JW org collapses

by I Faded Twice 138 Replies latest social humour

• 

  Splash

  Part of their decline is in the makeup of the congregations.

  At one time Kingdom Halls were filled with every age group. My hall had about 50 youths (13 - 20 years old) during the late 1980's, but this doesn't exist anywhere anymore.

  Today's Kingdom Hall is full of the ageing and aged, a few born-ins now in their 30's (often single women), and the occasional single mother and her children.

  Also, the increase comes mostly from within. WT figures show that it is taking longer and longer to bring in new members. This trend, along with the dieing off of old ones, is not healthy or sustainable.
• 

  Vidiot

  Vanderhoeven - "...but how much are the r&f picking them up?"

  On a subtle, subconscious level...

  ...how could more and more of them not?
• 

  Vidiot

  OK, I have a question for the naysayers...

  ...how often in the past, when things were bad, do you think things got changed for the better when people kept saying it wouldn't or couldn't?

  Sure, we don't want to say that the Org is doomed and then not see it happen. I totally get not wanting to set ourselves up for constant disappointment... we had more than enough of that shit year after year when we were active JWs.
  

  Has it occurred to any of you, though, that maybe believing that it can and will happen just might be something we need to do...

  ...not only to give us some (and the irony is not lost on me) hope? That bad guys who do bad things will pay for it somehow, someday?

  But also because I suspect that if we stop believing it, we'll stop fighting towards that goal (however manner in which we fight).
  

  Think about it... if we let ourselves "accept" that the WTS will continue to survive and thrive and outlive all of us no matter what, how is that really any different than giving up?

  Hell, we all may as well stop bothering to even post here, as far as I'm concerned.
  
• 

  Vidiot

  Splash - "...increase comes mostly from within. WT figures show that it is taking longer and longer to bring in new members. This trend, along with the dieing off of old ones, is not healthy or sustainable."

  Agreed.
• 

  Vidiot

  LV101 - "...I'd heard 5 yrs. ago or so they're the fastest growing religion in the world..."

  My mom still says that.

  I stopped even remotely believing it a long time ago.
• 

  Crazyguy

  Slim, maybe it’s just my area but the Mormon and SDA churches are way bigger and nicer. Just as many of them as Kingdom Halls and they are not empty on their worship days just the opposite. In my area their places if worship are on busy streets right out there where everyone can see, while the Kingdom Halls are off back roads stuck back in the woods and only the nieghbor’s even know there there.
• 

  LV101

  W/T's demise was speculated back in the ole days of H20 when a few of the pedophile/child abuse cases started flying. Not a bad prognostication considering they lose so many people over their normal crazy much less the serious issues.
• 

  cobweb

  I'm not sure whether anyone is arguing they are thriving. Where once they prepared for expansion by building halls, now they sell them. Everything they do signals to me they expect contraction.

  i think an inflection point has been reached. They hit their zenith and are headed down. The signals of decline are leading indicators of what is about to occur with a decline in membership.

  It'll not be a dramatic collapse though. If it were for example, half the size (in the West) in 25 years that is not a collapse to me, but it is a pretty sizable decline nonetheless. Even that level of decline seems rather optimistic to me - i could see there being a third of the current membership gone in that timescale perhaps with those left being mostly quite aged - but still, I think it will feel like a shadow of itself.

  The internet is making such a difference. It feels like where once JW's were confident and proactive, now they are defensive, reactive. The ex-jw community on the other hand are growing in their confidence and are increasingly empowered to speak out through social media to communicate the damaging realities of the JW religion.
• 

  joe134cd

  Crazyguy -

  https://www.reddit.com/r/exAdventist/comments/9g0y4p/hi_exjw_here_two_questions_1what_are_the/?st=JMDR085W&sh=5854d145

  With all things considered and to be fair to the JWs I really don’t think that there would be to much difference between the 3 different faiths regarding membership. I would be guessing that it would also be sitting any where between the 10-20 million a peice. I am beginning to think however that the SDA could possibly be bigger but there wouldn’t be much in it.
  
  
• 

  joe134cd

  If anything I think it actually supports how well the religion has done and how effective the preaching work has been. Just think about this for a moment. For all the faults, new lights,bad publicity, broken families of the JWs and yet it has still managed to keep pace with 2 other comparative religions, who have at least superficially appeared more main stream, is impressive. That been said if I was to make a wager on who is most likely die it would be the JWs, not because the other 2 are more correct or appealing to the public but simply because they have more money.