I don't know about the making money part, but the best years for me, as a witness, were the 50's and 60's and into the early 70's. After 1975, it all started downhill.
What were the best Watchtower years?
by JH 25 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
Undecided
I don't know what was the best years for the WT but I liked my years in the early 50's. This was before I had to volunteer at every assembly and they worked my butt off. I could enjoy hanging around with my friends and look for girlfriends. I really enjoyed those years when my dad was alive and the family went to all those big assemblies. I miss those times and my youth.
Ken P.
-
parakeet
The best WT years for the WTS itself were the first 30-40 years of its existence, IMO. JWs then had some guts -- dressing in white robes in public, loudspeaker cars, putting their foot in the door, audacious banners (millions now living ....). They were enthusiastic and energetic, and their hopes, however deluded, were still fresh.
Now the WTS is a big conservative corporation that likes to hide behind the first amendment. Current JWs are timid and wimpy. They can't speak to the press, report a molester to the police, or even have a big party without asking permission from headquarters. Their hopes have been delayed for too long. The WTS has become a limp, bloodless excuse of a religion/cult. -
AK - Jeff
I don't know about the making money part, but the best years for me, as a witness, were the 50's and 60's and into the early 70's. After 1975, it all started downhill.
I agree with Mulan, though I am sure it is mostly about perspective. There was a sense of the 'small country church' in many congregations in those days. While there was emphasis on the 'service', it was understood that life in general was still a part of the little spiritual families that made up the congregations. I must, in retrospect, assume that these, 'the Knorr years' were a 'kinder and gentler' time due to his oversight perhaps. Rutherford was dust - Freddy was unable to assert control yet - and Nathan was busy with a hugely growing religion. 1975 seemed plausible, and though we were busy 'spreading the news', we had time to spend in each other's houses, and at family-like congregational get-togethers. Post -'75 - the love [that was really never as full as it should have been - cooled off big time - as the work got underway to prove that we were not off our religious rockers with the 75 failure. It is still all about that - saving face - not Holy Grace. In a rare visit with my still-witness cousin a few weeks back, he stated fairly straighforwardly that "Things are not the same as they used to be in the truth - the love is gone." Succintly stated. Jeff
-
OUTLAW
I remember the old pictures of Bethel..Christmas decorations,men smoking cigars..Those people would be shocked to see the tomb it has been turned into...OUTLAW
-
greendawn
It was the few years before 1975 when they whipped up the end of the world hysteria for that year and motivation was at its peak. The numbers of new JWs increased tremendously only to fall sharply after the end failed to show.
-
TD
My guess would also be the immediate post-war era extending into the 50's and 60's --The period of the "New World Society."
The war was behind them, court victories were being won, the message and eschatology were relavant for the time period, people actually listened at the doors, the congregation truly was a JW's extended family, people enjoyed going to and working at the conventions, each convention saw the release of several nice new books that truly were interesting to read. (As strange as that might sound in retrospect.) Armageddon was just around the corner, the Witnesses were ready for it and the excitement could be "cut with a knife."
Contrast that with today where court cases are lost at least as often as they are won, the message is dated, the eschatology is broken, door to door preaching is extremely inefficient and ineffectual, entire congregations are made up of virtual strangers who would regard the Sunday evening dinners and baseball games after the meeting as quaint if they even knew that such things were common at one time, the conventions are dry, sterile affairs with a "fend for yourself" mentality that even non-Witnesses can sense immediately. Even if you ignore the fact that the convention releases are of the same quality that many organizations give away for free, the content is little more than a third-rate rehash of what keener minds produced during better times.
-
hambeak
For me the best years were in the 60's and early to mid 70's and at least for me in the bay area of CA. it got too clicky after that and organizationally political
-
stillajwexelder
1981 -1993 - all growth, post 1975 fiasco and just pre generation change
-
drew sagan
Every congregation still seems to have a core nucleus of older ones and their families who were brought in during that period.
In the congregation I attended people who where either from this time peroid or where related to people of this time peroid made up about %85 of those at the meetings.