When I used to present public talks the biggest problem I had was trying to get my head around the sometimes incomprehensible lines of reasoning to try and tie the scripture verse to the application. I think that was when I began to wake up.
The Public Talks
by Charles Gillette 19 Replies latest jw friends
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snakeface
I remember the 45-minute talks. At that time there were some "old" outlines, and then some newer outlines of the same talks, with almost the same titles. For example #8 was "Living to do God's Will, not Our Own." Years later it was re-worked as "Living, Not For Self, But to do God's Will". Other talks kept the same title but were given new outlines, such as #156 "Judgement Day- A Time of Fear or Hope?". It came out in 2001 then again in 2011.
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Phizzy
I was giving P.T's when they dropped from 55 Mins to 45.
I always made my 55 Min talks last only just over 40 Mins, and when the 45 ones came in, 35 minutes was my maximum.
No one ever remarked on the brevity of my Talks ! I think everybody breathed a silent thank you to me. I was a much requested speaker to go to other congregations, and I did work very hard to try to make my talks as interesting and informative as possible, but I am sure the fact they were short was the main reason !
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DwainBowman
My first few were of the full hour format, then changed. I stopped after having a major back injury in 94.
I loved public speaking, that's the one good thing I learned growing up in borgland. I don't do any public stuff anymore. I did a few Microsoft events at trade shows, and a few at consumer shows as well. I always loved being able to put teckie stuff into words everyone understood. If I had lived in a larger area, I would have gotten to do much more!!!
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RolRod
Outlines today are pretty much manuscript talks, all written out, I remember when they were half a page.
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Charles Gillette
Thanks everyone for your responses. I wish I kept my binder and all the other materials that I threw out in a moment of anger. Oh well it is what it is. Blueblades
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RubaDub
Outlines today are pretty much manuscript talks, all written out, I remember when they were half a page.
RolRod ...
I remember my grandfather and father laughing when they started with the detailed outlines. They said there is really nothing you have to prepare or study, just basically read it and add some comments here and there.
They said at one time, you were simply given a title for the talk and you did the rest of the work yourself.
Rub a Dub
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DwainBowman
I remember back in the mid/late 60's, sometimes "brothers" just made up talks, and named them as well.
CO's used to make up a lot of their own talks, but then it got down to they had a few outlines they could pick from, for the Tue & Thur meeting's, as well as the after talk on Sunday. But they still made up the local talk, with suggested, point's to pick from.
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Phizzy
I used to make up my own Talks for a long time in the 1970's. The Elders were told it was not a good idea, but said to me that as I did such a good job of it, they would let me continue, but the other speakers had to use the printed outlines.
Eventually a strongly worded letter from H.Q put a stop to that, so in theory I used to use an Org outline, but I used to "knock it in to shape" as I called it, which meant I spoke on the Title subject, and followed the sub-headings somewhat, but the thoughts expressed were my own.
I was often told when giving Talks "away" that : " I give that Talk but did not recognize it the way you presented it". There was good reason for that !
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snugglebunny
I gave my first public talk at age 17. The society provided just a one-page outline of suggested material and a few Scriptures. So to fill an hour a person had to do a lot of research of one's own. I discovered that I was a fairly natural speaker and, TBH, really got off on the sense of power that comes from holding an audience. I would even use stories from Bonanza to illustrate principles of right and wrong.
In later years I used what I had learned about public speaking to lecture at sales conferences. Last year I was best man at my brother's marriage and managed to have the entire reception rolling in the aisles. "It is indeed a great privilege to finally be asked to be best man at one of Trevor's weddings..."