When the Sunday speaker did not show up.....

by target 17 Replies latest jw friends

  • target
    target

    I remember that happening a few times. One Sunday morning my son went up to a young elder and said "Hey, I thought you were giving the talk today in XXX XXXXX. The look of horror on the Elder's face! He had forgotten. He had to hurry home and get his notes and rush off to a hall in another town that was a bit of a drive.

    On another occasion, an older brother showed up at our hall after we had given up and gone to the Watchtower Study. when he got up to give his talk afterward, he told how his car would not start that morning and he borrowed his neighbors. It was a big car that cruised pretty easy and he found himself being stopped by a cop. The cop asked him why he was in such a hurry and he told him that he was a minister and he had car trouble and was running late. The cop was sympathetic, but then as an after thought, he asked him what church. As soon as he said it was the JWs, the cop wrote him a ticket. He obviously disliked JWs. But of course it was put across as Satan's doing and the persercution thing and all. The guy was a horrible boring speaker. I think Satan was trying to do us a favor.

    Target

  • fullofdoubtnow
    fullofdoubtnow

    We only had the speaker come late on one occasion in the 25 years I went to meetings, and we had the watchtower study first, and had a local elder waiting with a talk just in case, but the brother turned up just as we were finishing the watchtower. He came from a town about 15 miles away, and his car had run out of petrol part way to the hall.

  • lawrence
    lawrence

    We made paper airplanes, drank beer, went out for a smoke, and cursed the bastard.

  • Poztate
    Poztate
    We made paper airplanes, drank beer, went out for a smoke, and cursed the bastard.

    WHAT !!!! In my hall we only cursed him if he showed up at the last minute...

  • bronzefist
    bronzefist

    This happened at least 4 or 5 times at the hall I attended (15 years). It was all nose bleeds for the "faithful", because the Watchtower study had to be done first (it threw them off the cycle) and an elder had to come up with one of their talks we heard a millon times before.

  • SirNose586
    SirNose586

    I really liked that we got the study done first, on the rare occasions we had a no-show or a late-show. Then I could just turn my brain off or sleep during the talk.

  • arwen
    arwen

    we would just have the WT study and then go home. It was such a relief...It seemed to happen quite a lot as well.

  • Purza
    Purza

    I recall this happening a few times back in the day. Actually the elder who is secretary is supposed to call the speakers the night before to remind them. Occassionally one wouldn't show up and a local elder would give a talk after the WT study. Only one time do I remember not having a public talk. It was wonderful having a one hour Sunday meeting.

    Purza

  • gymbob
    gymbob

    I was talking about this very thing not long ago with another 'apostate', and the funny thing was, we both (and I think most of JW's) really hoped the speaker wouldn't show up, and we could go home after the WT study. Of course NOBODY is ever going to say that back then...."what a shame the speaker didn't show up", , when we ALL were counting down the minutes for the WT study to end just hoping that we'd have a no-show and could go home early! Mind control at it's best......

  • Wasanelder Once
    Wasanelder Once

    Once when I was "Joe" elder the speaker didn't show. I grabbed an outline that I hadn't done before and took a few minutes during the WT study to work up a few ideas. I gave the talk after the study and it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable talks I had in my group of talk outlines. Spoke from the heart on that occasion.

    I think the congregation enjoyed watching me sweat.

    W.Once

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