Are the Witnesses Really Losing Their Young People?

by What Now? 63 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  What Now?

  That article about Jehovah's Witnesses having the lowest retention rate for born ins keeps popping up every now again ... I'm just curious if any of you have noticed that this is actually the case.

  In the congregation that I grew up in, I'm going to say that 95% of the young people in their teens to mid twenties are either regular pioneering, regular auxiliary pioneering, serving in foreign language congregations or where the need is greater. Both of my younger sisters are regular pioneers - and the young people in their hall even organize 8 pm to midnight service on friday nights of their own accord. Even our friends our age that were always 'borderline', have suddenly gone all gung ho witness, especially those that now have kids. A friend of ours that I personally witnessed puking his guts out after a night of drinking just a few months ago recently bought a new house with a dedicated 'family worship' room.

  The Governing Body seems to be doing a lot more to reach out to young people, with all the new animated features, bible character cards in the magazines etc.

  Where do you think this trend will lead? Are we going to see the continuation of Jehovah's Witnesess for some time to come?
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  designs

  Interesting, maybe we will get some feedback from those who attend the summer Assemblies and see what the age mix is.
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  Sulla

  I don't think it is necessarily a surprise to find that, conditional on remaining a JW, the distribution of religious fervor would be skewed toward higher levels.

  That aside, plenty of Evangelical churches have really strong youth groups and high levels of youth involvement. If the JWs are able to pivot away from being an apocalyptic sect and toward a more ordinary (though doctrinally heterodox) religion, they will see a shift to higher retention rates.
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  lisaBObeesa

  I do not think the org interested in retaining all the kids. They could care less if 80% of the kids leave. They do NOTHING to try to retain young people.

  They DO care that the remaining 20% never, ever question their authority. The kids cartoons are all about that idea and only that idea.

  They want quality cult members, not quantity.

  What now? if 95% of your born-ins are still IN at 30 I think you have a very unusual congregation. Can you think of born-ins who have left?
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  Gayle

  the young people in their hall even organize 8 pm to midnight service on friday nights of their own accord

  "service" ? do you mean a 'meeting?' I doubt that will last long,,what are they doing for 4 hours? did this happen once or is it a regular thing?
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  Theocratic Sedition

  Counting the people who were in the congregation that I grew up in, that were my age or a handful of years older or younger, we're looking at like 20 people. Only two of us are still in and active, and I'm on JWN. He might be too lol. Times I've given talks away, the few young people in attendance have the disposition of not wanting to be there. To be fair, I've seen some halls with vibrant young ones, but from most of my experiences, most young ones leave or barely hang on showing up for the memorial or special talk. Then I dont see them again until the following year.
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  Mum

  As a matter of fact, I know of at least three born-ins who have left. Two of them were members of my old congregation in the '70's. I found them both on Facebook, and they're clearly not JW's.

  The third is someone I met on this board who lives near me. He said that he told his fellow elders that he completely disagreed with the disfellowshipping policies. He did it mainly for the sake of his young children because he did not want them to suffer or be stunted by JW rules.
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  Tater-T

  and the young people in their hall even organize 8 pm to midnight service on friday nights of their own accord

  isn't that agaist WT policy... meetings not sanctioned by the GB are strictly taboo... That won't last.. neither will the 95% pioneers.. at some point slinging magizines door becomes fruitless and very tiresome..IMO
• 

  humbled

  The internet is a real danger to the WT. Young people use it.

  This is an interesting topic.
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  Splash

  Well things they are a-changing.

  There is directive from above that the older ones you are used to seeing take charge/give talks at the CA's and SAD's are being replaced with younger elders.

  Any older department heads will also be replaced.

  Any new CO's will now be younger brothers (relatively speaking).

  This is being implemented with immediate effect and may contribute to encouraging the youth to get more involved themselves.

  Splash