I cringe when I think about the talks I gave.

by James Mixon 28 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  James Mixon

  kairos: "Too painful" LOL... I remember a talk on the book of Daniel, Holy sh---t. I wonder have they

  scrap that outline, 1970's....
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  DisArmed

  "I feel so embarras when I think about that time." - James Mixon

  JM,
  

  Don't be too hard on yourself, we all thought we knew more than we did.
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  James Mixon

  Thanks DisArmed. Today if I speak in front of two or more people, panic attack I may

  say something stupid. LOL
• 

  compound complex

  "I would really speak with conviction from the platform. I would wonder though, as I noticed some of the reaction in the audience, why weren't more people moved by what I was saying? I was talking about our love for God and how lives were involved."

  -- xjwsrock

  I was Field Service Overseer and made myself available almost any day of the week. Included in my duties was visiting each book study group once a month and giving a pep talk, followed by field service on the weekend.

  When I finally burnt out (working full time, buying a house, raising children, Theocratic activities, etc.) I could understand a little better why some sheep bleated but did not follow the leader. It wasn't all bad, of course. There were always those who kept the ball rolling, their being 'eaten up by the zeal of Jehovah.'

  I used to be.

  CC
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  James Mixon

  Anders Andersen:Thanks for Dunning-Kruger effect article, interesting research.
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  stuckinarut2

  Oh yes!

  Great thread...

  We were so "Proud of the Privilege" of giving talks...that were in reality just a parroting of information that we could not vary from..

  Oh sure, we probably came up with some illustrations we thought were really great...

  But we were the classic "Big Fish in very Small Goldfish Bowls"
• 

  eyeuse2badub

  Yea I was a pompous ass also. That was the way we were suppose to be, right? Imitate the CO's and DO's who were all pompous asses. 2 decades of being a prominent speaker in the circuit and what a fool I was.

  Some of the crap that I preached from the platform makes me sick. I'm not too sure that I believed it even then, but, being a good dub required following the 'company' line (of BS). Too bad, too bad! Mia copa!

  just saying!

  eyeuse2badub
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  daringhart13

  You just hit a nerve.

  I was the 'go to' speaker for everything in the circuit. Whether public talks or local needs.....I really knew how to 'yank the heart strings'..........sometimes I just sit back and laugh at the thought of it all. All those endless nights coming up with the next, heart rending illustration ....... had to get people shedding tears!

  So absurd. So incredibly absurd.
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  wozza

  As I started out giving talks I would follow the outline to the letter not thinking too much about what I was actually saying or citing because of nerves .

  Over time I got better and eventually started to hear myself speak ,less nerves .

  Then confidence started to appear and I would start to speak "extemperaniously" as they say.

  In time I found it harder and harder to speak the outline without thinking that this or that point was pretty lame ,and then include my stuff I wanted to get across. But in time I found it harder and harder to find material that was honest that fitted in with WTS BS and with the outlines the WTS gave me .

  I was glad when I stepped down , my conscience was mine again.
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  Phizzy

  I was thrown in at the deep end, never having given a Public Talk, my C.O (COBE) informed me on a Sunday morning that he had made a mistake in dates, and I was due to give a talk that Afternoon in a nearby Congregation.

  I was 21. I went home and "prepared" it, and gave it that afternoon, I winged it with a lot of my own stuff. From then on I gradually progressed to producing my own Talks based on my ideas and not on W.T Outlines. I was allowed to do this for several years until a firm directive from ( Party) Headquarters forbade it.

  I then used to knock the WT outlines into shape, discarding rubbish, introducing my own stuff, I was told on a number of occasions when giving "away" talks that Bros there that gave the "same" talk did not recognise what I gave. Tee Hee.

  Eventually I got to the point where my theology was diverging so far from the W.T's that I refused to do any more P.T's, despite requests from other Congo's for me to do so.

  I woke up fully and left not long after.