The dirty little secret of Watchtower PREACHING WORK you may not know

by Terry 47 Replies latest jw friends

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  AllTimeJeff

  Great points. Allow me to make some observations.

  I believe that the door to door ministry is not the way to make the most converts, but it is the easiest way to control the 2 variables that the GB can least control, who preaches, and who accepts.

  Imagine if blogs were allowed. Then the message is out of the control of the GB. If it were on TV, then it actually exposes the JW dogma to too many people. When "new/social" media came out, the GB was wisely slow for their own interests in adopting it, because it would change the flow of information from a trickle to a fire hose level.

  Terry, one thing your essay here brings to mind as you have alluded to, is that JW's cannot grow as fast as they did before 1975. It is almost impossible to replicate those circumstances. In fact, I would suggest that the information age has made it imperative for the surivival of JW's to slow down information as opposed to getting your dogma out more quicly. (which of course, flies in the face of the "urgency" of the JW message)

  Clearly, the door to door method is the easiest way to continue to allow JW's to select those that show interest and to make sure that they are properly indoctrinated first. Screened as it were.

  If someone responded to a TV show and went to a KH based on the typical initial message of JW's (i.e. Hey, how does paradise sound to you?) and then spent time and found out that no such paradise exists, then more people at the same time would point the same finger at the same problems of JW's.

  But if one lonely soul thinks it sounds good, agrees to a study, an in a month, comes to the correct conclusion that JW's are kooks, then they simply stop going. No one else to complain to, after all, you let them in your own home, and stopped them from coming after a while.

  It is all damage control.

  I don't think that as it is now was part of the plan, it has clearly evolved in this. But the GB since Knorr and esp since 1975 have been slooooooow to adopt anything that would in real terms, speed up the preaching work.

  If speeding up the preaching work = losing control of the work, then the GB will obviously want no part of it.
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  Quentin

  Back in the late sixties the wt used local info-commercial type , lasted about 30min, TV spots to hype the upcoming International Conventions...cirrcute and distric servents fielded sympathitic questions from a local TV personality, don't remember who it was in the DFW area,to make the witness. We all gathered round the TV, with lots of back slapping and talk of how great a witness that made. Went the way of the Mastadon of course

  I remember many old time rf talking about the radio station and syndicated newspaper articals used by the society in the thirties, how effective they were, so forth. Then up jumped the James card:"faith without works is dead, blah, blah...back to business as usual...

  Got to spend money to make money, lessen ya got a "large" group of dupes that will hype your rags for free...bottom line, save money to make money when you have that "large" pool to draw from...yup, solid maketing tool, like Amway,that has served the wt for many years.... good info T, keep it coming,even a small hammer will bust up a large rock, over time...especialy when the rock is crumbling from the inside out...
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  SirNose586

  I often wondered why they didn't bring back the old radio stations. "What was so wrong with them?" I thought. We've got an "important message," so why not broadcast it?

  It was not 'til I was in the process of leaving that I discovered that the preaching work was just busywork. Everyone who joins needs a job--a "career" of handing out pamphlets. Otherwise they'd have too much freedom!

  Great analysis, Terry.
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  darth frosty

  Agree with sirnose all the 'great things they used to do and have (like radio debating religions on their grounds) are gone lost in the pages of the proclaimers book.
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  Scott77

  Terry, thank you alot for the insightful analysis. Its so informative and well presented. Wow, the FDS is really a power hungry crap out to control and manipulate the weak. I am very happy I am nolonger under their grip.

  Scott77
• 

  WTWizard

  What they are doing is setting up a perennial "emergency". This forces people to give up things like sleep, money, and personal time so they can work the territories repeatedly. After all, in just a few short months or years, it will wrap up and never be repeated.

  The real results are embarrassing to the witlesses. I have seen territories being checked out, worked in a few weeks, and turned back in. You would get certain people not at home--I do not remember ever seeing a territory worked to zero not at homes. A few weeks later, the same territory is back as "fresh". The door to door would start again, and the same people that were not interested a few months ago would be not interested this time. Invariably, the same doors with no one answering them the first time would end up as not at homes again.

  Besides hiding Boozerford's real aim of hijacking the religion, field circus continues to serve one purpose. It prevents people from ever getting enough money to afford a computer--or enough time to invest in looking up the religion. It prevents them from thinking about what they are doing--all they need to know is, if the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger wants it done, it needs to be done. If they are kept tired, they are also prevented from thinking clearly--even if they could log onto an apostate site, they would be less likely to get anything out of it than if they were not tired.
• 

  dissed

  Hopefully not to off topic.....

  The Mormons use TV to project a nice controlled message, then offer a free mailed out Bible or Mormon bk. The recipient is mailed the book, then is visited by the local missionaries who then offer, "would you lke to understand that better? We can help."

  If the WTS wanted to be more cost effective they could follow this example. The benefits would be less time wasted as the calls are turned over to 'qualified pubs' going to doors where people are much more likely to be interested. You could phone bank the incoming calls, plus direct people to their web site and not apostates.

  TV messages could be carefully monitored to see which message works best for which territory by the interest and response.

  Very little time would be wasted and the growth would be controlled by limiting TV periodically.

  This is why Terry said, are they really interested in growth and getting the message out or just selling books?
• 

  Terry

  Thanks Terry, a very interesting overview. It would be useful to have some citations to back up some the statements made.

  I actually had hyperlinks attached to relevent paragraphs from research I did over previous years. When I went through for review and clicked on them these sites had either changed their venue or disappeared.

  All the information is available. It is a task assembling it again. I'm doing searches now to see where the puzzle pieces now reside.

  Since the late 1990's assiduous researchers have come up with some real gems, scanned articles, searched records, etc.

  Randy's FREEMINDS group has long print-outs available of the vast research results.

  What is needed is somebody with time and resources to organize the materials in a RESEARCH DATA BASE for online use.

  Come to think of it--I'll bet somebody has already done this.
• 

  Scott77

  Terry,

  I understand what you mean. By reading your insightful presentation, a reader cannot fail to get the impression that it was well researched . There are a lot historical accounts which of course cannot be just made up. I hope we can set up searcheable database someday.

  Thanks

  Scott77
• 

  aSphereisnotaCircle

  The door to door work is another way the society keeps the rank and file busy, busy busy.

  All cults keep their adherants busy

  A member who doesn't have tons of busywork to do is a member who has to much time for non-cult activities that may lure them away.

  And most importantly, staying very busy keeps you from thinking clearly.