by neat blue dog 17 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Roughly 280,000 baptised.
Minus 1% of the 8 million jw's who die every year (80,000)
Minus another 1% (80,000) disfellowshipped each year
Gives an increase of 120,000, approximately 1.5% per year, and does not include faders.
This is not dissimilar to the world population growth rate of 1.1%, certainly nothing to brag about or stake a claim that the growth is God's doing.
If in 1997 there was roughly 5m and they are baptizing 250k per year then that mean they should have baptized 5 million more members in the last 20 years. They state they have 8 million members now, so thier missing 2 million members.
In the western world if does in the congregation wouldn't have any children it would be minus growth in every country. You almost only see JWs kids being baptized.
Long time witnesses said only JW's kids were being baptized when I was part of the cult in 1990ish. This must have been a strong trend for their membership past couple decades.
And I remember a time (late 60s through to mid-1970s) when non-raised-in candidates vastly outnumbered born-in candidates for baptisms.
And I remember a time (late 60s through to mid-1970s) when non-raised-in candidates vastly outnumbered born-in candidates for baptisms.
Not anymore Steve2, last one I went to 13 out of 14 were kids
And even out of the ones that are adults, I haven't seen one, not one, in recent years that was a true convert reached door to door. All of them were exposed to JWs as children and they became inactive and/or have JW family members.
Another way to look at it. Average numbers baptized per congregation per year. that would make it just over 2.
In our circuit there are around 11 congregations, So that would mean around 25ish on average should be getting baptized in our circuit. I know that there are nowhere near 25 getting baptized in this circuit per year.
