What about Jesus ruling among his enemies. All organizations are moving forward in Africa. If JWs were blessed they would move forward in the western world and in Africa. They use to say chatolics don't go from door to door cause they don't have Holy Spirit. What about Mormons do the have holy spirit? I don't really trust the foward movement in Africa is cause they being bless. First there was trouble with growth in Europe in the 90s. Now they having same problems south America. I think it will spread to Africa sooner or later.
Congregation Reassignments in Ohio?
by My Name is of No Consequence 112 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Diogenesister
Beth SarimThe Borg has admitted that the GB is 'neither inspired nor infallible' several times in recent memory. Perhaps a subtle hint that 'things aren't so rosy', maybe.
Oh absolutely. No doubt about that. They are so utterly arrogant that if things were going swimmingly they would never hedge their bets like that :-))
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JaniceA
Morpheus:
Halls
printing just above nil
growth negligible
branch closures
reduced meetings
Unapologetically regurgitating articles
baptising children
governments examining proefures and policies
increased negative press
aging congregations
jj trottsalot showing the increased paranoia
governing body member boldfaced lying publicly for any Jw to see
GB asking for money outright
Leadership admitting they are struggling to keep up
overlapping generations
change in alternative service policy
missionaries, overseers, bethelites being kicked to curb
conentions in assembly halls instead of larger venues
fewer assemblies with no food, no books
I don’t think one thing signals an imminent collapse but I believe all those things show an inevitable one. It’s still recognizable from 40 years ago if you squint, but in another 20-i don’t think it will be even to the rheumy eyed old lady that I will be. My granddaughter won’t know even the name just like my kids don’t know Jim Jones or David Cassidy . Totally out of the public discussion.
The WTBTS literally has nothing on offer anymore , not for sale or for free. They do nothing for anyone. They make the news for shunning and child abuse and dying for refusing transfusions.
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_Morpheus
Well, lets take a look at your list and see what we can find....
Morpheus:
Halls
what does thay mean, “halls”? Do you mean selling and consolidation? The real estate market is hot and they are not growing like they did in the 80’s and 90’s. Some people call it “profit taking”. Nobody calls it “collapse”.
printing just above nil
if thats a sign of collapse then my bank must be going out of business as well. They stopped printing paper bank statements a few years ago. Maybe i need to head to the atm this morning and make sure my money is still safe... never mind, its 2018, i’ll just check online.
growth negligible
notice you didnt say “no growth” or “decrease”. There is still growth. The org grows. It hasnt begun to contract in numbers let alone collapse.
branch closures
see my remarks under “halls”. It applies here the same.
reduced meetings
thank thor. Less time wasted, no more meetings in my house. Has no bearing on “collapse” and especially since that change was more than a decade ago and the org is still here.
Unapologetically regurgitating articles
its a valid point regarding the direction of the org but in no way points to “collapse”. It lends much more to a desire to stay on message, and allow no room for error in message. Also less staff to write and publish, be that in print or digital form.
baptising children
contrary to popular belief on this forum the borg have ALWAYS done that. If an 8 or 9 year old really wanted to get dunked they could. A couple gb 1.0 members bragged about being baptised at 8 years old... in 1930’s and 1940’s. Absolutely nothing new there.
governments examining proefures and policies
you do know thats also nothing new, right? Jw’s have a long record of court cases in the usa and have been banned many times in many countries.
increased negative press
im sorry, but can you define “increase”? Do you mean on this forum or worldwide? Jw’s have long gotten negative press. Thats why the gb has long written articles about ignoring it and not watching it. Are you old enough to remember the 60 minutes interview with leslie stall? Are you old enough to remember the newspaper articles when olin moiles testified against the judge? Its not new. At all.
aging congregations
*sigh* please. You have no numbers or reference point at all for this outside of your own experience. Local congregations in DC have thousands of young people as do their conventions. You have no hard data (and neither do i), its merely YOUR perception as YOU get older.
jj trottsalot showing the increased paranoia
rotflmao. Hes a poster trolling you, stop being gullible. Also even if he wasnt a troll, one individual witness being paranoid is an indication of nothing. Thats ridiculous.
governing body member boldfaced lying publicly for any Jw to see
yea cause that's new. Russel and Rutherford never lied.
GB asking for money outright
yea cause thats also new.
Leadership admitting they are struggling to keep up
perhaps you could share where that admission was made? Im unaware of that.
overlapping generations
rotflmao again. Thats not “new” either. Visit jw facts and see his very throughly researched chart (with wt references) on how many times the generation teaching has changed. Note: its a LOT. And for more than 100 years its been changing.
change in alternative service policy
lol one change in policy means the org is collapsing? Your losing your grip on reality now. The wt flip flops like carp on the dock and has for a century.
missionaries, overseers, bethelites being kicked to curb
that is a good one. Not collapse, but a sugn of fincial tightening.
conentions in assembly halls instead of larger venues
uhm... thats not even true. Please check your facts.
fewer assemblies with no food, no books
fewer assemblies isnt true. No food happened more than 20 years ago now. Not a sign of collapse.
In short, you have fallen victim to the common human flaw of thinking whatever last is the biggest and most important thing ever. You also have a terroble grasp on the org history and just how much this is history repeating itself.
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My Name is of No Consequence
Well, the elders came and met with my family today. I conveniently was not home. I will try to get the low-down tomorrow.
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Doubting Bro
I think what is interesting is they had a talk on the RC that had a video that depicted a KH being reassigned and the reactions of the various members. To me, that signals that actions such as we are seeing in OH will continue to play out. From a business point of view, now that they really own the buildings (sort of) ,its much easier for them to right size the KHs to maximize their usage. It makes sense but if you really are concentrated on growing, why would you close shops. The money grab a few years ago and the promise to build new or renovate existing KHs was to allow them to cash out these under used assets. But, what I think surprised them is the blowback they are getting. But, it's been my experience that most will complain then comply. The average JW that somewhat believes will be annoyed but its not like they are going to leave. The consequences of leaving are so high.
Morph, one counter point. The last Pew survey indicated that the JWs in the US are getting old and continue to skew that way. Sure, you see plenty of young folks at some congregations, but there's a ton of grey hair or no hair out there.
I think the long term outlook is significant decrease, but the short to medium outlook is minimial growth followed by slight decreases. It will be death by a thousand cuts and that takes a long time. I hope I'm wrong and that the whole thing blows up tomorrow!
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FedUpJW
One of four congregations in my immediate area is being dissolved effective Sept 01, 2018.
No surprise there as twenty years ago the combined totals of those four congregations was about 360 persons. Now it is about 170 with less than thirty in the one that is now gone.
The congregation that is absorbing the one to be dissolved is under rare ideal driving conditions a forty minute round trip away, by mountain roads that are tourist clogged in the summer and snow and ice clogged in the winter. I guess they will just have to "obey whatever directions they get, even if they do not seem practical..."
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just fine
I really think it’s poor management from the top. I don’t think they realize that the culture has changed somewhat and people are more likely to be upset when something happens to them personally. That’s what happens when uneducated, delusional fools are put in charge of running a corporation and think they have God’s backing instead of getting real world advice.
In the area grew up in, which was rural, there have been at least 5 Kingdon Hall closed and tons of restructuring. But the old timers keep going.........
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Beth Sarim
''The congregation that is absorbing the one to be dissolved is under rare ideal driving conditions a forty minute round trip away, by mountain roads that are tourist clogged in the summer and snow and ice clogged in the winter. I guess they will just have to "obey whatever directions they get, even if they do not seem practical..."'''
This is where they drum-up the whole ''obedience'' card, by pounding it in their ''heads''' that remaining loyal to Jehovah means loyal to ''them''. Unquestioning ''obedience''. Almost dangerous, isn't it?
Sometimes, it just goes beyond ANY possible human reasoning, on a cold winter night, treacherous roads & white-knuckled driving, just stay the HELL home. You're safe, warm and you have food. Rather than risking your life and others on the road by travelling 30 miles at least each way in horrible conditions.
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freddo
I'd like to add some halls. And some dissolved congregations. This is with a fifty mile radius of Bath, England, UK.
Bristol (Redland) Selling Sept 18
Bath (Oldfield Park Hall) Selling - both congregations moved out to nearby halls and renamed Bath West and Bath East. Ten years ago there were three Bath congregations.
Clevedon Sold 2014
Monmouth Sold 2016
Cinderford dissolved 2017.
Bristol (Hengrove) dissolved May 2018. This cong had already absorbed half of Bristol (Stockwood) dissolved in the late 2000's)
Portishead dissolved 2014