by BluesBrother 307 Replies latest watchtower bible
Yes, David2002, in August. What is significant to JWs about the month of August? Especially to JW Secretaries?
End of the Service year. Everyone who is missing time for months back will be contacted...look at past December KM reports (for August US stats). Compare them to January KM and February KM reports and see if the numbers stay that high.
It is a false positive to look at August numbers.
AuldSoul
David,
it's good that we can nicely debate things and express different opinions. I certainly appreciate your views, even though I disagree with them.
You sound like you're in denial, David. You're trying to come up with explanations that likely is unconvincing even to yourself. I'll give you an example of your type of logic and where the problem is:
You said:
"It appears that if the growth is less than 1% in a given country, then 0% percent growth is listed."
In other words, you're saying that the absolute number may be a little higher than last year's but still less than 1%, thus being listed as 0.
What you don't realize, however, is that, BY THE SAME CRITERIA, a country that had a growth anywhere from -1% and 0% is also listed as 0% growth. You don't have to even go beyond the letter A to see an example of what I'm talking about. Look at Australia!
I just hope, David, that when you get convinced that those numbers are bad, realy bad - and a sign of troubles for the Org-, you don't change the fundamentals of your argumentation, from a numerical one to a religious one. I know quite a few JWs who will be saying that Jehovah is doing a cleansing in the Org and we don't care about numbers. Please don't do that!
Nice discussing things with you, though.
Observador.
David:
I should like to correct an impression you seem to have that is incorrect:
Since the WT Society only reports those that are actively preaching, they are in effect, under reporting the actual figures when compared to how other religious groups count their members.
Perhaps you got your impression from the WTS who are often seeking to paint churches in the worst possinble light but the facts are these:
1. Churches I know have a Service Register in which is entered the particulars of the services, including attendancew of adults and children.
2. When the Diocese is reviewing the size of the church, it is the figures in the Service Register that are used.
In other words, only active churchgoers are included in the numbers for a church.
Of course, in a government census many people who are non-churchgoers may register themselves as belonging to a particular church butr this doesn't mean that the church itself is including them.
I trust that this clarifies things for you.
Cheers, Ozzie
I was talking to some Witness friends & family about the WT annual numbers. A couple of them admitted that the numbers are suspect because,
"Pioneer So-and-So is never seen in the ministry but still a pioneer; or several Aux Pio spend more time at the doughnut shop drinking coffee than knocking on doors. If this is happening in our congregation it must happen in many more."
So during the conversation I'm thinking maybe there is some hope for some of my friends & family, but then they excused it away saying "these are the last days and the love would cool off, so declining numbers show how close we really are to the end of this system."
That really irritates me! It seems no matter what happens some just will not see what is really happening, they will follow the WTS under any and every circumstance.
"So during the conversation I'm thinking maybe there is some hope for some of my friends & family, but then they excused it away saying "these are the last days and the love would cool off, so declining numbers show how close we really are to the end of this system."
Which is why the WTS will continue to publish their falling numbers.
I believe that in many instances the decreasing numbers will bolster the faithful. It will become a badge of honor to remain faithful despite the fact that so many are falling away or newer ones just aren't responding.
The smaller the groups size the more zealous the followers.
I believe that in many instances the decreasing numbers will bolster the faithful.
I'm not sure if I agree. The number of followers consistently falling in the developed nations had an impact on me when I still was a faithful jdub. I had 93.7% of my brain cell totally brainwashed, but the remaining 6.3% thought "WTF? There must be something going on... I got watch these numbers more closely..."
Sure enough, these were the lands where the information age had arrived first.
Watch the WTS drop the statistics section sometime from now, if they can't come up with anything creative.
O.
So during the conversation I'm thinking maybe there is some hope for some of my friends & family, but then they excused it away saying "these are the last days and the love would cool off, so declining numbers show how close we really are to the end of this system."
doingmypart,
This is a good example of what some will say. That's why I pleaded with David for him not to switch to this type of reasoning when he realizes that all is not well on WT land.
1.3% Increase in business, means your failing! Mormons are really kicking the JW's asses in converting people. They better hurry up before the end comes.
I played with the graph showing numbers of hours for a baptism with average years of education. Fun. It's a rough plot. Dots are for no data on average educational hours.
Jwfacts mentioned something interesting.
The 15 minutes a month thing - when did that come in? It is surprising that there wasn't a noticable increase due to this.
Taken that you can now be a Witness-lite, if things flipped back to require more time per month, what would the decrease be?
How many are doing the minimum?
