slimboyfat

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Posts by slimboyfat

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  33

  Where’s the 2023 Service Report?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what’s keeping them?

  this has got to be the latest it’s ever been.

  maybe it’s the last one they’ll ever publish too, after dropping reporting hours for publishers ….

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  slimboyfat

  What are the reasons? Yes shunning is likely to be a factor. What else? The high level of commitment required. The sense of mission preaching gives for some. The crazy state of the world right now in view of JW end-time teaching. Attraction to a definite black/white set of beliefs and rules in contrast with changing ethical standards in society. Everything being spoon fed and not having to think too much might appeal to some. I don’t know what else. That’s just some explanations I come up with.

  
  

  The difference in the fate of mainstream churches compared with JWs is extreme. Takes these two graphs. The first shows the decline of members of the Church of Scotland since 1957 where membership has dropped to about a fifth of the peak. The second shows the increase JW publishers in the UK over the same period.

  
  

  There are single churches in other denominations that are growing, but I don’t think there’s any other denomination over 100,000 members still growing in the UK as JWs are. But I’d be interested to proved wrong if anyone has examples. Perhaps most likely candidates are Pentecostal churches but even these have declined in recent years.

  
  

  
  

  
• 
  33

  Where’s the 2023 Service Report?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what’s keeping them?

  this has got to be the latest it’s ever been.

  maybe it’s the last one they’ll ever publish too, after dropping reporting hours for publishers ….

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  slimboyfat

  It’s much lower growth than they used to have but it’s much better than other churches. Still having growth 3% in Germany, 6% in Ireland, 2% in Austria, 6% in Czech Republic and so on is pretty remarkable at this point.

  Yes they have decline across most of Latin America. I wonder what’s causing that.
• 
  33

  Where’s the 2023 Service Report?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what’s keeping them?

  this has got to be the latest it’s ever been.

  maybe it’s the last one they’ll ever publish too, after dropping reporting hours for publishers ….

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• 

  slimboyfat

  Avoiding severe decline for any church in the secular western world is pretty extraordinary.

  France, Britain, Germany up too. Yes some of it will be immigrants, but the overall ratio is climbing in these countries too. Plus other churches benefit from immigrants joining too, yet are still in decline.
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  3146

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)

  by Simon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

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  slimboyfat

  This is why that begging stunt was a bad idea, especially since he had absolutely no intention of making his channel better.

  Yeah he basically said send me your money to keep the channel going, and then promptly all but abandoned the channel and ran off to spend the money. When are his backers going to wake up? Mind you these are the same people, some of them, who sent him money for years on the basis the it “all gets ploughed back into the channel”, yet were not fazed by his own admission that he spent it on prostitutes and drugs on a regular, semi-regular, or whatever, basis. For some of them, if that didn’t shake them off then perhaps nothing will.
• 
  33

  Where’s the 2023 Service Report?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what’s keeping them?

  this has got to be the latest it’s ever been.

  maybe it’s the last one they’ll ever publish too, after dropping reporting hours for publishers ….

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  Interesting, it seems to be mostly decreases all across the Americas in the western hemisphere and mostly increases elsewhere in eastern hemisphere including Europe. Big increases in Africa.

  Overall it seems pretty volatile. There’s a 6% increase in Ireland - that seems a pretty large increase for a secularising country where JWs are long established.

  Huge increases in the Congo and Nigeria and almost 1 million people attended the Memorial in Zambia, amazing in a country of only 20 million.

  Number of congregations worldwide is up slightly on last year.

  One percent decrease in the US has got to be psychologically deflating but they might have to get used to it because religion in general is in free fall.

  But maybe they won’t publish the figures next year, and even if they do it will be counting a different thing as publishers report a “yes” rather than a number of hours each month.
• 
  33

  Where’s the 2023 Service Report?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what’s keeping them?

  this has got to be the latest it’s ever been.

  maybe it’s the last one they’ll ever publish too, after dropping reporting hours for publishers ….

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  The figures are out! O ye of the little faith 😁
• 
  3146

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)

  by Simon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

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  slimboyfat

  he could always become a mycoligist 😁

  You can have him as yourcologist if you like but I don’t want him to be mycologist! 😁
• 
  3146

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)

  by Simon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

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  2. 
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• 

  slimboyfat

  If he continues to lose 20 patrons or so a month then he’ll be down to pretty low numbers by the end of 2024. He might even need to get another job.
• 
  3146

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)

  by Simon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

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  slimboyfat

  Why is Canada called Canada? Because there’s nobody there. (German joke)
• 
  14

  Did Jesus have a pre-existence or was he fully human, begotten at his human birth.

  by gavindlt in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  so when was jesus begotten.

  was he truly and wholly fully human.

  did he exist in two states, part human part god.

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  slimboyfat

  Christadelphians don’t believe Jesus had a prehuman life, that’s correct, but they do believe Jesus is the Word of John 1 because they believe the “Word” wasn’t personal, but a way of talking about God’s conception of Jesus in his own mind before he brought him into existence. I think. They share this view with other Unitarians of the Socinian variety in groups such as the Church of God of Abrahamic Faith, Sir Anthony Buzzard and others. Sam Tideman is great at explaining these things:

  https://youtu.be/tqTlnT-J6rk?si=SZvRvPPuV9NZyYt9