LOCAL NEEDS TALKS, ANY YOU REMEMBER?

minimus

One of the best tools the elders have to counsel the congregation is the local needs part. How does one usually get picked for this talk? Generally, during an elder's meeting, one elder will have his pet peeve.He convinces the body that this issue HAS to be handled by the body. They now agree that this issue merits a talk to be given to the congregation.And since Brother JERK is the most qualified on the subject, he should present the information. One example of a local needs talk revolved around an elder's wife getting into another family's business (concerning disciplining the children). Since the offended elder and his wife were upset by their spurned advice, the other family had to be publicly counseled for their wrong attitudes and their over-sensitivity....Once the families made up 2 years later, the brother was rewarded with being an elder.....Do you have any recollections of talks that were given that was a "local need"?

Quotes

Since I never seemed to be be with the "IN" crowd enough to know all the gossip that was going around, the "Local Needs" talks generally went right over my head since I had nothing to which I could apply them.

So no, I don't remember any.

Matty

Mainly I've always thought that these talks were just thrown into the schedule because there aren't enough Kingdom Ministry articles to fill up four service meetings.

We had one of these "local needs" talks yesterday. We were given a pep-talk about withstanding persecution. We were reminded of the need for endurance, and again we were told how close we are to the end. Like wow. There was also a little bit about our meeting attendance and hours and stuff, y'know, the usual guilt inducers about "are we doing enough in Jehovah's service?"

I like to read behind the lines in these talks as well, because they don't say this stuff for nothing, the information is usually prepared as a result of an incident or incidents that the Elders have become aware of.

Amazing

Yes. I have listened to many of these talks, and given several. My favorite was on "Alcoholism" and the drinking trend in the congregation. We even had a type of private "AA" meeting with about 10 to 12 JW alcoholics attending, including some ex-Elders.

ozziepost

Local needs talks can be an indication, an "insight", into the mind of the BOE and they can show what are the concerns of the few loudest voices on the Body. They also serve to let the congregation know why Brother or Sister So-and-so was DF or publicly reproved last week.

Interestingly, when describing the meetings, the Borg likes to proclaim that they are occasions for "upbuilding" and "encouragement". Oh yeah???

In my experience, what was NEVER considered by elders was how the meetings/gatherings of first-century Christians were conducted. It seems that elders assume that the meetings have always been conducted the way they are in the Kingdom Halls. True, the record of those gatherings found in scripture is very limited, but it seems the WTS presume too much.

Cheers, Ozzie

minimus

I just talked to someone this morning about the local needs talk on dating an unbeliever. Because this person's best friend dated and married the unbeliever and because the congregation was exhorted to report all sinners including those that date unbelievers, this friend after hearing the talk concluded they must be talking about another person! After talking for 20 minutes about HOW the elders clearly was talking about her friend and they were serving notice to the congregation that any that knew of her "sin" was just as guilty, her friend still doubted the reason for the talk. I then said, "there's no reason to continue this conversation since you are a typical Witness." She asked what I meant. I told her that I meant that "even when something hits you in the face that is SO OBVIOUS, you still won't admit it". Then I handed the phone to my wife.

dsgal

Once we had a local needs talk about someone carving dirty words in the back of some of the seats.

minimus

dsgal, that reminds me that years ago a local needs talk was given because some used to leave their crap in the toilet unflushed.....That was a great talk.

bittersweet

Ah yes....those good ol' local needs talks.I guess in our congregation we must have had a problem with gossip,because we had quite a few on that subject.My favorite was when I was in juinor high and a lot of kids were leading "double" lives,(ok,myself included : ) ),we had a talk on how we should be more worried about our friendship with jehovah than with our friends,so if we saw them doing anything wrong we should tell on them,they would thank us later.I don't recall being thankful to a boy who told on me because I had a worldly boyfriend!lol

ozziepost

a local needs talk was given because some used to leave their crap in the toilet unflushed

And I guess no-one is surprised by that, eh?

It just illustrates how devoid of spiritual contents the meetings really are.

Cheers, Ozzie

LOCAL NEEDS TALKS, ANY YOU REMEMBER?

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