My Experiences With Father Part Two: A Lesson In Taking Father's Words Seriously

Ken Weber
December 26, 2010

I remember a time when I got a lesson to take Father seriously, even when he makes casual remarks. I was still young in the church, and it was one of the times that Father spoke at the Upshur House in Washington D.C. in the early 1970's

He had just finished his regular speech, and he sat down in a chair provided for him in the front of the room. Now, rather than speaking strongly in a loud voice with lots of gestures, he began speaking in a very casual way. In part of what he said, he started talking about wanting to have revival meetings, like preachers had done throughout history. He talked about wanting to have these revival meetings around the country. Would he have them in tents? Or rent halls for the meetings? Maybe they would have them in large arenas. He may have even mentioned Madison Square Garden. If he did, it shows how what he says eventually comes true.

As we all listened, we thought that this might be something that we could do sometime in the future. After all, we were very small at that time. How could we do these things at the time?

Over the next days, Father went up to New York and other places. Then he came back to Washington D.C.

I remember that before he spoke the next time, Father stood in front of us with his arms crossed. He looked around at all of us and said something like, "When I was here last, I mentioned wanting to have revival meetings around the country. Why didn't anyone come to me and ask how we could do this? No one came to me! Now, I have rented halls in New York and Philadelphia. I want you to rent halls in Washington D.C. and other cities around the country!"

So began out very first speaking tour, before the ones that were famous like the 21 city tour, 32 city tour, the Madison Square Garden speaking tour, Yankee Stadium, and the Washington Monument.

This was a lesson that I learned, that we should take Father seriously, even if he is speaking in a casual way. Father does not just make casual remarks. Everything he says has great meaning and needs to be taking very seriously.

There have been many times that I have heard Father talk about doing something, and the next thing I know, we were doing it. Even the most casual remarks had great importance.

This is an important lesson that I have learned throughout the years. It is also an important lesson that I have taught to my Sunday school children.