I ran across a Witness I knew the other day at the gym and we had an open and honest discussion on exiting the organization. He still goes and used to be an elder, but stepped down when his children were disfellowshipped. He was actually very honest with me on some subjects, which tells me that he is probably putting together an exit foundation and looking for some bricks of information to make it solid. Anyway, as I was talking to him, I asked about a lot of younger people I knew while a Witness and wondered how there life was going. I was amazed at how many were summed up with "... they are inactive" or "... they left the truth" and a few with "... they're disfellowshipped." I only heard of a couple still in and they were the type that I expected to stay. In the conversation we mentioned how it seemed the organization is leaking in it's future growth. As many of the young people that are counted on to increase the number of Witnesses, are leaving at an increased pace. From what I gathered, it is becoming more rare to stay, then it is to leave. It does not shock me, with all the information available to young people now and how easy it is for them to access the truth about "the truth." I did not have such resources as a child/teen and if I did, I would doubt that I would have stayed into my twenties like I did.
You know a lot of companies will call a mass exit of customer base, a leak, which I think fits with the Witnesses too. They have a serious leak, and they seem to think the only way to fix it, is to plug the information and education hole. I would not doubt, that in time, the Witnesses will make a college education and recreational internet usage a disfellowshipping event. After all, in a communist government, the first thing taken from the people is the freedom of information.
Anyone else notice how few of the people they grew up with as Witnesses, stayed?