Recent mistakes of the Governing Body contributing to the decline of JWs

by slimboyfat 67 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  slimboyfat

  They have made so many strategical mistakes it's hard to keep track.

  Some changes within the last decade or so that are contributing to declining numbers of JWs:

  1. Elimination of book study groups, the most informal, enjoyable and sociable of the JW meetings, contributed to loss of sense of community among JWs.

  2. Policy of consolidating Kingdom Halls. I know someone in Europe who has been assigned to three different congregations in the past three years because of consolidation. Now she knows hardly anyone and has stopped attending regularly. Has this happened elsewhere?

  3. Abysmal handling of abuse problem both in policy terms and media relations. Many JWs are reading reports in the media and can't help but agree with the criticisms made of official policy.

  4. Cart Witnessing is so outrageously unproductive it is clearly demoralising to even the most longstanding JW stalwarts. I know one JW who has stopped preaching altogether after getting fed up with it.

  5. The new generation teaching is so embarrassingly stupid that even the most loyal JW is not interested in discussing or defending it on any meaningful level.

  6. Crass videos that imply children should give their pocket money, people who leave JWs are useless pieces of bread, gay people need to dispose of the gay at the new system check in. The GB stepped out from behind the curtain and for many the spell is broken.

  Please add your own!

  Maybe JWs were due to begin declining anyway, but these changes probably helped contribute to decline. I am really interested to see the reports for next couple of years. If they continue publishing the numbers!
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  Giles Gray

  I think using the internet was a big mistake. To have to go online to get your 'spiritual food' is so dangerous because of how much negative exposure there is out there.

  The societies voice is only one among the crowds of people who are out to expose them for what they are. Easy pickings.
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  Darkknight757

  I wouldn't be surprised if they find a reason to stop publishing the numbers. Any sign of decline would be an obvious sign of lacking Holy Spirit. (unless they spin last days stuff on it)

  I wonder how people will react to the November 2016 study Watchtower? Now they can change history??!! It will be interesting to see.🤔
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  Ucantnome

  were the book study groups attendance better than other meetings? I don't know.

  I always disliked that meeting the most and when I heard it was gone I wished they had done it sooner.

  Some of the years I was a JW we had the book study at the KH, I preferred it there than in a home.
  
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  jookbeard

  I despised the CBS as well, cant understand the melancholy and reminiscing about it, stuck in someones stinking dirty house for over an hour with people you wouldn't spend a second with outside any jw related activities, it was boring and dull and was usually the first to be dumped, they should have done it years earlier.
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  joe134cd

  Yes I agree the B/S was probably the best way to get to to the other Bros and sis. I think stopping that meeting broke down the cohesion.
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  Divergent

  3 other points that I would like to add:

  1. Discouraging higher education has resulted in many JW's being low wage earners who are unable to contribute much financially to the org

  2. Encouraging singleness / not having children has resulted in congregations comprising almost entirely of middle-aged / older ones with no future growth potential

  3. The "marry only in the Lord" policy has left hundreds of thousands being unable to find a suitable marriage mate, many of which end up being single & childless while growing old & bitter. Many of those who ignore such counsel & find a non-JW marriage mate get hurt over the judgemental attitude of the congregation & end up leaving. No points for the WT in either scenario!
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  stuckinarut2

  The craziness of the official website.....
  
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  Room 215

  All points are well taken SBF; their foray into telecasting was a big miscalculation; propping their leaders up for inspection to a wider audience exposes them and their zits to public scrutiny.. and all too often, to ridicule. They're an unimpressive lot, to put it kindly.
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  konceptual99

  If it were another business that had made some strategic mistakes but fundamentally had a sound product then changing strategy, downsizing and other changes, if properly implemented, should result in future growth.
  

  The problem they have is the foundation is built on sand. The WTS is a corporation. It was a publishing house, now it's a property development business. However, they is a dependence on a membership to provide cashflow, labour and to front it as a religion.

  They have a product that is a sham. They have a product that is being exposed over and over again as mumbo jumbo. Less and less people are interested in it.

  They can survive financially for years, decades probably, but they have fundamental issue with their message. I think they have a two way choice:

  1 - continue as they are, stagnate and decline into a shadow of their former glory in 20-30 years.

  2 - change the record. Become open, inclusive, drop major doctrines, stop being a millennial cult and more like a more mainstream protestant religion, stop the moral judgements and hope that being a nice social club is enough to keep people happy

  IMHO the chance of them ever going down route 2 is slim to none.