couple years ago as a promising ms i had some weird conversations with two young elders.
it was always as we where alone only i and the elder.
they would initiate a conversations about things like blood doctrine, celebrating birthdays, view on homosexuality etc.
Seems doubtful.
I think we on the forum and online generally don’t appreciate just how seldom “apostasy” crosses the minds of ordinary JWs. For most it’s just not an issue, until it is, then often they leave. You don’t get many JWs long term worrying about apostasy either in themselves or others. They’ve got other things to think about, such as all the talks and tasks they have to perform, the CO visit and so on.
https://youtu.be/pi7sn2rnrke?si=lnvklqct6nuayv2q.
branches of jehovah’s witnesses: 85 (= down one from 86 from the previous year and quite possibly they are referring to the hong kong bethel that closed down recently).
number of lands reporting: 239 ( =the same as 2022).
West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, presumably?
Also interesting that they’ve adopted Türkiye in place of Turkey. When did that start?
https://youtu.be/pi7sn2rnrke?si=lnvklqct6nuayv2q.
branches of jehovah’s witnesses: 85 (= down one from 86 from the previous year and quite possibly they are referring to the hong kong bethel that closed down recently).
number of lands reporting: 239 ( =the same as 2022).
https://youtu.be/pi7sn2rnrke?si=lnvklqct6nuayv2q.
branches of jehovah’s witnesses: 85 (= down one from 86 from the previous year and quite possibly they are referring to the hong kong bethel that closed down recently).
number of lands reporting: 239 ( =the same as 2022).
Did you notice which figures they stopped publishing this year?
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 ….
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.
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 ….
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.
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 ….
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.
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.
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.
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 ….
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.
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 ….
The figures are out! O ye of the little faith 😁
