Is this the first year that the JWs have been out aggressively handing out Memorial invitations from door to door? I've been out for about 12 years now, but as I recall, congregations used to receive a relatively limited number of Memorial invitations, and they were pretty much reserved for Bible studies, good RVs, inactive persons, and others who had some sort of connection to the organization. They were not just randomly handed out from house to house - that was what the "special talk" invitations were for.
It occurs to me that this might be an attempt by the WTS to pump up the Memorial attendance so as to maintain the illusion of continued growth. If the general public was not aggressively invited before, and now is being invited, it would likely result in a higher total attendance. However, it skews the comparison with prior years, since the public was generally not solicited to come back then. With growth in developed nationd becoming flatter and flatter, might this just be a way of convincing the rank and file that Jehovah is still 'speeding up the work?'
