Re: Scully's talks, a question

by carla 34 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  carla

  Thank you Scully & friends for all that info!

  I have a question, in the past many of you have bemoaned having to give a # 4 or 6 talk for instance. Are these the talks you were talking about? How much can one deviate from what is printed in these outlines? These talks are just recycled year after year after year, correct? With the exception of new light of course. Personally I find it rather ironic that my jw does not care to see movies more than once or reruns on tv yet can sit through reruns of these talks year after year. Have I got this right?
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  jgnat

  Hey, the blind leading the blind here. I can answer one question. The # 4 or #6 talk is referring to something else. It's the format of the talk and they refer to when it appears on the program at the midweek service meeting.

  Otherwise, yes, everyone follows those talk outlines. Those outlines are for the Sunday morning public talk. I think the elders vary it up by inserting their own illustrations, usually at the very beginning of the talk. I've heard Time articles, stories, jokes and statistics that are ten, twenty years old. Everyone waits for the obligatory joke. The relief from the monotony is palpable, it's usually guaranteed a laugh.
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  jgnat

  Hey, all pastors build up a similar arsenal of standard sermons. They pull out their outlines for the regular holidays such as Easter, Mother's Day, Veteran's Day, and Christmas.

  The difference with the society is that the outlines are set.
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  Scully

  Hi Carla

  These are Public Talk Outlines - they are delivered on Sundays by Elders™ or Ministerial Servants™ assigned to do so. They are not available to most JWs, and especially not to female JWs.

  The "talks" you are referring to are the 5 minute deals that JWs who are enrolled on the Theocratic Ministry School™ are assigned to deliver. As far as I can remember, they phased out the #5 talk in the late 70s/early 80s when they changed to a 45-minute format instead of a 60-minute format for the entire meeting.

  The Public Talk Outlines all have specific instructions to the speaker at the beginning of the talk, plus a 45-minute time limit allowed (which is going to be modified to a 30-minute presentation in the near future). Some of the talks have a greater volume of content than others, so it varies as to how much a speaker can fluff it up with anecdotes or illustrations. All of them indicate the appropriate scriptural passages to be read during the course of the talk. The speaker is supposed to cover all the material in the outline, with very little deviation.
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  MissingLink

  While there are a load of outlines, the repetition is much more than it should be. This is because elders slowly build up their portfolio of talks that they are qualified to give. A new elder will start out with only a few that they give over and over.
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  jgnat

  OMG the elders have to qualify for the talks? OMG!

  Which talks are the women allowed to give?
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  SnakesInTheTower

  Scully:

  The speaker is supposed to cover all the material in the outline, with very little deviation

  Once, many years ago when I was the mere assistant to the public talk coordinator, we received one of those little notes from "Mother" regarding a change in the outline (they send minor changes out rather than a new outline). The only change was "Move Line 20 to above Line 10" (or something like that). A couple months later, we received another little note that said, essentially, "put it back the way it was..." (No kidding).

  Brothers are strongly encouraged in their Instruction sheet given to all new speakers to stick closely to the outline. With the new change to 30 min talks, the speaker will be hard put to add anything additional to the outline...which I think is the Borg's plan....keep everyone on the same page (literally). Plan on the Public Talks to get even more boring than they already are.

  SnakesInTheTower (of the "not giving or listening to Public Talks anymore" Sheep Class)
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  Honesty

  Doncha just love how the Faithful Slave provides our EVERY need.
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  carla

  Thanks all for clearing that up for me! Shoot! now I have to remember how to burn all these to a cd on this computer!
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  bikerchic

  LMAO @ jgnat!

  Which talks are the women allowed to give?

  The women give the "oh stop your sniveling and get your talk prepared" talk to hubby before the main event.

  Okay so I'm kidding.....the women have the privelege of giving the #3 talk at the weekly Theocratic Ministry School™.