My First CLAM Meeting

by The Searcher 20 Replies latest social humour

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  TipsyMangoTea

  I attend a non-English-speaking congregation in the US (my mom and her side of the family are unfortunately still in), and the CLAM meeting seems to excite everyone since it was announced, oh dear... Is this the case for other non-English-speaking congregations out there? Really curious whether this is a trend or the people around me are just too indoctrinated.
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  crazy_flickering_light

  No, 3-4 people give an answer, the Rest is asleep. Boring.

  But the little video was cool... 607 B.c. - a fullfilment of the bible. Crazy.
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  Xanthippe

  he was getting frustrated and he said " come on people there's tons of answers
  here". - Bigdummy

  What a weird thing to say! Normally in a presentation of any kind, a speaker asks for comments or questions. These guys ask for 'answers' meaning read something out of the Borg book or magazine you are holding. Not a cult then?!

  No wonder you thought do people in JW Ville do any thinking of their own. It is not allowed, just find your answers in the paragraph, brothers and parrot it back to me. Those that do think obviously keep it to themselves and quietly leave.
• 

  The Searcher

  BigDummy - totally in tune with all of your comments.

  As for this one - An elder was giving a part a few weeks ago that required audience participation and at one point he asked a question and there was dead silence for about 30 seconds - an arrogant elder in my previous congregation got an even longer silence when he asked a question in his item. His response to the silent audience was, "Have any of you actually prepared this item??"

  What a gentle & loving shepherd. He's now a CoBE!
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  prologos

  As just an observer, the truncated, big audience discussion with the tired audience of the "imitation of their faith" book, has not fully sunk in yet. The topic at the end was about the sexual corruption of the OT organisation at the highest level. Come to think of it, if truth would be known, on the page 63 image, given the facts, There is a great likelihood, that Eli was talking to his grandson. knowing that his mother was a frequent attendee at the temple compound. Interesting new admission by wt on page 66 par 29 too: "--'Jehovah' let not one of Samuel's prophecies fail--" which can not be said for the wt writers.
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  blondie

  I was in one congregation where no one was answering and the conductor threatened to call on people who didn't have their hands up....and he did. The attendance was lower the next meeting. Then someone clued him in that he was not succeeding.
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  Half banana

  "The apathy in the congregation (barely 50% in attendance) was palpable! "

  
  

  "several looked as if they'd lost the will to live."

  Searcher your post is a pleasure to read...
  
• 

  BluesBrother

  If I were still "in" , the biggest loss would be the Ministry School. Where are the next generation of public speakers going to come from?.... At my time of life I guess that I would have no motivation to prepare and deliver these "field ministry demos" that they are then counselled on. No, it would be the end for me in terms of platform assignments.

  Talking of answers, in my last spell as an elder perhaps I was the bullying conductor but it was so frustrating to take the Watchtower Study and have just the faithfull 3 or 4 willing to provide answers . There is a line in a Rod Stewart song that I knew well, it said

  "Dumb blank faces staring back at me,

  but nothing ever changed.........

  The principal would like to leave the stage

  the crowd don't understand"

  Too right they didn't , and didn't want to ! .. I would stand, in silence for what seemed an age after reading the set question . It was a battle of wills and eventually they won. I was replaced with an elder who would either answer it himself or read a scripture instead...
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  respectful_observer

  I was in one congregation where no one was answering and the conductor threatened to call on people who didn't have their hands up....and he did. The attendance was lower the next meeting. Then someone clued him in that he was not succeeding.

  I would stand, in silence for what seemed an age after reading the set question . It was a battle of wills and eventually they won. I was replaced with an elder who would either answer it himself or read a scripture instead...

  Back when the Book Study still existed I was attending a rather large group held in the KH. Although there was typically 20-30 people there, the participation was awful. On one even-worse-than-usual night, the poor brother conducting was getting NO help. After having to drag comments out during the first few paragraphs, the next one was read and he asked the question. Zero hands went up. He calmly gazed at the audience and said: "No comments? Okay, let's just move on to the next paragraph then. Paragraph 5, Br. Reader." I just about died.

  
  
  
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  sir82

  Where are the next generation of public speakers going to come from?

  I don't think that is much of a consideration any more. I think there will be more and more video presentations from "mother" as the years roll on. At some point the only things done by locals might be Q&A parts & field serve-us demos.