the organization is shifting away from printed literature in favor of their new jw.org website.
the website contains content that is not printed in literature.
kiosks, trolleys, and storefronts are being used to showcase the website.
I"m sure they'd love to be able to do that but what busy work will they use to keep the drones immersed. I think the goal of the preaching work at least in the developed world is less to do with recruiting and more of an activity to bond the group. Also, you need something to measure spirituality and to base appointments on.
Not saying they wouldn't do something like what you describe but you have to remember the real motivation behind the preaching work.
i don't understand why so many ex jws and faders think that the jws will continue to grow and thrive as a religion.
i still attend a meeting once a week and you can smell the death of the religion creeping up when you hear the talks, read the study wts and hear the letters from the gb.
the way the organization has changed is a sign that it reached its peak (in "healthy" membership) long ago.
Actually I think both steve & DD are right.
To Steve's point, I'm very much of the belief that the WTs main threat to existence is apathy of members. You already see it and it seems to be getting worse. They can't figure out what to do about it and I think they are hoping these ICs will give a boost at least here in the US. Just like opening the GAM last Oct. However, as big of a morale boost that was it quickly faded. The same with everything they've come up with recently. It's the weekly grind, the boring meetings where the speakers don't even seem to care, the FS on the same houses with the same people who aren't interested in their message. That's why you see (again in the US) people wanting to go to other language groups to break the boredom.
To datadog's point, the public,especially in 3rd world countries where there is actual growth coming from the door to door work (NOT the case in the developed countries where the only folks with no affiliation that come in are quite frankly trainwrecks), could be told in a logical reasonable way what the issues are. How many householders accept a copy of the WT and Awake only to google JWs? That's what I would do. And once you do that, you quickly see what a mess they are and would stay away.
Overall, if you aren't growing you are shrinking. They've clearly hit their peak growth but I really think the lifecycles for religions span hundred of years barring some sort of black swan. Even the Bible Students are still around!! My prediction is that JWs will start experiencing negative growth in the next 10 years and will slowly shrink to a small group over the course of the next 50. But, they will exist when I die barring some sort of major unexpected event.
today, thanks to a brave do and my colleague elkatire 1980, we make make public the manual, guidelines for traveling overseers (tga-s), of which existence many suspected, but even in english, it wasnt available.. from its very title page, this book indicates in bold letters:.
it should not be shown to others, nor should any portion of it be reproduced.
note: for now, this book is only available in spanish, but we are working in translating a brief summary in english, hoping that someone from the english congregations makes it available to you soon.. http://hildeydesa.blogspot.com/2014/06/pautas-para-los-superintendentes.html.
Well done!!
i was baptized in 1968. last meeting 2010. i have to say i was never 100% in.
there were times i absolutely believed, but i never really gave it my all.
never liked service, assemblies, meetings.
Unfortunately, I was 100% in. SMDH - what an idiot I was
pure speculation for several reasons.. "friends, it has been 100 momentous years since christ arrived as king.
in the last 100 years a great shout of praise has gone up to jehovah.
technology has greatly changed the way people live and communicate and jehovah has made sure that his organization is on the forefront of these changes.
100% agree BluesBrother!
a new letter no longer allows an elder to be cobe if hes 80 or more.
Hmm, Splash may be on to something here.
i wanted to express appreciation to the members of this forum.
there are resources here that are deep.
like we heard from the stage, "what is your depth and breadth of bible knowledge?
Make Lemonade,
Sorry I didn't see your post earlier but just wanted to welcome you to the board. What a terrible experience you and your wife have had to endure.
Looking forward to reading more from you!
a new letter no longer allows an elder to be cobe if hes 80 or more.
Welcome Fader 77. Thanks for posting the info and look forward to hearing more from you.
which would the watchtower choose if it came down to this in the united states or europe?
losing tax free status would mean losing millions of dollars.
ending shunning means people would leave by the boatloads.
Old Goat - take me as an example. I learned the TTATT when I was serving as an elder, stepped down to "care for my family" and still attend meetings. I haven't done anything against the WT rules with the exception of using curse words (which I did when I believed) and letting my kids play youth sports. I also now don't shun DF'ed ones, and am breaking the biggest WT rule of all, I don't believe they are God's Organization and am therefore an apostate.
Since I haven't shared my feelings with anyone at the KH, they continue to speak with me. If those thoughts were made known, of course I'd be shunned. That's fine, I don't really care about those folks and am already not given much attention since I went from active elder to guy who looks angry during the meetings.
What I'm most concerned about is the elders interferring in my marriage and telling the rest of my extended family that I'm evil and threatening them with explusion should they communicate with me if and when I decide to make my feelings public. I've seen too many marriages broken up over this stupid cult. That's the part that really burns me up. Also the double standard because the JWs will tell you that you shouldn't have to choose between your family and your religion when they are recruiting folks from other religions but when you leave, that's clearly not the case.
I've read all the arguments on the advantages of providing exemption from taxes for religious institutions and while I respect Mr. Madison's take on most things, I believe he is wrong on that point. They are all businesses and should be treated as such. Not banned, not regulated just not given the unjust preferential tax treatment. Or maybe I should just start my own religion and leech off of society too!
which would the watchtower choose if it came down to this in the united states or europe?
losing tax free status would mean losing millions of dollars.
ending shunning means people would leave by the boatloads.
