Do Jehovah`s Witnesses still Advertise Public talks for their Sunday Meetings ? For the General Public ?

by smiddy 8 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  smiddy

  I have been out for 23 years , so I`m not up to date with current practices.

  However I was "in" for 33 years and belonged to 7 Congregations in two states of Australia in that time 1960-1993 , and not once could I say the general public EVER attended a public talk.

  In our witnessing back then we would distribute invitations to a public talk on a Bible subject given before the WT study.every week.

  Some of the congregations I attended had between 80 to 100 active publishers , and most would give at least 10 hours service PW.,so that means hundreds of invitations would go out , week after week , for the public to attend talks, and nobody and I mean NOBODY shows up , year in and year out.

  Sure , now and again maybe ,one or two Bible studies would have attended , but that does not constitute the public attending .

  What are your thoughts on this ? Was it the same in congregations you attended ?

  smiddy
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  freddo

  Half a world away in the UK and exactly the same smiddy ...

  Of course with jaydubyadotborg and its self promoting leaflets those little public talk tracts are old news and so don't get used so much.
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  jonahstourguide

  It is still the same today Smiddy,,,,,,,, here in Melbourne.. There is nothing new under the sun,,,, apparently jtg
  
  
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  Slidin Fast

  This process has ramped up immensely. Now, before the RCs the whole catchment area is leafleted for weeks in advance. Thousands of hours, tons of paper and ink. A stunningly mind-numbing waste of time . If there are one or two hapless members of the public that respond, country wide, the whole sorry enterprise is spoofed up as a major success.

  What a self-deluded waste of time.
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  Vanderhoven7

  Could it be because they are afraid apostates/opposers will attend and challenge their unsupportable teachings and practice?
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  Half banana

  I guess that one odd curious individual must have turned up at some point over the years somewhere...surely? Ahh! that must have been Mr Ron Scratchings of Wilmslow, myopic and a bit deaf who in April 1953 thought he was attending a Baptist meeting.

  The reality of the public talk is that it is a JW ritual. Rituals give the believer the chance to demonstrate fidelity to the cult. In turn this creates a sense of belonging and consequently an identity. The secondary function is the talk script supplies a means of hammering home and battening down the JW doctrine into the hearts of true believers.

  It is the opportunity to take on board the standard false arguments of why the JW org is always right and every other religion is from Satan.

  Who else would willingly want to listen to dull Watchtower rhetoric apart from the already committed? Same with the WT study; dull recycled garbage lacking in truth or having any content value at all. Ideal stuff for the die-hard, lobotomised JW zombies.

  Btw, well done to all those public speakers who with compassion tried to invigorate the propaganda with a semblance of warmth and humanity. Total waste of time though!
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  stuckinarut2

  Only misfits and odd people with "baggage" ever attend meetings, or become witnesses...
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  sir82

  In October there is going to be a "special" campaign to invite people to Sunday meetings at Kingdom Halls.

  It will of course have precisely the same results as any and all other "special" campaigns conducted over the past 40+ years - it will be greeted with a collective yawn, ignored by everyone who is contacted, and completely forgotten about by JWs on November 1.
  
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  jonahstourguide

  Yep sir 82,,,,,, dats melbourne cup day,,,,,,off to da races jtg