by slimboyfat 153 Replies latest watchtower bible
Oh, and one more thing...
Currently, there is a growing opinion amidst many new age types that the human race is 'awakening'. Protests, exposure, disclosure and so on.
I believe that if I observe lots of Witnesses 'awakening' , then I'm a believer ! Well, them and North Koreans, anyway.
metatron
Yea. In the hall I'm at, there are about 80-90 publishers. Only about 18 of these are younger than 40 (counting me - and I, of course, privately consider myself not a Witness, so...). And that figure includes all the kids. Counting only between 18 and 40, there are only 7 (possibly 8, not sure about one person's age). So that only about 10 - 25%, depending on how you count. Imagine the publisher count dropping by 75 to 90% as the older generation dies off over the next 30 to 40 years.
Hi Slimboyfat,
"The reality for most of us is that there are more JWs now than when we left, both worldwide and in our own countries."
I really enjoyed your post. I have not read all the replies, so I may repeat some of what has already been said. My dad, even while he was disfellowshipped, use to say, "I can't imagine this system will last too much longer, Armaggedon could be here in as little as six months, no more than two years." He said it so often it became like a family joke. Is something like that at play with us in the Ex-JW community? We soothe our frustrations with the continued success of the Watchtower society by imagining some catclysmic event will soon be their downfall? That there are "signs" of cracks in the wall of dam?
When Ray Franz left, it seemed like a time, when a forceful and authoritative response to the Society was at hand. But in actual fact, the depature of Ray and a few others left the door open for hardliners to take over. Their pounding on pioneering with the suggestion one should "pray to Jehovah and tell him why you couldn't pioneer" actually didn't reveal to the faithful a tyranical force was now taking the lead. No, indeed, it worked! The growth from the 1980s all the way until about 1995 was incredible!
Yet, something is changing, but what it eventually means is hard to tell. I left in 2007 and here are some of the changes I see happening.
1. rebranding: JW.org is in "Watchtower" is out. Perhaps even "Jehovah" is now over-shadowed a bit by "JW" only?
2. cost cutting: Every penny is being looked at. Magazines are now 1/2 the size. Stuff is moving online.
3. more fluff: Less deep Bible study, prophesy, etc.
4. stance against critics, esp online, hardened: DF advice now addresses "email". Apparently direction given not to comment on blogs or edit JW wikipedia articles, etc.
5. legal concerns: More dominate than ever, but seem very wrong-headed. Why designate elders as "pivate investigators" in regards to child sex abuse? Seems certain to land them in more trouble. Why continue to misrepresent medical aspect of blood transfusions? Seems like a dangerous game to play. One successful "wrongful death" lawsuit could spell serious trouble. This could also happen in regards to a connection between suicide and disfellowshipping.
Knowing the harm this religion brings to people, I of course would like to either seem them embrace meaningful reforms or dissolve. But I too think they'll continue more or less as they always have. It is also true there are a lot of nasty things in the world it would be nice to see change or go away.
Cheers,
-Randy
To anyone that thinks that activity is up on paper I did 11 hours last month in reality it was more like -3. That is negative 3 in case you didn't catch it.
But the fact remains the number of hours/publisher is historically high, and the pioneers/publisher is the highest ever.
It's entirely unsurprising that the number of pioneers is higher, because the requirements were reduced. Same goes for 'Bible Studies', which for the last few years, can be counted by both parents when they 'study' with their own children.
Between 1982 and 2012 I think the pioneer requirements were reduced from 100 hours to 70 and auxiliary pioneer hours from 60 to 50 and some months 30. But the ratio of pioneers has gone up from 1 in 16 to 1 in 6. That's an increase out of proportion to the reduction in requirements. It seems it was a pretty canny move to reduce the requirements because they reached a tipping point where many more people volunteered to pioneer and do more overall.
I think the pioneer requirements were reduced from 100 hours to 70 and auxiliary pioneer hours from 60 to 50 and some months 30. But the ratio of pioneers has gone up from 1 in 16 to 1 in 6. That's an increase out of proportion to the reduction in requirements.
There isn't really a basis for comparison there without knowing how many people were already meeting the new minimum, in addition to the affect of the internal PR associated with the change.
But for all their 'increased' preaching, the number of hours required to make a single recruit is getting worse (for them).
Shador gave statistics on page 4 that show the overall hours per publisher is almost at the highs of the early 1990s regardless of the various requirements for hours.
You are obviously right about the effectiveness of the preaching going downhill. In a way that makes the sustained activity all the more surprising.
I can remember when I pioneered, the amount of pioneers who counted their hours by doing next to nothing was staggering. The amount of witnessing hours reported will be nowhere near the amount actually done.
Sure iCeltic, but wasn't it ever thus? I don't think it's a new development.
