by Viva la Vida 67 Replies latest jw friends
slimboyfat - "I don't think they've ever closed branches like this before."
These amounts in this span of time? No way.
Be interesting to hear a professional business analyst's take on the WT corporations' actions and what they bode for the future...
List of closed branches
1) Alaska
2) Hawaii
3) Puerto Rico
4) Belize
5) Guatemala
6) El Salvador
7) Honduras
8) Nicaragua
9) Costa Rica
10) Panama
11) Uruguay
12) Guadeloupe
13) Martinique
14) Antigua
15) Bahamas
16) French Guiana
17) Guyana
18) Iceland
19) Norway
20) Sweden
21) Estonia
22) Latvia
23) Lithuania
24) Luxembourg
25) Switzerland
26) Austria
27) Czech Republic
28) Cyprus
29) Togo
30) New Zealand
31) Samoa
32) Ireland
Wow; having them all listed like that is quite a thing.
I'm reminded of what happenes when the human body is experiencing systemic shutdown (particularly in sub-zero conditions); oxygen and nourishment to the extremities are cut off first, toes, fingers, then hands, feet, then lower legs, arms, etc., etc...
...all to keep the heart and brain functioning as long as possible.
Trouble is, when the heart and brain are all that's left, they can't function any more, either.
Trouble is, when the heart and brain are all that's left, they can't function any more, either.
Wonderful thought isn't it?
NJY
Come on brothers and sisters, sing-a-long
"Hail the theocracy ever decreasing
won'drous contraction is now taking place "
................................... 
...OUTLAW
Gingerbread,
The most rapid increase of JW's was in the 1950's.
The Watchtower seems to confuse large numbers added as "acceleration". Acceleration is an increase in the percentage of increase not the numbers added.
Like all pyramid schemes the largest acceleration was at the beginning when they went from 10 to 20 in just a matter of months.
After becoming an established organization their last period of acceleration was from 1950 to about 1961.
Since then the percentage of increase has been decreasing steadily and quite predictably.
Is the Corp really in decline? I suppose the closings could be seen that way. Also, numbers don't look to exciting for the Watchtower Corp these days. But, what impact will this have on the daily lives of most witnesses? Not much, I'd predict. As long as the Watchtower mags keep coming and meetings and assemblies are held, the madness will continue.
You are correct Scotoma. Of course it all depends on the 'slice' of the statistics that are examined - especially in terms of percentage of gain.
For example, when a small country is cited in the Yearbook with publishers increasing from 12 to 24 over the previous year...oh my! They've had an increase of 100%. That's not such a 'big deal' when it's realized the the country's population is ten million.
In 1980 there was just over 2 million active JW's. Twenty years later the numbers jumped to 6 million. In the eyes of all of us active during those years, 'we' had grown beyond our wildest imagination. During that time the money was filling the contribution boxes and the push to build additional branches came with it.
From a personal perspective, I can only remember back to the time when Jehovah's Witnesses had 1 million publishers.
ginger
