by gringojj 22 Replies latest jw friends
My wife went to a meeting today and a funny thing happened. The public speaker from out of town did not show up! So instead of ad-libbing for an hour they just ended the meeting an hour early! She said he didnt call or anything, what unity.
Anyways my thoughts are that they cant just make something up in the last minute to talk about because it wouldnt be in unison with the wts schedule. So they just end early. My wife was very happy about that.
Those things happen. They schedule out 3 months at a time. The brother doing the scheduling is supposed to call the speaker during the week of the talk to make sure that there isn't a miscommunication (at least that is how they do it around here).
Here they usually have some hotshot local brother who can give a talk in a moment's notice if they give him an hour to throw it together. So WT Study first and PT last. Sometimes those talks were 100% better than the "planned" ones.
Blondie
Actually, they don't have to match the talk to the WT study topic. Usually, some POs try to select material to address problems in the congregation. More likely, when it is from out of town/congregation they get the talk those brothers know how to give. Once we heard the same talk 3 times in 4 months....
Blondie
So instead of ad-libbing for an hour they just ended the meeting an hour early!
So they just end early. My wife was very happy about that.
What's funny about this is how the WTS always compares its meetings to Feeding From Jehovah's Table™, and a Rich Banquet of Spiritual Food™. You'd think JWs would be upset at only getting half their Happy Spiritual Meal™. I know I always get miffed when I am in a restaurant and they forget to bring something I've ordered. Yet JWs are happy when they miss half of their Spiritual Food™.
I guess JWs realize deep down that all they are getting at meetings is warmed-over mouldy fridge rejects.
The best talk I ever heard was a "Rush" job. The brother explained about" two horses yoked to gether pulling a carriage with a family in it...He said if the yoke breaks & the horses part, one goes one way the other goes the other !What happens to those in the carriage??? They fall out!!! Get hurt!!! So It is better that the Horses keep yoked together ( then he added by saying the same in marriage - dont get unyoked.... Funny he never gave another impromtue talk???? NOW AFTER TWENTY FIVEYEARS I KNOW WHAT HE WAS SAYING !!!!! DAH!!!!!!!!
Wished I had listened to his advice when my hubby was a live Would have stopped many fights!!!! TOO LATE NOW!!!
In all my years of attending meetings (about 30) only ONE TIME did they end the meeting an hour early. Generally they did the WT first and my dad or one of the other elders would run home and grab a talk and give it after the WT. But one time they ended early and that has to be one of my best memories of a meeting.
Purza
I remember well the feeling of happiness and relief whenever the public talk was cancelled for some reason. Even better, when the whole meeting was cancelled because of bad weather!
Cellist
that would have NEVER happened at my KH unfortunately. they would have had the WT study first and then the talk. if the speaker still had not shown up before the end of the WT, then a local elder or MS would have given one of the "binder" talks (they actually had a big blue binder in the library with outlines for talks in case of those situations like the one above).
There is no limit as to how far in advance you are supposed to schedule talks. I had mine done at LEAST 6 months in advance, sometimes a whole year. I was the coordinator for 2 years. That job sucks, plain and simple. Especially when you get these joker Talk Coordinators from other towns who don't know how to do their job. One of the coordinators from a nearby cong. matched the wrong dates to ALL the brothers we had scheduled from his hall. So every single week they would announce the name of the talk and the name of the speaker and every single week we would get the wrong speaker giving the wrong talk. Everyone looks at me and wonders what the heck is wrong with me and why can't I do my job. ARG!!!!!
And then, you'd inevitably get some old fart of a speaker who just throws random scriptures around with no theme or application except the typical jargon we've heard for 30 years. They didn't come that often, but if they did, I would put a little red dot next to their name in my book - in other words, NOT ACCEPTABLE - DO NOT INVITE BACK. Some talk coordinators think that if you're an elder, you should automatically go on the Outgoing list. This is not the way the Society wants it done... only those with "exceptional speaking abilities" are supposed to be giving outgoing talks. I think in some areas where there are not many excelling speakers, especially rural areas, they are a little lax with this rule in order to just have some variety of speakers.
I actually kind of liked the job, in a masochistic sort of way....
There is no limit as to how far in advance you are supposed to schedule talks. I had mine done at LEAST 6 months in advance, sometimes a whole year
That's absolutely correct, daniel-p. Each congregation sets is own policy. In my area 3 months was the limit because things tended to be forgotten otherwise. Once a new talk coordinator did it for a year and had to rearrange at least 2 talks every month because something had come up that the speaker couldn't plan for a year ahead.
I can remember one time getting 5 incompetent speakers in a row. I think the TC in that congregation had some grudge against the TC in the one I attended. The PO was po'd. When we saw certain speakers scheduled, we always made sure we would be out of town. In my experience, the PT was the 2nd hardest meeting to endure, the SM was first because it was the last meeting on a week night and the brothers never prepared;itI was the Night of the Clowns.
