by united states of nothing 12 Replies latest watchtower scandals
Has anybody heard that starting this new year they will be shortening the public talk from 45 mins to 30 mins?
Does anybody think this might be a way to accomplish two things:
-Get meeting attendance up
-Make it even harder for a speaker to share thoughts off the WTB's outline
Yes this was announced many months ago. Takes effect January 2008.
I don't see how it will affect meeting attendance. No one is going to say "well, 2 hours on Sunday was just way too much, but I can handle an hour-45."
When it was announced, it was said the reason was "to leave more time for association after the meeting and to allow more time for the field ministry."
Of course that is just the usual claptrap. I suspect the reason is (1) with so many sub-par speakers in the congregations, cutting down the time to 30 minutes gives them less chance to veer off on stupid irrelevant tangents thus sticking closer to the outline (as you noted), and (2) thinking long term, as congregations lose members and are consolidated, some Kingdom Halls can be sold off for cash while remaining Kingdom Halls can accomodate more congregations on Sundays.
My guess is that they plan to take the extra time and roll it into the WT study. After all, sources on this board have noted thet the WT will soon produce a "members-only" edition of the Watchtower. An extra few minutes to beat the (spiritual) meat in due season would be a good thing.
~Hill
My guess is that they plan to take the extra time and roll it into the WT study.
Not so. The letter announcing the change specifically mentioned that the Sunday meeting will be only 1:45 in duration.
Of course, in a practical sense, many if not most WT conductors will happily take up most of the extra 15 minutes anyway. But it's not "supposed" to work like that.
if nothing else they are a dynamic orginzation. Remember when we had intermissions, then we didnt , then we did...........
New Light by the bucketload!
~Hill
It will be interesting if they stop the negative/bashing introductions. The CO spent the first 15 minutes telling the audience that only jws read and respect the Bible. Would have been fun to bring a student who knew that the bible was held in high regard in their church.........
It's just that there are so many unqualified speakers nowadays. The last time we were going, 5 speakers in a row were so bad, the coordinator stopped booking elders from that congregation.
It will take more than 15 minutes to get jws to go out on Sunday after the meeting. Only diehard pioneers and auxiliaries who have to get their time in end to go out. Technique, make an rv on the way home (one that is never there) and count 2 hours.
Blondie
I think their original purpose for doing that was to take 15 minutes off of the talk and add it to field circus. People will be out that extra 15 minutes, so it matters not that the boasting session is shorter. Your day is still usurped by theocraptic activity either way; this way, they have the opportunity to get more suckers into the scam (hopefully, they all saw the NBC News Report or gossip about it about the pedophiles in the Watchtower Society and will not take the litter-ature).
Everyone will be made to feel guilty if they don't go out in service. So they will begrudgingly go. Then they'll tout the shortlived success and everyone will revert to what they were doing in the "ministry" before the change took place.
Thanks for posting this, I had missed this news. It seems to be another step in the dumbing-down of the organization, making it easier to conform. I hear that back in the 60's and 70's when my parents were young they had district assemblies that lasted about a week, and the Watchtower study had more paragraphs. Similarly with the repeated reductions in the hour requirement for regular pioneers. I can't imagine them ever bringing these things back. If they do people will leave.
Sunday Public Talk from 45 mins to 30 mins?
Really? For me, public talks went from forty five minutes to ZERO in 2001.
