by sir82 68 Replies latest jw friends
When I used to take the count, at all five meetings back then.
We used to average 130 for public talk, which would drop to 100-110 for the Watchtower study.
School and Service Meeting didn't vary that much usually a couple more late comers,for the Service Meeting.
Which usually had an attendance of 90-110.
We had 86 publishers on record.
So maybe just counting the WT and during school would give an idea if all the publishers were attending.
Maybe they do these things to give us something to talk about.
Maybe there aren't enough males reaching out for a privilege of being a MS and maybe they're loosing more MS in this ungratifying waste of time. They're already eliminated a mag attendant (not sure of the proper title), now less counting, it looks like they are simplifying work for MS.
In my experience few came in late for the talk and if anyone was to leave they would leave before the wt study. Also if my family was to be late for the meeting we wouldn't go at all so I'm just assuming that an average jw that miss the talk wouldn't bother going just for the wts study.
Counting taking place at odd times may make a push for more local needs talks as to how important meetings are so that people try to stay for entire 2 part meeting instead, but I doubt that would make any difference in regular jw. IMO numbers would have been higher if taked during the first half of the first meeting instead of the latter meeting. There maybe something more down the pipeline but at present I wouldn't read too much into this.
Another idea is maybe this is a small step to eventually eliminating number taking altogether which they could say they are using Jewish principal of not counting the vast multidudes because Jehovah isn't concerned about numbers which would eliminate the lowly dub from recognizing that the anointed numbers are increasing by the year and also that the general growth is stagnant or in decline. If the congregations don't fill the seats the KH will be sold off and congregations merged and the profits from the sale of the buildings will go to WTS.
The only thing I can think of is that the Society just wants to add some excitement into otherwise completely boring meetings. Receiving a letter from the society and reading it to the congregation just might give the brothers some sense of being "in the know".
That feeling of "Wow, how wonderful Jehovah's organization is... it keeps us all well informed..." (gasp)
Think about it: in a rational organization, this procedure not only would be viewed as irrelevant, but the congregation wouldn't need to know a change in an irrelevant procedure has happened.
Poor attendants.
Now they've got 3 less excuses per week to get up, stretch their legs & not listen to the programming.
om
letter:
In due course, a revised Report of Meeting Attendance (S-3) will be made available.
Translation: Use up all those forms before we print anymore, this is cost-cutting....and don't go using those forms for scrap paper either!
Also, anyone ever notice how unnecessarily "wordy" and grammatically awkward Society letters are?
In due course, a revised Report on Circuit Overseer's Visit With Congregation (S-303) will be made available.
Good grief, I had forgotten how many of thos "S" forms there are/were. When I went to MTS, I was shocked at how many additional forms there are/were. As if the CO doesn't have enough forms/reports. Soooooo......sooooo glad I did not continue with my goal of becoming a CO!...
...oh wait...I didnt continue with my goal to stay a Jehovah's Witness either.
Snakes (Rich )
Also, anyone ever notice how unnecessarily "wordy" and grammatically awkward Society letters are?
That's because they write in the passive voice.
I'm thinking that with so many leaving, they simply don't want attendances recorded like they used to because in many congregations, it'll show the numbers steadily declining. Didn't they also limit the stats for number of publishers, pioneers, no. of hours spent preaching, etc. in the Kingdom Ministry? They used to have that in there every month but if memory serves, that's no longer the case.
Like so many other things in this religion, change is only made to help limit embarassment and to continually promote the idea that 'the little one has become a thousand' and 'Jehovah will speed it up in His own time.' With so many leaving on a regular basis, it must be getting extremely discouraging to the rank and file to see that despite all the billions of hours spent preaching, that their numbers are still declining.
Also, anyone ever notice how unnecessarily "wordy" and grammatically awkward Society letters are?
As Blondie says, it is mostly due to them using passive voice so much. My guess is that they started this when the drunken judge took over. Legalese is often in the passive voice, as well. It is unnecessarily confusing and vague and I have little doubt that it is intentional.
