by JW_Researcher 27 Replies latest watchtower bible
I think 20% is really high. I tend to think it's more like 5%.
In marketing, the probable results of cold calls (essentially what door to door is) is 1 out of 100, for a sale. I would think it's about the same in recruiting JW's.
We had dozens of Bible studies over the years, and most became witnesses. Dave and I each found one in door to door. The others were "walk ins", or referrals. The walk ins and referrals were usually friends or relatives of JW's that lived in another area.
Only the foreigners. They wanted to learn English but then some of them really got into it. Most of these people were Chinese. They were the rebellious ones who left their country for education and to learn about the forbidden Bible.
My family!
My parents were contacted at the door but that was way back in the 50s.
However, I can't think of anyone in the past 10 years who came into through the direct door to door witness work. The message of JWs is increasing irrelevant in developed countries (hence the emphasis for the 'foreign language' field in these countries; get the non-locals)and is becoming every harder to peddal in developing countries.
Eyeslice
i was born in, parents were from door to door.
I'd say 50% are born in 50% converted. Of the converted 50% house to house, 50% informal. That makes 25%
If there are 1 billion hours reported a year and only 200,000 baptisms that is 5000 hours witnesssing for 1 baptism.
If only 25% or 50,000 are from the door to door, and the majority of the hours are from the door to door and RV work, that means it is almost 20,000 hours to convert someone from the doors. At $25 an hour that is half a million dollars worth of labour per publisher.
You can do a lot of good deeds with $500,000 dollars, feed a lot of villagers, and convert a lot more people through showing loving kindness to them. JWs call them rice Christians, I think that if a person comes to God by viewing the kindness of his followers you are having many times the impact as standing on door steps invading peoples privacy
I became a JW via a friend who worked with one and introduced me to him. That was back in 1971 I was 19.
In the congregation I was in it was usually the older generation who had been contacted by door to door work. Most of them between 1950's to 1960's . But from the time I became a JW it was very rare that someone from a doorstep call, through study etc, became a JW. Most were either family or friends of JW's. In fact when I think of it the congregation was really made up in majority by 4 different familes, who over time had intermarried. Then there was the few "outsiders" like myself. Of course if you weren't friendly with one of the families you didn't have much chance of becoming a Min Serv or Elder, or you married into one of them. The Body of Elders was more like a family affair, fathers , sons, brothers, uncles.
As to contacting people on the doors. This became harder through the years. As it became more difficult to find anyone in. Lifestyles had changed, wives no longer stayed at home. People had more leisure time. Sundays were no longer a "day of rest" people were out somewhere.
IN the 5 years before I left only one person who got baptised was actually someone called on and gone through the process. The rest were all the children of JW in the congregation. In fact one year we had no one baptised at all.
Yet we always seem to be reporting about 10 -15 "bible studies" a month.
The number of publishers always seemed to hover around 80 - 85. Even when where hitting 130 - 140 for a Sunday meeting. Today there are 82 publishers , but attendance on Sundays is now 90-100.
I think 5% sounds pretty generous.
Maybe they'll go back to the old sandwhich boards and 'sound cars' of the early 20th century.
Apparently they have TV ads in the US now too? Haven't seen any in Australia yet.
Apparently they have TV ads in the US now too
Really? I haven't seen any. When/on what channel do they usually run?
