For me i think it was the Sunday meeting.. Just wanting to stay home and sleep in.. But i think the watchtower study was the hardest to sit threw... you had to have it studied before hand.. and highlighted.. then sit there and listen to it all over again..
Which meeting was the hardest to attend for you ?
by NoLongerAjw 32 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
joelbear
Service Meeting had to be the absolute worst. Those awful demonstrations on how to place magazines, ugh. One funny story, my Mom and I were supposed to do a presentation one night, I think it was for a new book, but she couldn't stop laughing the whole time we were up there. I was very upset at the time, but now I think it was just funny.
Public talks were mostly horrible. Not very many good speakers among the witnesses. When they just started reading outlines it got even worse. Nothing new, just rote information spewed over and over and over and over and over. I think that runs many intelligent people away from the watchtower, they simply can't take the mind numbingness of meetings any more.
Book studies, boring boring boring and the chairs at people's houses were never comfortable or I ended up sitting by someone with a whiny kid. Lots of the houses I attended book studies in were not air conditioned, so summers were hell.
I volunteered for a lot of substitute talks on the Ministry School. I loved and still love extemporaneous speaking. It was a challenge for me to come up with a talk in 10 minutes or so, whisking back during talk number 1 to do some quick bound volume research. I also loved doing my own critique of speakers. Me and my friends lived to make each other crack up while on stage so that kept it entertaining.
I was Watchtower reader about 75% of the time in my congregation, which was fun for me although I was caught napping or goofing off with one of my friends in the audience a few times.
hugs
Joel
-
Angharad
The service meeting was just so incredibly boring. Something about Thursday night meetings in general just made you crave beer.
-
nytelecom1
of course it was those service meetings....for some reason they were always on thurs...damnit if i didnt miss all the good shows growing up..the cosby show..seinfeld..friends..i hated it...could they stretch for anymore information to take up time...one elder made us consider the daily text during the announcements just to fill up time....how sad is that
-
dedalus
Here's my take on the five weekly brainwashing sessions:
Public talk -- dreadful business, but at least you can doze off, and every now and again there's a dub up there with a decent sense of humor. Survival technique: bring something to doodle on; smuggle a newspaper or magazine with you into a bathroom stall; or, if you're a brother, try to get parking lot security duty.
Watchtower Study -- torture worse than death, period. Instead of one dub making insipid remarks, you get the whole congregation of dubs making insipid remarks, as if trying to out-dub each other with their insipid dubness. Survival technique: drugs, preferably hallucinogenics; a straw and a spitball carefully aimed at a dub about to comment.
Ministry School -- at least the talks are short, which helps break up the agonizing monotony. Survival technique: make goofy faces at the #2 and #4 speakers, especially if they happen to be working on audience contact.
Service Meeting -- again, the talks are shorter, which helps, but not much. Survival techniques: ear plugs; leave your seat and pace back and forth in the back of the hall, clutching your back as if in pain; take your children (or someone else's) out back as if to discipline them, then play with them instead.
Book Study -- second cruelest form of torture known to man (see WT Study for #1). Inevitably you are assigned to someone's moldy, half-unfinished basement, where you are made to sit in cold metal chairs and listen over the hum of an ancient furnace as some peon elder overcompensates for not being the PO. Survival techniques: see how many spiders you can count in an hour; go upstairs as if to use the host's bathroom, then rearrange all of the family portraits on the wall; surreptitiously leave a copy of Crisis of Conscience under the conductor's seat.
Whew! Of course, there is one survival technique that works in all situations, but especially at district conventions: pretend that the room is slowly filling up with water, and you're the only one with scuba gear!
Dedalus
-
slipnslidemaster
This is why I love this board. I never really thought about which meeting I hated the most. I really hated them all equally I think. I still hate Tuesdays and Thursdays.
I think field service would be the thing I hated the most though. But if you put a gun to my head and said pick one, I think that I would have to pick the Service meeting. It always ran late, someone was always DF'd and I would always be forced to "study" for it before hand and then go until 10:00pm. The night would be totally shot.
Slipnslidemaster: "But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near."
- Andrew Marvell -
dedalus
It always ran late, someone was always DF'd and I would always be forced to "study" for it before hand and then go until 10:00pm.
You know, it's odd that there isn't a black market among dubs for "pre-studied" publications. Just think -- for a reasonable fee, you could have your Watchtower carefully marked in yellow, blue, and green highlighter! For a modest surcharge, you can even have a scripture or two scawled into the margin for you! Imagine how quickly your spiritual reputation will improve when your elders begin noticing how "thorough" you are in your meeting preparation! Soon you'll be invited to all the cool dub parties ... er, get-togethers.
Dedalus
-
individual
For me what I used to hate most was the service meeting because afterwards I would sometimes have the dubious privilege of dishing out the magazines which meant having to stay really late whilst the elders and others would chat downstairs not in any hurry. There I was with 3 small kiddies, all tired and wanting to go home. This is one of the things that really got to me.
-
slipnslidemaster
pssssst. come here. I got some Watchtowers for ya'. Pick a color. here's my beeper number when you need your next fix.
Slipnslidemaster: "But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near."
- Andrew Marvell -
DB
Lately, the bookstudy has been toughest, because we have a conductor who fills that whole hour even though there may only be a few paragraphs to cover. He talks way too much; mercifully, the MS who conducts in his stead gets the thing done in almost half the time. Overall, I had always thought that the bookstudy was an easier meeting to take, but now I see that that is the case only when the conductor keeps things moving. The guy we have now is just killing us with endless droning during nearly every paragraph.
Other than that, a boring speaker during the public talk can be pure agony!
As for the WT Study, I really wish we'd do it WITHOUT reading the paragraphs.
The service meeting can really be boring, especially those parts where there are platform discussions, two or three brothers up there talking about KH building projects for example. And how many demos and new approaches do we really need?
The school gets boring too, especially by the time talk #2 rolls around. And the whole thing about giving and receiving speech counsel in front of the audience always bugged me.
I'd really like to see some "simplification" in the area of meetings. I would like to see just two days/nights out of the week taken up, instead of three. I'd like to see the school and service meeting somehow consolidated into one meeting, with a bookstudy-like discussion to follow. Eliminate bookstudy groups and call them "service groups" instead, just having them meet in smaller groups for service. Then have a public talk and WT study on another day (no paragraph reading) with a total time of 1 1/2 hours.