Public Talk Déjà vu

by NewYork44M 19 Replies latest jw experiences

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  NewYork44M

  Several weeks ago I sat through the public talk and could not believe the lack of substance of the talk. It was filled with worn out bromides and illustrations that we have all heard hundreds of times. I was embarrassed for the speaker and flabbergasted that the audience could actual sit through such nonsense.

  Thenabout half way through the talk, I realized that I recognized the talk. In fact, I had given that same talk many times. What is worse is that talk was one of my favorite talks to give. Perhaps one of the reasons I liked the talk was that it could be given on autopilot with very little thought or preparation.

  In any event, I left the meeting with a strange feeling. I was happy that I have made such a total transformation in my thinking. And, at the same time I was angry because of the time I wasted and upset that perhaps someone may be attending meetings right now because of my words or actions.

  Has this type of experience ever happened to you?
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  uriah

  I went to the meeting, after not having been for a few weeks. I was looking forward to a thought provoking talk - you know, like when you are in the mood for something really tasty to eat.

  Well, the chairman said "...and now Brother so and so from some place or other is giving the talk this morning entitlted

  'Should you believe the Trinity' ".

  Boy, was it dry. The same old thing I have heard and studied for donkey's years I thought NOOOOOOOOO it can't be. But it was.
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  auntiem

  Dear NY44M,

  When I began to fade out from the meetings I used to amuse myself by making fun of the talks...mentally, because they were so shallow. I would get angry whenever there was a "marriage" talk. My JW husband was an abuser...and in good standing. I started hanging out in the womens restroom...lots of sisters did, in the nursing area and we would talk and gab about everything except the meeting. One of the elders wives had said at one time..."I can't believe he (her elder husband) is giving this talk when he can't even apply this himself". It was about self control and anger. We would talk about our kids and everything under the sun. Even exchange recipes. When the talk was over we would all go back out into the hall and sing the song and find an excuse to go back into the restroom with our WT's! Oh yes those were the days my friend........

  Hugs!

  aUnTiE M
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  NeonMadman

  Last I remember, there were about 120 talks in the public talk series. So that means, if you get a new talk every week without any repetition, you'll have fresh talks for less than 2 1/2 years. Now if, like me, you were a JW for nearly 30 years, that means that you will have heard every talk in the series - with all its tired illustrations and arguments - about 12 times. And that's assuming an even flow of the talks in sequence. In practice, some talks are given much more frequently, and others very rarely, depending on which ones the local elders pick for themselves. So, in fact, there are probably talks I heard 25-30 times, or even more, over the years.

  Granted that a couple of times while I was in, they did come out with new series of outlines, and the old outlines were discarded. Unfortunately, the new outlines tended to be largely rehashes of the old ones, brought up to date, but mostly with the same material.

  That was, in fact, a factor in my coming to believe that the "faithful and discreet slave" was not truly a source of real "spiritual food". They constantly bragged about the "abundance of spiritual food" that we had within Jehovah's organization, and yet we heard the same Sunday talks over and over again. Yet, you can go to virtually any church in Christendom, and hear a fresh sermon, that the preacher wrote just for that specific occasion. Add that to the fact that we were studying the Revelation book for the fourth time, and that we had been using essentially the same two textbooks in the Ministry School over and over again for 30 years (School Guidebook and All Scripture is Inspired), and it seemed much more to me like there was a "famine of hearing the Word," rather than any spiritual "banquet of well-oiled dishes."

  Edited by - NeonMadman on 22 January 2003 9:57:25
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  minimus

  I used to give over 40 public talks. When I used to hear another brother give one of "my" talks, I always knew it was going to be a waste of time. My talks were way better!
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  benext

  It's fairly obvious when a public speaker is going through the motions. After "getting the talk out" they don't want to go to any lengths to change or update the talk. One speaker was giving a talk in 2001 about the last days and how the generation of 1914 was getting older. Guess no one bothered to tell him about that change.
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  NewYork44M

  While there are 120+ official talk outlines many of the talks follow a very similar formula. I had five or six talks that I gave, and with the exception of one talk that was almost interesting the talks had a very simple formula. 1) man is wicked, 2) Satan is behind man' wickedness, 3) only hope for salvation is going to meetings and out in field service, and 4) reward for going out in service and going to meetings is everlasting life.

  The talks that I gave that followed this formula were almost identical. In fact, one time I came to the meeting with the wrong outline and gave the wrong talk with no one the wiser.

  It does not take long for the faithful meeting attenders to hear all there is to hear. Even with all the outlines, most are very very repetitive.
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  undercover

  The last two talks I went to were exact opposites of each other. One was on the trinity. Inwardly, I groaned. Not the trinity again. But this brother gave an excellent talk. He was well prepared, knowledgeable and was a natural speaker. The other one, which I saw after the trinity talk, was boring, incoherent, sloppy and dull, dull, dull. I don't even remember what it was about. The speaker had no business being on the platform. His command of the english language was lacking. He inserted his own little editorial comments that were not supported by scripture or even the society. There was no flow to the material presented. He just went from side point to side point. There was no conclusion, he just finished and walked off to a hesitant applause.

  How many brothers out of an average hall should be giving public talks? My experience shows that on average only two out of the ten or twelve giving talks are good enough to present the material in a lively, coherent, grammatically correct and interesting way. The rest were either too nervous, unprepared, dull, unschooled or overbearing. I used to hate when a local brother gave the main talk. But then when the visiting brothers came they were often worse than our own. I used to wonder if anyone in their home hall knew that they were this bad and why in God's name did they let them on the road.
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  blondie

  The talks are bad because the brothers after becoming elders are no longer given any counsel by the school overseer or the PO. A "new" procedure has been introducted at the KH for a brother (not the school overseer) to listen to the talks, public or otherwise, given by the local elders and to offer specific counsel on how to improve. At the KH I "attend," the elder they selected is the brother most likely to need the counsel himself.

  Few elders are qualified to give 10 talks let alone the 40 minimus attests to being able to give. So the same talks rotate over and over. Some talks have the same theme so there is little difference. Is anyone on this DB a past talk coordinator that can explain that it is more like a game of dice that intelligent choosing of topics and speakers.

  Blondie (who comes only for the WT study when certain brothers are listed as speakers)

  BTW I have seen the PO call and complain to the talk coordinator in the speaker's congregation when he is especially bad. I have seen congregations put on a list not to exchange speakers when they are bad. But not often enough.

  Edited by - Blondie on 22 January 2003 12:7:17
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  minimus

  I took care of the public talks for years. I tried to get different subjects as well as good speakers, but that didn't always work, especially in the summertime. You could schedule anyone and be assured either of a cancellation or a fill-in that stunk. It's hard to be choosy sometimes. As far as the brother listening to judge the quality of the talks, this is nothing new. It's been stated to do this for years. I remember at one school, a CO saying that the brother shouldn't make the speaker nervous by obviously following along on the outline. The reality is, almost nobody fulfills this role but the most die-hards.