SERVICE REPORT 2005 : WATCHTOWER FEB 1ST 2006

by BluesBrother 307 Replies latest watchtower bible

blondie

JWs are "encouraged" to report time spent in "informal" witnessing.
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w90 1/15 p. 28 Godly Devotion—Beneficial for All Things ***
It was noted that if each one of Jehovah’s Witnesses throughout the world would spend 15 minutes a day informally talking to others, an additional 327 million hours could be spent annually in Kingdom-preaching activity.
*** km 11/77 p. 7 Witness to Someone Each Day ***
REPORT
THE TIME
6
Yes, time spent doing informal witnessing is to be reported. Some publishers write their witnessing time, informal and regular, on a calendar—be it five minutes a day or an hour or more. If we spend even five minutes each day informally witnessing, it would mean two and a half hours a month. That amount of time multiplied by the over 500,000 witnesses in the United States would amount to well over one million additional hours each month of sharing the truth with others. It would be appreciated if all would note their informal witnessing time and be sure to report it.
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km 7/89 p. 3 Seize Every Opportunity to Witness—Part 2 ***
Whenever we engage in informal witnessing, it is good to allow the other person the opportunity to express himself. We should be courteous and respectful at all times. If we listen carefully to what the other person has to say, we may be able to determine what his interests are and then speak words that will whet his spiritual appetite. (Prov. 25:11) If possible, we should obtain the names and addresses of those who show interest so further contact can be made to cultivate the interest. Likewise, we should also keep a record of the time spent in informal witnessing so this can be reported accurately.
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km 9/87 p. 4 Presenting the Good News—Witnessing Informally ***
Be sure to report the time as field service. By putting forth the effort as Jesus and the apostles did, Jehovah will bless you too in spreading the good news through informal witnessing.
*** km 6/83 p. 2 Meetings to Help Us Make Disciples ***
Since many will be attending the district convention or otherwise traveling, it is a good time to look for opportunities to do informal witnessing. Mention various situations and suggest what type of approach might get good results. (See 1983 Yearbook, pages 169, 170.) Relate one or two local experiences. Take literature with you so you will have it available. Be sure to note time spent and placements so it can be reported at the end of the month.
*** km 4/77 p. 2 Your Service Meetings ***
Has informal witnessing brought results? Ask congregation for experiences. How many got interested in the truth because of informal witnessing? Have some had good results locally in doing this? (Chairman may be prepared with experiences from the publications such as those found in w71 4/1 pages 221, 222; w73 3/15 pages 187, 188.) Do brothers understand that it is appropriate to report time used that way, even if only a few minutes at a time? Stress that it is good for us to be friendly with others, as it often opens the way to a fine witness.
*** km 4/74 p. 2 Your Service Meetings ***
Reporting Our Field Service. Distribute a Publisher’s Field Service Report slip and a Bible Study Report slip to each one in attendance. Remind them that this is the time to turn in their reports for the month. Discuss problems that have been observed locally in the use of these report slips. (For example, even literature that is left at a not-at-home is to be counted; save fractions of hours until there is a full hour to report; include time used in informal witnessing; what to count as a return visit; how to report home Bible studies.) Comment briefly on why we turn in reports.
*** yb84 p. 190 Fiji and Neighboring Islands ***
In the years that followed, Losavati remained firm in her belief and through informal witnessing continued to spread the good news. Each month she mailed her report to the branch office. Every Sunday she had the Watchtower study with her young children despite the taunts of the rest of the village, as they all went to the Methodist church. As time passed, her husband joined her in the Watchtower study and slowly accepted the truth. Then, through her informal witnessing, her brother-in-law and sister-in-law also left the church, and along with the children in the families, the four of them gathered each week for the study.
metatron

David 2002, allow me to point out a few reasons why the Watchtower is headed down:
First, the decline or lack of growth in the late '70's was caused by the Watchtower's false expectations regarding 1975.
The malaise that afflicts the organization today is not comparable - in particular because it reflects long term problems with
the Watchtower's growth. If you examine the ratio of hours spent to baptisms or the ratio of bible studies to baptisms, the
problem becomes clear - the "preaching" work has become dramatically ineffective in recent years, despite the efforts to baptise
teenagers or dumb down the "truth".
Second, related to the malaise above, the Society is experiencing cash flow problems in the aftermath of the failure of their
voluntary donation arrangement. They got rid of food service at assemblies because it turned into a financial disaster as people
grabbed everything they could and donated almost nothing at cities like Philadelphia ( where I had relatives who worked in food
service) They covered up the embarrassment with a lie that it was done to be unified with brothers in foreign countries.
After that, they cut back on literature shipping ( which I know after being an elder and complaining to the C.O. about late
or skimpy shipments). They cut back on hard bound books to save money ( I knew a Bethelite in the pressroom who told me
the savings were figured to a fraction of a cent per volume). They downsized Bethel too - by about 900- 1000 people - as
confirmed to me by an overseer in the bindery.
An auditor told them that getting rid of US subscriptions would bring expenses into balance so they dropped a 120 year
tradition. Even this wasn't enough so they dumped a major part of Awake printing , this year - and have begun to seek more
real estate sales in NYC, as well as printing equipment sales in Europe. Many people say that the new presses in Wallkill
are idle about half the time and much of their cost was paid for by the sale of the Furman building, not the request
for $50 million made in the Kingdom Ministry.
The figures given for the 1.3% increase in publishers have little credibility because so many Witnesses are just
writing stuff down on a field service report. If you follow this website, you can observe many people putting down bogus
hours to avoid hassles with elders. I do.
Want more malaise? How many hours did a regular pioneer put in, in years past? They put in 100 hours, then 90 hours
now 70 hours. What makes you a regular publisher? 1 hour? - now 15 minutes!
The Society's management has never been so incompetent in relative terms. The temptations offered by internet porn, video
games, public acceptance of homosexuality and more are causing the organization to lose the next generation of Witnesses
- while a bunch of isolated numbskulls in the Watchtower do nothing more than finger waving at the problems.
The gap between the Witness subculture and the world has widened into a yawning chasm - while the Watchtower
Society is busy tearing down what little infrastructure of support the friends have. They encouraged kids to pursue
Bethel life - while downsizing it at the same time!
metatron
Axelspeed

They got rid of food service at assemblies

A little off topic, but I think this was one of their first mistakes. Somehow they forgot the little things that made it at least a little fun to be a jw...or at least bearable.
In any business, there are expenses that you just know you will incur. In other words you have to give the people at least something to keep them happy. Somehow, some beancounter started slashing everything, thinking that it was the spiritual food that made being a jw a fun thing.
There are many things I regret about being a jw. But the fun times I do remember as a jw kid, were the assembly breaks with my friends, scouring for the hoagies danishes chips shasta colas and whatever else and running around the corridors.
Fast forward to today...shorter lunch breaks and people bring there own food. The result: People stay at their seats during breaks, roam and mix less, kids dont run and play as much. People dont mix and laugh as much.
This is only one example. If the people arent happy, a lot of them will ultimately leave.
They have forgotten that you have to keep people at least somewhat happy...you have to give them something. What exactly do they offer besides more meetings, fieldservice and personal study. They have succeeded in ripping all things fun from this religion.
Axel
BluesBrother

Brilliantly written, Metatron and Axelspeed. I wish I could have said it as well as you wrote it.

Axelspeeds thoughts are exactly my own and are shared by longserving and still faithful dubs in my family. I did, in fact, write to London Bethel, perhaps 7 or 8 years ago with similar points. That was after I had been asigned the Service Meeting pre assembly item - the one that gives all the do's and dont's at convention. This one went on about how much better the 'simplification arrangements' were, despite evertbody knowing that they were horrible.

As you may expect, I had a very condescending reply...
David2002

Ozzie,
Preaching is done many ways. Though many Christians follow the early Christian method of preaching in peoples homes, from house to house. (Acts 5:42, Acts 20:20, 21; Acts 8:1) But there are many ways of preaching the good news including preaching in the malls, airports, from store to store, writing letters, writing books (have you noticed the rise of Witness apologist authors?), participating in TV talk shows to explain what we believe, telephone witnessing, etc.... (Luke 8:1; Acts 17:17) The Bible clearly states that one who has faith will be moved to act in accordance with that faith, including confessing or making public declaration of their faith in God and Jesus (Rom. 10:12-18). That is what is taught by the Chrisitan Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses which is in harmony with the Scriptures. One who has doubts and does not really believe, will not be motivated to speak, regardless of the method use.
"And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, 'I believed and therefore I spoke,' we also believe and therefore speak." (2 Cor. 4:13 - NKJV).
David
David2002

Listener,
Let me clarify. The Watchtower Society has always stressed preaching in all opportunties. But it is only formal preaching that is required to be counted. The time you spend on the mall giving out literature; the time you preach from house to house; preaching from retailer to retailer specific time alotted for telephone witnessing; time spend in the subways preaching and distributing flyers or pamphlets, etc. Informal preaching includes relatives suddenly asking you questions about your faith or responding to co- workers questions about the faith and Christian hope, etc. Since we do not keep track of that time informal or incidental preaching, it is not required to be reported.
David2002
jessthebull

I remember as a publisher being encouraged to report informal witnessing, but this seemed only to aply if the time spent was at least half an hour.
Recording 5 miniute episodes here and there sounds like an awesome way to inflate world wide hours.
When i was a kid you bought tickets at convention which you could then use to buy food (like watchtower monopoly money ).
The most fun thing about the entire convention was scrounging around with your friends looking for enough lost tickets to buy a lamington!
ozziepost

David:
Preaching is done many ways. Though many Christians follow the early Christian method of preaching in peoples homes, from house to house

But David, don't you see that you (or rather the Watchtower) have limited those same christian works of faith by simply describing, as you do, various ways of proselytising?
How do you explain Jesus' teaching in the parable of the Good Samaritan? And at other places too. With the Good Samaritan parable, it was in response to the question, "who is my neighbour?" and after relating the parable Jesus instruction was, "go and do likewise". Are you seriously expecting people to believe that what he had in mind was the proselytising of JWs in the 21st century?
In his great discussion of faith and works, James doesn't limit good deeds to walking house-to-house and the like, does he? What was included in his use of the word "deeds"? Then he writes, "If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well, keep warm and well-fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?" (Jas 2:16) You may point out that in this same passage it seems to be applied to "a brother or sister" and that's how the WTS 'explains' it. However, who was the brother or sister? Indeed, is such a narrow view appropriate when we consider agin the import of Jesus' words to "love your enemies".
To return to the topic, i would suggest that what i have described says much about the malaise, the lack of spirit, being demonstrated in an increasingly cold-hearted, impersonal organisation. Without the Holy Spirit moving amongst them, they are without faith; this in turn leads to a lack of works of faith, whether it be sharing their faith to all, or in practical ways showing love of neighbour.
ballistic

What suprises me about the figures is we see stagnation following a year of massive natural disasters across the world, earthquakes, floods, tsunami, and following several years of war and heightened fears of terroist activity, as well as actual terroism all the way back to 9/11. It is normally these kind of things that the witnesses capitalise on both in preaching and keeping all the members in a constant frenzy. But instead we see basically zero growth when, as others have pointed out, the natural growth of the witness population should have exceeded the small percentage growth reported.
Dansk

It is normally these kind of things that the witnesses capitalise on both in preaching and keeping all the members in a constant frenzy.

Very true, Ballistic! I think the scaremongering has worn very thin now, the generation date has changed so the dubs expect that they WILL die after all and the field misery is, well, just sheer drudgery. And, we can see through many posts here that congregations are losing members. All in all, life is looking good because Watchtower is going down.
Ian

SERVICE REPORT 2005 : WATCHTOWER FEB 1ST 2006

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