Assembly Clichés

[d3z]

What was so funny about the planners is that I never saw anyone use them correctly.  They usually put in some events, and might even have a list of things to do, but I never saw anybody do the goals and that type of stuff, or even prioritize their TODO list.

Shane, on the other hand, used his planner in the most fascinating way.  He would write diagonally across the pages, just using it for notes (no correspondence to the dates).  He did make good use of old planner fillers that other people hadn't used.

[outdeep]

Before Betty discovered Franklin Planners as the solution to why everyone couldn't keep up without getting sick, we used to be required to fill out scheduled.  It was a much simpler plan where we had to fill out a grid of how we spent our time during the week.

We would fill in work.
We would fill in meetings.
We would fill in making dinner (an all night affair), stewardships, etc.

In the end, we would be left with, perhaps two to three hours of discresionary time where we might, say, do our laundry, run to the store, or prepare for the meetings.  It was always kind of silly because when working full time and living in a training house, there was just no time left to schedule.

[vernecarty]

It's interesting you mention schedules.

I knew it was time to leave the Champaign group when one of their newly minted "responsible brothers", a person loathed by practically everyone atttending there and a notorious puppet of Betty Geftakys, asked me to give him my schedule.  I looked at him as if he had completley lost his  mind.

Can you imagine the unbelievable hubris?

This guy would come to my apartment which was next door to the then brother's house and spend countless hours on the phone comlaining to Betty about the decisions Bill Bradbury was making in the "work".
I always wondered why he never took matters up with Bill himself instead of running to complain to Betty.
It got to the point that whenever he showed up I would take take the opportunity to absent myself from the scene. It was quite amusing listening to his alternate wheedling and whimpering.

( I am now starting to wonder if he ever did pay me for those calls to California... )

These kinds of fellows took the concept of assembly "leadership" to startling new lows...

(Last I heard this guy and his family were still having meetings with the kids "bringing minsitry")

The other responsible leading brother at the time really came to a sorrowful state. I felt quite sorry for him as I think inside he was really a decent guy. They really ruined him.


I guess it was common back then for grown men and women to have surrogates telling them how and where to spend their time. It was pitiful...
Verne

[sharonhb]

Matt, Where are the mispronounciations??

It's not tiptoes, it's tippytoes...
And not mischievous, but mischevious
etc. etc.

[matthew r. sciaini]

Sharon:

Thank you for reminding me!

Here are a few more:

"somewheres else" for "somewhere else"

pronouncing the "h" in herb

"Morales" for   Morelos (the state in Mexico of which Cuernavaca was the capital

"Otupko"  for Otukpo, Nigeria (actually, when I've checked out atlases for this city, it is generally listed as "Oturkpo")

Frankly, though these things bothered me, they bothered me less than the stories that GG launched into at convocations.   He would go on and on about people whom he knew and all that.  You were probably present for the infamous call to Nigeria during one Sunday afternoon convocation.  There was no way that I or probably almost anybody else in the old assembly could have gotten away with calling someone at midnight their time just so the dear saints could hear his voice.   But old GG did it.  

Matt

[Oscar]

Matt,

Remember, "two snaps of a gnat's wing"?

Thomas Maddux

[vernecarty]

Matt,

Remember, "two snaps of a gnat's wing"?

Thomas Maddux

Oh yeah!
I remember thinking:
"I wish you could finish your sermons that fast!"  
How about his admonition to us, in the midst of his tiresome and interminable tomes, to:

"not leave our change on the table"?

I know what yer thinking...
Verne

[matthew r. sciaini]

Tom:

Yeah, how could I forget it?  

Not that the phrase itself is evil, but I guess it helps to relive the lighter side of Geftakysland.

I can remember one seminar where it was quite warm and that old GG made a big deal about taking off his tie during a message and thus giving carte blanche for the other brothers to do the same.  (Wow, what liberty!)    I left mine on and caught some ribbing for it.  I was told that I was a "rebel" (it was from a brother famous for joking, so I took it somewhat in stride). This was not very long before the event (01-19-03).

How about....

I'm not winding down, but merely winding up!

This brother is now saying what I've been saying all along.

Most of you were good heathen...(aside)  I think he was full of it on this one for sure.  Many of the people that got involved with the assembly were already saved, albeit mostly newly saved.  Some were from Protestant if not evangelical backgrounds.  

...Over the years GG forgot his audience, and kept repeating the same stuff over and over again.  I wonder if he was simply frozen in time in his mind, or if he had long ago lost contact with reality due to his cover-up of sin.  (or both)

I can't think of any more cliches at the moment.  Maybe you can supply some oldies but baddies, since our times there overlapped by only three years or so.  

Matt