Hospitality after Public Talk

00DAD

This was one of the things I really enjoyed in connection with giving public talks, both for me going out as a speaker and when others came to visit. It was a nice way to get to know different people. If they were odd, well then you're only stuck with them for an hour or so, but sometimes we met some really cool people.

Some people liked to take the visiting speaker out to a restaurant, but I always liked it better when we went to someone's home, even if the fare was simple. One of my favorite times was visiting a relatively poorer congregation. One bookstudy hosted. The meal was just cold-cuts and a "do-it-yourself" sandwich but the people were really nice and sincere folk.

It just reminds me that deep down, the average JW is just a regular person that really wants to be good. Too bad the WT leadership ruins it with their ridiculous need to control and their hypocritical lies.

It really should be criminal what the WT Leaders have done and continue to do. What a beautiful thing it could be.

breakfast of champions

We have always had hospitality at our congregation (in the NYC metro area). Our experience is that this 'privilege' is often abused by the speaker.

Best story: The speaker brings not just his wife but also a couple 'friends' from their hall. Fine. The couple assigned to hospitality bring the four of them out to dinner at a restaurant with the intention of paying for everyone (of course). At the end of the meal, the visiting group orders another four meals TO GO AND DOESN'T OFFER TO PAY FOR THEM! Not sure what to do, our hospitable brother paid the tab in full, and afterwards told the talk coordinator that the speaker should be banned from hospitality forever. The talk coordindinater tells him he's sorry, he should have told him that the speaker IS NOTORIOUS FOR DOING THIS!

Truly a spiritual paradise.

neverscreamagain

It just reminds me that deep down, the average JW is just a regular person that really wants to be good. Too bad the WT leadership ruins it with their ridiculous need to control and their hypocritical lies.

It really should be criminal what the WT Leaders have done and continue to do. What a beautiful thing it could be.

Wow, 00dDAD, I cound not agree more. I think that is one of the most concise descriptions of peoples circumstances given.

Balaamsass

When in Bethel in the 70s it was common. We had traveled, missed breakfast, and had no money for lunch. I came to LOVE soulfood, cuban and PR dishes.

In California Surburban congregations I never experienced it unless you ran into friends, or someone you WANTED to be friends with- we did "lunch" -dutch of course.

Living in rural areas later: In areas that had remote communities in the Circuit it is common to have speaker hospitality, because some speakers live an hour or more away. The problem is some of these speakers bring a large entourage with them, expecting to get fed, so the entire entourage can then go shopping in "the city". The arrangement really gets abused by some.

They were nice people and all, but somehow I don't think they realized how difficult it was for the sisters to prep a spread on a Sunday...or expensive it could be to buy lunch for a swarm of locusts every Sunday. After a while these "dense" friends stop getting invited...anyway these dense speakers tended to give "colorful & wacky " talks. ( I sometimes wondered if the talk coordinator had mistakenly called a rural Penticostal church).

Magwitch

Growing up in rural northern WI it was absolutely the norm to have hospitality for every speaker. I have fond memories of traveling 100+ miles to a KH with my parents and four siblings once a month and then spending the afternoon at some rural farm home with another big JW family and a huge spread. These were great times (1968-1980)

Fast forward to when I got married in 1986 (Boulder, CO). My husband and I were both regular pioneering and living in a 375 sq ft condo. He was in charge of assigning hospitality and in his usual lame ass manner, never really got around to it. So we ended up taking the speaker and gang to lunch almost every Sunday. Our place was too small to invite anyone over and a cheap restaurant in Boulder is hard to come by. This was an incredible financial hardship on us. He finally figured out he was not cut out for that responsibility and turned it over to someone else.

Diest

We had assigned hosts here in CO. The speaker and his talk title would be on the info board and 'host' would be right next to that. The annouced it thurday night with the title of the talk.

I am suprised that it was not universal, because it was so obligitory where I grew up.

Open mind

In our part of the greater San Francisco Bay Area OFFERING hospitality is the norm for the Talk Coordinator. He asks: "And, will you be able to stay for hospitality?" (Yes/No) "And how many will be coming with you so "the friends" can plan accordingly?"

On average, only about 50% of speakers around here stay for the whole meeting and hospitality.

There was one congregation in Oakland (can't remember the name now) that was well-known for always having a big Book Study potluck (oops, can't say "luck") for any visiting speaker. It truly felt like hospitality.

om

JWdaughter

Silly me, I thought when I saw this thread that there was some new policy of tea and snacks after the sunday meeting or something nice and friendly-hospitable like that! Not bloody likely!

I think they always were hospitable to oot speakers, but we usually had the same old local elders or one from so close that he might as well have been (redondo/des moines). I know we did stuff for the co/do's, and I was ONE time invited.

After meetings, I don't remember any kind of social gatherings that involved families, but there was a roller skating thing we did fairly reglarly when we had sunday mornings. I don't know what we ddi when we had evening meetings (cry??) but the kids and a few adults or young married couples had fun at the roller skating rink. Until we were shut down we had a (dare I say it?? ) FUN watchtower study on the Sat before the sunday meeting. It was fun cause we played murder (or some such game) and ate a lot of food.

Once we went on a work project on someones property on an island(??) Which was fine, these were a family (JW mom/non JW dad) that always made us welcome and were really nice to everyone (ok, rarely saw the parents, maybe that was the beauty of that scenario, but we were good kids). I had my first glass of wine when I was 14 at their house (adults knew-and I never got a taste for it) Ah, the social life of my congregation was really tame. New Jersey though, totally different story. They went clubbing, drinking and listened to heavy metal with impunity.

jam

This was done in A congregation I served in,

in the mid-west. In fact because it was A small

congregation the speaker and his family would

spend the nite at someone home. The speakers ,

in some cases would travel A great distance, so

arrangements where made too feed the speaker each

sunday. Two years I owned A restaurant, closed on

Sundays. So for two years we fed the speaker and

the whole congregation after the Public talk. The Brothers

loved coming too our congregtion . It was A

weekend holiday for them, fishing, drinking and hunting.

A question

Jam you have a PM

Hospitality after Public Talk - ???