So JWs are growing more than it appears.
Black is white and white is black, I s'pose?
Service Report for 2005 is not all good
by truthseeker 44 Replies latest jw friends
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ozziepost
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AK - Jeff
Consider the effectiveness of what they do, and the vibrancy of their ministry. In 1975 they enjoyed a reported 9.7% increase. In that year there were 382,296,208, reported hours , they baptised 295,073 and increased the publishers by 181,736.. That meant a percentage increase , to baptisms of about 61% .It took around 2,103 field ministry hours to gain one increased publisher
In 2005,with the reported 1.3% increase - there were 1,278,201,985 reported hours , they baptised 219,926, and increased the publishers by 81,675. That meant a percentage increase to baptisms of around 37%. It took around 15,650 hours to gain one increased publisher
Blue hit the point here. In business we often track 'efficiencies' , but we should track 'effectiveness'.
Efficiency means we are getting a lot of work done. Witnesses are - 1.2 Billion hours in FS last year.
Effectiveness means we are getting to the goals we want - we are doing the right thing to accomplish the best finished product with the least cost. Witnesses clearly are not - taking 15,000+ hours to make a convert, compared with 2,000 hours in 1975.
In business terms - they are not getting any wigetts out the door, the scrap rate is out of sight, and the products that do come out the door are not lasting long. But they are working their asses off trying. The business goals are clearly not being met here.
While many businesses speak in terms of efficiency they really want effectiveness. Doing a lot of work, but not getting the desired results indicates ineffective efficiency. That is the death knoll to a business.
Witnesses are knocking on a lot of doors - or in some cases, they are reporting the knocking on of alot of doors - but no matter that, they are taking now seven times the amount of reported hours to make the same number of converts. That is immensely discouraging to the workforce who desire not only to report hours, but to see the smile of the management on thier efforts. Managment has no retort but to snap the whip harder as they see the effectiveness fall off. This is not of course a paid workforce, so they will be able to endure it longer perhaps than a business in the strict sense of business. But moral will at some point breakdown completely and the workers will just quit working due the sense of no acomplishment. Looks like that could be closer than ever now.
I fear some redundancy in my comments here above - but you get the point. Knocking on doors is not the goal - making converts is - and they are not making many compared to the work it used to take to do so.
Jeff
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ballistic
bttt
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willyloman
Witnesses are knocking on a lot of doors - or in some cases, they are reporting the knocking on of alot of doors - but no matter that, they are taking now seven times the amount of reported hours to make the same number of converts.
Exactly the point, Jeff. And as you go on to say, knocking on doors isn't the goal, making converts is... and they aren't making many.
As to "the reported knocking on doors," my three decades of experience with the dubs is that the "phony" reports are pandemic nowadays, compared 30 years ago. Back in the day, the reports were much more precise than they are now (although they've always been an estimate, given that we're human). Dubs were scrupulously honest about adding up numbers back then. It was a source of pride and no one wants to fudge the figures when you just know God is looking over your shoulder. With the loss of urgency and expectancy in the past decade or so, dubs are less certain they are being monitored supernaturally. I suspect the apples-to-apples comparison of genuine numbers, if such existed, would show an even wider gap between the hours-to-converts than your figures suggest.
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jgnat
Well, you can, Joker 10, if you compare the population growth per country with publisher growth per country.