they did.

snugglebunny

Back in the day, conventions were just grope fests behind the cafeteria tent for us young bloods.

That was in the day when we all understood that you could only get disfellowshipped for full-blown sex. Anything else was naughty but OK.

Wasanelder Once

If you become an elder who has good speaking ability and are used on many programs at all levels it destroys your joy because you see the pure BS behind all the two faced overseers who belittle their fellow witnoids. Very sad really.

stillin

I was impressed for years at the happiness that was "evident" at the assemblies. Then I realized all of the other things going on in the assembly host city that would be much more fun to do. If it were available, I could read a transcript of the assembly in a fraction of the time, read more closely the "important" stuff if there was any and the money spent on nice hotels and meals could have been spent in a much less controlled fashion. Spontaneity is a big part of what's missing with the Witnesses.

punkofnice

In the old days, when I was a kid, the a$$emb£ie$ were torture. They were only alleviated by the legendary meals we got served. Mashed spuds slopped in a compartmented tray, mingling with custard.

Memorials were has all the excitement of a public hanging.

On the whole, all the JW activities were crap, I just fooled myself it was for a greater good. All those wasted years and I'll never get them back!

I wasted my life and will die unfulfilled.

Je.suis.oisif

In my 32yrs ( I add this time period to take you to the far realms of boredom) as a jw who's partner was never interested. I came to dread these assemblies/memorials etc. I'd concluded that Jehovah was withdrawing holy spirit from me! What other conclusion could I rationalise under the lonely circumstances?

What finally irked me into questioning this cult was the following situation:-

Two summer conventions ago in Liverpool there was a family of 6 a few rows down from me. 4 kids/ 2 parents.

Day 1 nothing out of the ordinary. Presentable by convention standards. Too much what I call junk food passed to the kids. But hey, none of my beeswax right?

Day2, family had same clothes on. Same food etc.

Day 3, same again, clothes/food etc.

On the stage was the bethel speaker. He was ranting on about jetting around the world sourcing paper for the printing presses. He even boasted several times about travelling 1st class??? I was incensed. He's guilting us to donate more. Curtail wordly pursuits etc. Reach out. He finished with if you do reach out you'll travel the world at Jehovahs expense. WTAF was this? Here was a poor loyal family, feeling guilty and possibly inferior to quite a few there, & he's droning on about international travel skirting the obvious that it was our, our donations that funded his smug attitude from that stage.

I never went to another meeting. The last convention left me cold. Sorry for the rant. There's a lot of crap surfacing at the moment. Please don't flame me for highjacking the topic.

Were Conventions, Asemblies and the Memorials boring to you?

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