Does anyone have scans of the annual reports for the last 2 years? I am going to be in California this weekend. I will end up seeing my parents, who will tell me how "wonderful the growth is". A friend of theirs told my wife last weekend that "inactive ones are streaming back into the org". I would like to show the numbers for countries that were flat or in decline, especially the U.S., to counteract the propaganda. Thanks!
Annual Reports?
by grey matters 8 Replies latest watchtower bible
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sspo
No offense but they might be either lying or streching the truth.
Last year after 1.2 billions of hours preaching there were only approx. 248k baptized but approx 160k left.
Mostly children are being baptized and it is very hard to start studies even for pioneers.
After 31 years being around the Watchtower, i have never seen so many walking away or going into inactivity as last year.
It will be interesting to see the report for 2006 and see if the trend will continue of JW leaving the org.
I truly beleive the witnesses have nothing to look forward to as they did before....... " the end is just around the corner" "last hour of this system of things"
does not cut it any more.
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almagothika
2005 USA Statistics (as per the JDub site at: http://watchtower.org/statistics/worldwide_report.htm)
Population: 291,737,129 - JDub's: 1,035,802 - Ratio (1 to): 282 - Baptized: 28,384 - Congregations: 12,261 - Hrs. Preaching: 185,834,994 - Avg Bible Stud's: 508,525 - Memorial Attendance: 2,257,453 - "Annointed": 8,524
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BluesBrother
The last time i attended a Circuit Assembly, within the last year, a speaker went on about how the word was growing, and the fact that 2435 were baptized in the last service year "Proves that Jehovah is speeding up the work at his due time" . I would have liked to point out that despite the baptisms, the average publisher numbers increased by a paltry 652 .
This must be due to those within the Borg becoming inactive . That is why last year worldwide they had an increase of just 1.3%
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fullofdoubtnow
I doubt it's possible to get an accurate figure from the wts. I wouldn't put it past them to lie about it if there was a big decrease in the world wide total. I read a thread just now from a poster who went to a circuit assembly where just 1 person, a teenage child of jw parents, was baptised. Not much of an increase for that circuit to brag about.
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garybuss
Better than discussing Witness numbers with a Witness is to ask them what their increase means. If they say the increase means they have Jehovah's blessing, then ask what the growth in other churches means. Study the growth numbers in other groups and be ready.
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tan
Just reviewed the report. Funny how they never show the numbers leaving, inactive, disfellowshipped, disassociated so forth.
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AK - Jeff
Maybe just do a google search of this domain using the words 'annual report' or similar. I did it - then before I copied it I lost it.
Jeff
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grey matters
Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions.
sspo, I agree with you, but apparently it is hard for the R&F to believe something other than what they want to believe, so they just go with what they have been saying for years and assume it is true.
almagothika, 508,525 bible studies and only 28,384 baptized? That just made me laugh! That's a lot of bible studies going nowhere!
bluesbrother, yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
fullofdoubtnow, well they've already sort of done that by continually lowering the requirements for publishers (to 15 minutes) and pioneers (now 70 hours). The totals don't mean what they used to. But, in some significant cases, they are staying flat or going down anyway.
AK Jeff, excellent suggestion. I did that and found the scans I was looking for. Thanks!
But ultimately, I guess garybuss has the right answer. It galls me when they spout these "pie in the sky" perceptions. I know that I can prove to them that what they are saying about "all the growth" and "inactive ones streaming back into the org", is not true, even according to their reports! But I also know that as soon as I am done doing that, they will try to find some way to spin it their way. I can hear it now... "well, it was prophesied that a 'testing and sifting' would take place". So as much as I would like to just take the statistics and whack them upside the head with them, I will try to be prepared to reason with them about what it all means.
Thanks again!