Posts by slimboyfat

14

What is Gilead's current curriculum?

by careful in

some years back alltimejeff reported on what gilead's curriculum was like from a guy who had gone thru it.

it was detailed and enlightening for those of us in the dark.

(hey, atj, are you still checking in here?).

slimboyfat

Good question, don't know the answer.

The latest 2017 Yearbook has hardly any mention of Gilead or missionaries. The Yearbooks used to be full of it.

What year was Gilead downgraded?

2010 is the earliest Yearbook in PDF I can find on the site. There was much more about Gilead and missionaries back then.

2010 Yearbook

Gilead - 13

Missionary - 34

Missionaries - 72

2017 Yearbook

Gilead - 1

Missionary - 1

Missionaries - 2

In fact the single 2017 use of "Gilead" is for a "Gilead extension programme" in Germany. And one of the instances of "missionaries" is in the regular financial statement. So in 2017 Gilead and missionaries are practically extinct.

32

Britain in the doldrums!

by Nicholaus Kopernicus in

the 2014 - 2015 jw statistics showed a peak publisher decline of 884 with the average publisher tally showing a gain of 183. .

the 2017 yearbook is now available via jw.org and the statistics for britain show a 2016 peak publisher increase of 630 and an average publisher increase of a paltry 26!.

nothing to shout about on the part of the followers of caiaphas in the britain branch.

slimboyfat

darkspilver that looks more comprehensive. How did you get that information?

32

Britain in the doldrums!

by Nicholaus Kopernicus in

the 2014 - 2015 jw statistics showed a peak publisher decline of 884 with the average publisher tally showing a gain of 183. .

the 2017 yearbook is now available via jw.org and the statistics for britain show a 2016 peak publisher increase of 630 and an average publisher increase of a paltry 26!.

nothing to shout about on the part of the followers of caiaphas in the britain branch.

slimboyfat

Nicholaus doing that search for Polish only produces congregations in the South East of England. It doesn't count the congregations in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness and so on.

So there probably a lot more foreign language congregations in the UK than your figures.

The search on the website is clumsy for finding total numbers for whole countries.

117

2017 Yearbook released

by bohm in

jw
friends

i saw this on reddit:.

https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/5mlgsm/2017_yearbook_of_jehovahs_witnesses/.

overall the numbers are better than last year (1.8% growth compared to 1.5% last year -- as i predicted ;-) ) with an increase in all major figures including 1300 more congregations (i assume this is not physical kingdom halls?).

slimboyfat

Although the average number of publishers in the United States increased by 2,945, the total number of congregations declined by 23, down from 14,063 to 14,040. This looks like the beginning of decline to me.

Looking at the table of growing and declining countries, it's very easy to imagine that they could be in overall decline by next year. Remove the abnormal growth in Congo, and Brazil growth slows like Mexico has, and they could easily fall into overall decline in publishers.

But I wonder, if the figures next year show decline in the United States, and more countries declining than growing overall, will they still publish the numbers?

If decline becomes a persistent trend I am sure they will stop publishing numbers, at least in this form and detail. I just wonder how long and what level of declines it will take.

32

Britain in the doldrums!

by Nicholaus Kopernicus in

the 2014 - 2015 jw statistics showed a peak publisher decline of 884 with the average publisher tally showing a gain of 183. .

the 2017 yearbook is now available via jw.org and the statistics for britain show a 2016 peak publisher increase of 630 and an average publisher increase of a paltry 26!.

nothing to shout about on the part of the followers of caiaphas in the britain branch.

slimboyfat

How did you extract the data on the number of foreign language congregations from the website?

It will be very interesting to see if the total number of congregations begins to decline in coming years.

117

2017 Yearbook released

by bohm in

jw
friends

i saw this on reddit:.

https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/5mlgsm/2017_yearbook_of_jehovahs_witnesses/.

overall the numbers are better than last year (1.8% growth compared to 1.5% last year -- as i predicted ;-) ) with an increase in all major figures including 1300 more congregations (i assume this is not physical kingdom halls?).

slimboyfat

wifi bandit very interesting to see visually that Africa and South America account for most of the growth.

India also sticks out but there are relatively few JWs there.

117

2017 Yearbook released

by bohm in

jw
friends

i saw this on reddit:.

https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/5mlgsm/2017_yearbook_of_jehovahs_witnesses/.

overall the numbers are better than last year (1.8% growth compared to 1.5% last year -- as i predicted ;-) ) with an increase in all major figures including 1300 more congregations (i assume this is not physical kingdom halls?).

slimboyfat

That's an amazing reduction in special pioneers. I wonder if it will contribute to future decline.

Psychologically it's difficult to motivate to do something for free when you had been paid previously. Theoretically former missionaries and special pioneers should be super loyal. But for at least some it must feel more like the loss of a job, and they may simply choose to move on.

It may take a few years, but I reckon a large proportion of former bethelites, missionaries and special pioneers will "drift away" from JWs as they adjust to fending for themselves.

15

Beth-Shan - Digital Reconstruction - IMAGES & DRAWINGS WANTED

by Bloody Hotdogs! in

(just posted this over on exjw reddit as well).

as part of my masters in architecture degree (a treat to myself after leaving jws about 4 years ago), i'm attempting to digitally reconstruct some of watchtower's significant early buildings.

my goal is to produce accurate architectural drawings and images based on solid evidence.

slimboyfat

This sounds fascinating.

I wonder if you're aware of this book that contains details of the properties of the earliest period of Bible Student history under Russell.

https://www.amazon.com/Watchtower-Allegheny-Historical-James-Holmes/dp/0615548520/

Doesn't relate directly to Beth Shan but it shows a similar interest in the physical environment of the early adherents.

117

2017 Yearbook released

by bohm in

jw
friends

i saw this on reddit:.

https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/5mlgsm/2017_yearbook_of_jehovahs_witnesses/.

overall the numbers are better than last year (1.8% growth compared to 1.5% last year -- as i predicted ;-) ) with an increase in all major figures including 1300 more congregations (i assume this is not physical kingdom halls?).

slimboyfat

The average for Japan in those years are not the figures you give.

117

2017 Yearbook released

by bohm in

jw
friends

i saw this on reddit:.

https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/5mlgsm/2017_yearbook_of_jehovahs_witnesses/.

overall the numbers are better than last year (1.8% growth compared to 1.5% last year -- as i predicted ;-) ) with an increase in all major figures including 1300 more congregations (i assume this is not physical kingdom halls?).

slimboyfat

The reduction in branch staff is a huge statistic - a 24% drop in one year! This must be unprecedented.

Plus the reduction in spending on travelling overseers, missionaries and special pioneers, a massive 10% drop. I wonder how they managed that, considering it must be difficult to reduce the number of COs, and there can't be an awful lot of missionaries and special pioneers. Did they get rid of special pioneers? (After promising to look after retired COs in this way?) Or did they reduce the amount of money they give individual COs, special pioneers and missionaries.