willyloman I agree 100% with you -- we all know the figures are phoney -- I am sure the WTBTS suspects they are phoney -- hell there are people like me who still report and I can tell you my figures certainly are -- I knew a sister who the entire body knew -- never out on service but used to claim auxilliary hours each month -- what were we to do -- call her a liar -- we could never prove it
Preaching Slowdown
by cornish 46 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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willyloman
I remember a shepherding call we were assigned to make on a sister who reported 60 hours one month (back when that was the aux pioneer goal). The problem was, none of the elders remembered ever seeing her out in service. Reviewing her cards, she had reported 60 hours about 8 times in the past two years. All the other months she reported 1 hour. We spent a very interesting hour at her home, trying to get her to explain how she got in the time. She just said she wasn't sure. We urged her to be more balanced and to try to do more (!), and she NEVER reported 60 hours again, so I guess we took care of that problem! (I am so ashamed...)
Oh, and, no, we did not go back and revise her cards and correct the congregation records. Multiply that kind of #$%^ times 94,000 congregations!
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observador
willyloman,
man, you crack me up. Still rolling on the floor, laughing. :) :) :)
Observador.
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William Penwell
I have made the point in earlier posts about the quality of hours that are counted. I could see 25 years ago how it was only a token service, so I quit putting in the service slips. Out of 2 hours reported for Saturday morning service, I would estimate that only about 15 minutes of that is actually spent preaching to others. The rest of the time is wasted on driving around the territory, sitting in the car or at the donut shop. Like someone here mentioned it is part of the token membership due's to belong to this club. If you don't do it, you will no longer belong to the club.
Will
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Joker10
In Britain, JW's have had little or no increase. However Bible studies have gone way up.So far, JW's in the U.S. are up a healthy 2%. They have started tens of thousands of new bible studies a month. Magazine distribution is down, baptisms are up, pioneers about the same, revisits up, and hours about the same. Im interested to know how many publishers reported in June. I wonder if the January-March Inactive Program helped to bring the publishers figure up for the month.
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core
Slowdown is probably due to the loss of all the faithful high average hours publishers who have left and post here!
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onacruse
Gamaliel:
And ironically, it offers a very simple, "materialistic spirituality."
Reminds me of Max Weber's classic and still (after 100 years) significant sociological thesis "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism."
Craig
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blondie
Joker 10, the JWs have started a new program called the "doorstep study." They call on people and talk to them for 5 minutes on their doorstep, then all they have to do is call back 2 more times and talk to them for about 5 minutes and they can report it as a bible study.
However Bible studies have gone way up.
Also, you can factor 9-11 into that as well as the WTS educating the R&F how to more accurately report studies.
Blondie
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AlanB
My sister was a pioneer for about 10 years. When she finally gave up for quite valid acceptable reasons she recieved quite a lot of criticism from the rank and file low hours brothers & sisters, whereas she recieved support from those who had pioneered themselves.
I think the R&F were quite happy to see my sister out on her bike in the preaching work and by inviting her in for the odd cup of tea was a sort of hours by proxy.
How many hours can you count for making tea for a pioneer?
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jayhawk1
On my way out, I made this very point to the PO. Despite the many time the local needs talk spoke about getting out of the Kingdom Hall quickly, (It took on average about 35 minutes on Saturday) go park the cars at a local parking lot in town, (The Kingdom Hall is about 5 miles outside of town) and get out in service. Point number two: Spending too much time at the local Dairy Queen. A typical break should be no longer than 10-15 minutes considering we have only been in the car group for less than an hour.
A typical Saturday Field Service Day went like this:
0900 meet for field service
0910-0915 field service ends
0945 physically leave the Kingdom Hall parking lot
0950 arrive at local parking lot
0955 wait on car captain who is always the last person to arrive at local parking lot
1000 arrive in territory
1015 actually open car doors, because the car captain wants to drive the entire territory before starting, presumably looking to see and point out any houses on the do-not-call list and give assignments, "Brother Jayhawk1, you will be working with Brother Lazy-Azz-Who-Still-Lives-With-His-Parents."
1050 get back in the car and go to Dairy Queen
1055 arrive at Dairy Queen
1130 leave Dairy Queen and start return visits
1150 arrive at local parking lot
1200 stop counting time
Total time counted for field service 3 HOURS! Time actually spent in field service 1 hour maybe.