The Organization is destined to fade away (page 2)

haboob48

http://robertquartey.blogspot.com/2013/10/choose-or-lose-only-constant-that-is.html

Is this from watchtower or this guy?

TTATTelder

They can keep it going a long, long time IMO. The buy-in is astonishing to this new building program. The sheep just line up to do whatever they are told. They think they are doing "God's Work".

Even the ones that can see the profit angle just write it off as "supporting the work". No thought is given to the fact that an organization truly backed by God would not have to engage in such money making endeavors. They should be flush with cash from miraculous sources.

Oh well.... this is the result of indoctrinating people week-in-and-week-out. They will continue to indoctrinate and they will continue to control the minds of this small religious group.

Growth is another thing all together, though. I think growth is already pitiful and the trend will continue south, but they can survive on flat growth or small decreases for decades.

-TE

bemused

It's hard to see any rapid fall happening. I think the only way this might come about is if a small drop in numbers led to disillusionment, causing a further drop generating more disillusionment and so on in a downward spiral. However I can't really see this, nice though it would be. Occasional mergers of halls will generate interest and the larger congregation an illusory sense of growth.

Having said that, my old Catholic church has about 25% of the regular attendance it had 40 years ago. Mind you, they don't practise shunning.

Joe Grundy

The OP explains something.

When I had my FS visit last week by the Younger Elder (45 years in) and the Older Newbie (5 months in) I raised a few issues. The YE trotted out (of course) 'New Light' (tm). ON made a comment that 'our perceptions change and we must adapt'. YE looked at him approvingly and said 'that's a good way to put it'.

Presumably the 'study' mentioned in OP is where ON got this from. He'll go far in the org probably, unless he wakes up.

suavojr

Evaluating everyone's response and assessing the current with an honest outlook, we will not see the destruction of this organization anytime soon but the quality of the leaders and members will continue to degrade. Intellectually honest individuals will keep waking up an leaving and the naïve will stay in.

Splash

My view is that older ones (40+) who have let the internet pass them by or use it only for emailing, are now the backbone of the congregations.

Young ones see through it but have their parents (in the 40+ age bracket) pressuring them to stay and get baptised.

As the older ones go the numbers will drop.

Joe Grundy

(I never was a dub.)

I was raised as a small child in the (open) Plymouth Brethren. One of the things that most scared the 'faithful' was that the lack of potential dating partners could lead youngsters away to the 'evils' of more mainstream protestant non-conformist groups with bigger memberships (i.e. bigger dating pools). Heaven forbid that a good Brethren girl would end up marrying a Baptist (although few from either side could explain the differences between them).

You still see this today. For example, the Christadelphians (a relatively tiny sect) hold lots of 'summer camps' etc. so that their young can meet other CDs.

Attraction and lust are strong emotions (and not just for the young). If/as JW congs diminish I suspect that some might be tempted to move to larger, more mainstream sects (epecially in view of JW dating rules). It's only a further step to move away completely to all the potential delights that worldly partners may hold.

Vidiot

"It is similar with human organizations that are prone to rigidity and unreasonableness. Because of pride, men often refuse to adapt to changing needs and circumstances. Such rigidity has bankrupted corporations and even toppled governments. How happy we can be that neither Jehovah nor his organization is anything like that!"

GreenhornChristian

It's an overlapping SOON.

Simon

So just to be clear:

We think they will fail because they cannot change?

We think they will fail when they do change?

It seems more like wishful thinking ...

The Organization is destined to fade away

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