Doubting Bro

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Posts by Doubting Bro

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  39

  The increasing WT magazine

  by darkspilver in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  apart from the interesting block color change for the title strip on the front page.... the new 2017 wt mag has some new (updated printing figures):.

  2016: produced each issue: 58,987,000 available in 282 languages .

  2017: produced each issue: 61,651,000 available in 294 languages.

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  Doubting Bro

  Interesting they say produced instead of printed. I wonder how much of that number includes downloads?
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  33

  Disassociation revealed what type of man my father really is.

  by Paul Mooney in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i began my exit from the jehovah’s witness organization about 5 years.

  i was a 4th generation born-in, with all the baggage that comes with having the “spiritual heritage” attached to the group.

  i was an elder/bethelite/pioneer/whatever other useless privilege there was, i had no family or friends outside of the organization… my entire life was that org.

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  Doubting Bro

  Paul,

  What a moving note your dad sent you. It's so sad what this religion does to people and hopefully you'll be able to smuggle something back to him.
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  10

  Which Kingdom Hall Should They Sell? How Does The Governing Body Decide?

  by Brokeback Watchtower in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  well what rule of thumb do you think these financial dim-wits dream up?

  i think those not sending in their money to the org are some of the first properties to unload while you spare the higher payers for last.

  you don't want to piss off the loyal contributers by making them miss meetings,, that's a no win situation so dump the free loaders as a negative asset and keep the more profitable ones.. and those who's loans the wt forgave, watch what happens if you're not send in those regular payments like before, and slack off by a significant amount.

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  Doubting Bro

  I know for a fact that at least one local KH had the same cost/benefit analysis done. It was a building that needed a bunch of cash to get up to snuff but was in a good location. The congregation had about 40-50 publishers and none of the elders were all that connected. They were given the option of moving to another KH in a nearby town and staying together or disbanding and dispersing. They chose to stay together, likely because these elders wanted to keep control as opposed to being a new boy on another body.
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  29

  Who is attending the 2016 Annual Meeting this Saturday?

  by Londo111 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm curious if we will have eyewitness reporters at the stanley theater like we do every year....

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  Doubting Bro

  I think if we haven't heard anything by this point, not much new is happening. We get tons of leaks and even the biggest changes like dropping the book study night were out at least a few days in advance.
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  182

  Major congregational quake in Southern California

  by Hecce in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this notice is not official yet and it should be confidential until released thru the proper channels.

  a friend of mine told me about a huge elders meeting in southern california.

  the subject was the relocation and dissolution of some congregations; it seems that this is the result of some project that has been going on for some time and is going to be implemented right now.. please let me know if this is happening all over the country?.

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  Doubting Bro

  crazyguy - I was thinking the same thing. I can imagine the reaction that would bring! Near where I live, I can envision one hall that sits in a very nice neighborhood getting sold and having some of the members moving to the KH I go to. That one is not in a valuable commercial area whereas the one in the nice neighborhood is in such an area. I'm predicting that hall will be sold in the next year or two at the most and consolidated into either my hall or a double hall complex that's a little closer to their publisher base.
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  182

  Major congregational quake in Southern California

  by Hecce in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this notice is not official yet and it should be confidential until released thru the proper channels.

  a friend of mine told me about a huge elders meeting in southern california.

  the subject was the relocation and dissolution of some congregations; it seems that this is the result of some project that has been going on for some time and is going to be implemented right now.. please let me know if this is happening all over the country?.

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  Doubting Bro

  While making it a more internet based religion makes sense from a monetary point of view, remember how addicted they are to control. After all, it is a cult.
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  182

  Major congregational quake in Southern California

  by Hecce in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this notice is not official yet and it should be confidential until released thru the proper channels.

  a friend of mine told me about a huge elders meeting in southern california.

  the subject was the relocation and dissolution of some congregations; it seems that this is the result of some project that has been going on for some time and is going to be implemented right now.. please let me know if this is happening all over the country?.

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  Doubting Bro

  At the end of the most recent CA program, the CO mentioned in his talk talk how JWs could show faith by obeying the directions to attend a different KH either as a response to their current congregation merging with another one or the KH being sold and sharing with another congregation. It was very direct and this subject is definitely being talked about. I just had a long conversation with someone about it. It makes way too much financial sense to not proceed. There are some very small congregations that are aging and stagnant. Not only are some of these buildings being under utilized, the contributions are also low.

  They really don't care about the members and never did. This is a business, plain and simple.
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  66

  When you were fully in, did you believe that you would not die?

  by TTWSYF in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i know that it must seem silly to ask, but my brother and his family think that the big a will arrive before they die.

  i tried to explain to my brother that everyone else who has ever lived in the past has died and only jesus has [physically] rose from the dead.. it is amazing that anyone could buy that line.

  what crazy cult culture that could make people believe such nonsense?!.

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  Doubting Bro

  Absolutely! I think any true JW believer is pretty sure they won't die. Sure, its crazy and has no basis in fact. But, that's one of the biggest selling points of the religion.

  Coming to the realization that I will die and that there's no special group that won't was a bit difficult. But, I also realize that man has always been looking to cheat death. That's part of being self-aware.
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  46

  Updates to Public Talk Outlines 2 & 3

  by wifibandit in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  will you be a survivor of the last days?.

  serving with jehovah’s unified organization.

  move ahead with jehovah’s unified organization.

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  Doubting Bro

  Couple of thoughts:

  1 - Talk 2 was the first PT I ever gave and I tended to gravitate towards talks that dealt with prophesy when I was a young super righteous elder (eye roll). When I got some maturity, I started focusing on talks with a more Christian focus (like the mercy talk above). At the last couple of years, I couldn't give most of my earlier talks because I just disagreed with them. But, I did notice they dropped the whole "wheat & weeds" portion of #2. I don't remember that teaching having changed recently, did I miss it?? Or do did we get a clue as to an upcoming change?

  2 - The funeral talk looks much better. I saw the note that said you don't have to cover all the scriptures or even all the points. That gives the speaker some latitude to focus on the person if they are so inclined. Interesting development. Maybe they realized that going to a funeral where the deceased is spoken about for 5 minutes or less probably isn't appreciated by non-JWs. It's usually the only time you get a non-JW into a KH so they don't want to come off too crazy.
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  29

  Circuit ASSembly low-lites

  by FedUpJW in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so in an effort to relieve some pressure here are what i term the low-lites of yesterday's assembly that i had to endure for the sake of family still in and my progressing fade.

  apologies in advance for being pretty long winded.. these may not all be the actual words used, but the ones i use are close, and they pretty well say what was said from the platform.. right off the bat in the opening prayer the praises of the governing body were spoken.

  thanking the g.b.

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  Doubting Bro

  Wayward - Yes, the CO at the one I attended also mentioned how JWs can show faith by attending where they are told to go, even if that means their current KH is being sold and they have to drive a little further to meet. The plan to combine unprofitable congregations seems to be accelerating. I just heard about a congregation around here that had one of the most outdated KHs in the area and really needed to do something. They were given two options: 1) they could dissolve the congregation and have members absorbed into a few neighboring congregations or 2) they could meet at another KH 20 miles away that only had one congregation meeting and stay in tact. They chose #2 because likely the BOE just wanted to keep control. Probably the best thing for their members was to dissolve but then brother COBE would lose his position and you can't have that!!

  To be fair, the congregation only had about 60 publishers which seems on the small side.