2015 Worldwide Memorial Attendance: Another Sign of Decline

by steve2 29 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  steve2

  JW Memorial attendance last year - 2014 - was about 50,000 shy of 20 million.

  Some posters on this forum had confidently predicted before the 2014 memorial that attendance would hit more than 20 milion. They were wrong.

  Now, in 2015, and the memorial falling on a weekend night (where attendance is historically much higher), attendance has not only failed to top 20 milion but has declined by more than 87,000 in attendance over 2014:

  2014: 19,950,019

  2015: 19,862,783.

  Of course, this is not the end of JW organization. But now that 2014 is receding in memory, especially all the organizational hoopla over the 100th centennary, the urgent vision becomes dulled and increasing numbers of JWs are still more inclined to spiritually "sleep walk" their way through their lives.

  • Witness the spectacular unsuccess of the movement to literature cart - where JWs passively parked themselves;
  • Witness the spectacularly small numbers presenting for baptisms at conventions - and most candidates shamefully very young
  • Witness the re-naming of mid-week meetings - presumably in an effort to address the appallingly low level of attendances at those meetings
  • Witness the flimsy content of their flagship magazines, the Watchtower and Awake
  • WItness the dearth of JWs actively going door to door
  • Witness the increased momentum of Bethel downsizing
  • Witness the halt on all construction work other than major projects already underway (e.g., Warwick and London).
  • Witness the stopping of speical pioneering in Western countries, with the insulting "invitation" for special pioneers to apply to become regular pioneers.

  Jehovah's Witnesses have a lot to witness at this time: And if they were "witnesses" in the best sense of that word, they'd notice stagnation at best and decline at worst.
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  Magnum

  . I can't wait to find out what next year's going to bring. What's it going to be like in 2020? I hope I'm around to see it.
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  DarioKehl

  How many nutters partook of the emblems?

  (I hate that culty buzzword, btw. "partook." Fuck off with you)
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  jookbeard

  I never ever see jw's on the D2D work around here, a big suburb of London, just never happens at all, and I'm talking about a good almost 4 years since I moved here, I moved to the borough in 2004 and can say I've never seen them at all in D2D, just the usual lazy sitting around the carts gossiping and playing with their phones.
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  never a jw

  The signs of the beginning of the great tribulation are here, or are we into the great tribulation already?
  
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  steve2

  I often see Mormon missionaries on bikes in my neighborhood. Sadly, those handsome young Americans never select my door to knock on. I would gladly open it - for doctrinal exchanges, of course!

  Yet I seldom see JWs in my neighborhood. And when they are in my neighborhood, there are not many of them and they are invariably older adults, compared to decades ago when we young zealous ones "descended" in numbers on the territory. I have occasionally seen JWs in the local shopping centre standing inert by their literature carts. But I have had to check whether they are actual human beings or cardboard cutouts.
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  jookbeard

  I remember a time when they used to have a special month in the FS distributing tracts for the up coming memorial, I remember the vast amount of "folding" of the tracts we had to do as kids to get them ready to be left on the D2D, probably another waste of time , cant have done it for years.
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  Splash

  Still being 'in' I can feel a general malaise that I've never seen before.

  People are openly critical, laughing at the new teachings, and angry at the constant demands for money. More and more are skipping meetings, and the hall is rarely full these days.

  There's confusion about what's going on with the preaching work, pressure to use tablets, and everything is changing.

  These next few years will be very telling on the yearly statistics.
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  jookbeard

  steve2 , I see Mormons in my area in the high street and in the D2D every week, sometimes more than that, there seems to be a bit of a Mormon stronghold around these parts, the Tabernacle a few miles away is packed out every week, it causes traffic chaos, the local KH sees a small handful of cars parked outside it.
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  slimboyfat

  I still think they'll probably get over 20 million next year. There's still some upward momentum left yet. But they've certainly slowed down faster than I expected. And all the cutbacks and financial panic this year is not going to help psychologically. It might well be the turning point.