Posts by slimboyfat

I didn't think the aim on the piece was catharsis so much as openly antinatalist. In other words not for the psychological benefit of the parents making the comments, but to influence younger people to remain childless.

56

"You Wouldn't Believe How Many Have Crawled Back To The Meetings"

by minimus in

jw
friends

that's a comment i heard from an elder i haven't seen in over a decade, yesterday.

i mentioned it all on my other thread.

i responded that i knew of no one that was crawling back to the meetings and gave him an incredulous hearty chuckle.

slimboyfat

The elder who studied with me to baptism left the JWs in 1999 (lots of gossip the reason why) and came back in 2001 because of the terrorist attacks. I don't think he ever became an elder again and I'm not sure if he's still in.

32

Have any ex-jws considered joining the Bible Students?

by Rainbow_Troll in

their fundamental beliefs are much like jehovah's witnesses sans the paranoia, authoritarianism, stifling rules, and end-times enthusiasm.

you don't even have to become a bible student to be saved, you could be an idol worshipping heathen and still get resurrected in the milenium.

if i still believed in the divine inspiration of the scriptures, i would be a bible student.

slimboyfat

Wow there are still congregations in the UK? That would be interesting to see. Do you have any details of meeting times and places?

There's an interesting history of UK Bible Students here. They seem to have fizzled out mostly after the Second World War.

http://www.ukbiblestudents.co.uk/John%20Edgar/BIBLE%20STUDENTS%20IN%20BRITAIN.pdf

23

792 baptized this weekend at one convention

by dropoffyourkeylee in

at a 3-day convention in nairobi, kenya this week 12-2-16 through 12-4-16, they had 70,000+ attendance, and there were 792 baptized (i presume the baptism was yesterday).

i was amazed to hear this; i guess now we know where the wt's growth is coming from..

slimboyfat

Zambia is the most JWfied country on the planet. Something like 1 in 20 people attend the memorial there. If that happened in the UK there would be over 3 million at the memorial, more than ten times the number that actually attends.

32

Have any ex-jws considered joining the Bible Students?

by Rainbow_Troll in

their fundamental beliefs are much like jehovah's witnesses sans the paranoia, authoritarianism, stifling rules, and end-times enthusiasm.

you don't even have to become a bible student to be saved, you could be an idol worshipping heathen and still get resurrected in the milenium.

if i still believed in the divine inspiration of the scriptures, i would be a bible student.

slimboyfat

Do Bible Students actually exist as local congregations? Or are they largely a collection of online ex-JWs? I've never found evidence that they still have any kind of organisational or community structure left in the UK at least. Maybe there are still Bible Student groups in the US worth speaking about.

23

792 baptized this weekend at one convention

by dropoffyourkeylee in

at a 3-day convention in nairobi, kenya this week 12-2-16 through 12-4-16, they had 70,000+ attendance, and there were 792 baptized (i presume the baptism was yesterday).

i was amazed to hear this; i guess now we know where the wt's growth is coming from..

slimboyfat

I didn't know they still held conventions as large as this. In Europe it seems to be around about 10,000 normally.

23

792 baptized this weekend at one convention

by dropoffyourkeylee in

at a 3-day convention in nairobi, kenya this week 12-2-16 through 12-4-16, they had 70,000+ attendance, and there were 792 baptized (i presume the baptism was yesterday).

i was amazed to hear this; i guess now we know where the wt's growth is coming from..

slimboyfat

I don't think there are that many JWs in Kenya. Was this an international convention?

62

Meeting Attendance levels

by freddo in

jw
friends

i attended a sunday meeting today after missing a couple due to a bout of chronic apathy.

out of 74 publishers we had a grand total of 33. wonderful.

for those that attend, how are you finding the numbers?.

slimboyfat

I've only been to a couple of meetings in the last 5 years. There seem to be around 55 at the meetings from a similar number of publishers. From what I hear, the congregation peaked in the 1980s when there were around 80 at meetings. Meeting attendance, in the time I was there, has fluctuated between 40 to 60 for the past 20 years or more. In the early 2000s was probably the lowest when it was nearer 40. At that time there were 3 elders and a neighbouring congregation sent elders to take some of the meetings. Now there are 11 elders, I think, 1 ministerial servant, and 10 pioneers. So it improved slightly in numbers and a lot I terms of number of elders.