Public meeting history or in the Golden Years
Public meetings did not start until 1945 and not in every congregation.*
Public meetings were held Sunday evening after the rank and file had spent Sunday inviting the locals to attend.
Handbills were printed advertising the Public Talk and were handed out to the householders whether they took literature or not (much like tracts are today).
Initially, the scheduled talks were listed but eventually just the meeting times/locations were printed with a "message" on the back.
Public meetings used to be opened and closed only with a song, no prayer, supposedly to make people from other denominations feel confortable. In 1972 this changed.
Public talks used to be a full hour not the 45 minutes of today. (changed in 1978)
There used to be a 15 minute gap between the public talk and the WT study to allow time for interested people to leave after the public talk. (I guess too many JWs were leaving, so they ended that).
Eventually, prayer was included before the public talk except for the public talk at the assemblies/conventions.
It varies as to whether the "greetings" are given and taken back to the congregation. Some COs counsel against this, then the next one doesn't care.
Yes, many speakers leave right after the talk especially if 1) his home congregation has their Sunday meetings at a different time slot 2) his family did not come with him...wanted to go to their own, don't like the time slot (afternoon) 3) has a better recreational offer at his home congregation.
km 9/72 p. 8 Question Box? When are we to start having prayer before our public meetings?
If your congregation has not yet begun to do so, this week is a good time to start. Since we look to Jehovah as our Instructor for his blessing and guidance, it is appropriate for our meetings to be opened and closed with prayer.
yb75 p. 199 United States of America (Part Three)/A PUBLIC SPEAKING CAMPAIGNBack in the 1940?s the Theocratic Ministry School soon produced many qualified brothers who could give public talks. Thus in January 1945 a worldwide public speaking campaign was inaugurated. Each speaker prepared his own discourse, but the Watch Tower Society ensured uniformity of presentation by selecting the subjects and furnishing one-page outlines for these hour talks. This public meeting campaign began with a series of eight talks, the first entitled "Will Man Succeed as a World-Builder?"
Besides the speaker, other Kingdom proclaimers had part in the campaign. How? By advertising the discourse through handbill distribution on the streets and from house to house. At times distribution of printed invitations was coupled with the wearing of placards advertising the talk. Frequently the discourse was delivered at the Kingdom Hall, but a lecture series might be scheduled in rented facilities or elsewhere in some outlying area of the congregation?s territory. If you attend Christian meetings regularly, then you are benefiting from such public meetings to this very day.
*w55 11/15 p. 687 Part 22: Gilead and Congregational Ministry SchoolsFor this reason the Watch Tower Society decided to inaugurate a world-wide public-speaking campaign commencing January, 1945. It was also well planned to maintain a uniform world-wide public appeal by means of a series of eight timely, striking subjects for talks. Furthermore, a uniformity of platform presentation was assured by the Society?s designing one-page outlines for each of these hour lectures. This enabled all speakers to present and emphasize uniformly certain major Biblical points of argument and information to convey to the world public. "Will Man Succeed as a World-Builder?" was the catching subject of the first public lecture in this opening series. It took time for the congregations to get into gear for this new public work that required special meetings in various public places, also to co-operate in advertising these by means of handbills in house-to-house work and on street corners. In the United States for this first year 18,646 public meetings were held, with a total attendance of 917,352. However, these meetings were conducted by only 1,558 of the 2,871 congregations in the States at that time. In 1946 the number of public meetings rose to 28,703 for the American field, thus indicating a rolling along with this new preaching feature. Each year since 1945 the Society has regularly released outlines for a new series of eight public talks, which have stimulated the powerful, world-wide public platform now operated by Jehovah?s people.
w62 10/15 p. 628 Bible-based Society of Kingdom Witnesses ***Public Talk. Most congregations take advantage of Sunday morning for house-to-house preaching. That is why the entire congregation usually assembles at the Kingdom Hall on Sunday afternoon or evening for the weekly public talk and Watchtower study. At the congregation meetings you can obtain attractive handbills to use for inviting others to attend the public talk, which is patterned after the Bible lectures given in early Christian times.