by betterdaze 31 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Given the figures in the 69 WT: a 20 year groth of say a million. 200.000 unaccounted for (assumed an death rate of 1%)= left= about 20%. In comparisson: 2005 service figures show babtised almost: 3 million (10 year growth)and an increase of 4.9 to 6.4 million (1.5 million increase). So: about 50% have left!
Now let's talk about the quality of our preaching service.......
Cheers
Borgia
Of the congregation I was in as a child in 1975, the ENTIRE servant body had left the org. by 1980. Many families I knew left the org. I wish my family had been one of them.
The years of the mid-1980s were one of the few times when the increase in publishers per year equalled (or even exceeded) the number baptised.
This was no accident:
- during those years (starting 1982)there was a concerted effort made to re-establish contact with people who had either gone "inactive";or who had even once "studied" with the JWs.
(In other words, "Lovebombing Revisited.").
This approach did bring success for a few years.
However, with many (maybe even most) re-activated "publishers," their interest didn't last much longer then the Lovebombing phase.
At least, that is how it appeared to go in our part of the world!
Jack.
Cathy,
Are there any differences between the editions, apart from the title?
Slim
Sorry to be late with this, but I was out of town. I haven't really done a page by page comparison, but I would assume that American spelling would have been substituted for British spelling in the U. S. A. edition. Also the sexier title. Now I'm curious ... If I get a spare moment, I'll do a comparison. Cathy www.oldlighthousebooks.com
Just following up, in case anyone's interested. The British and American editions don't seem to have any differences other than the dust jackets and the preliminary page ordering (half-title and title pages, dedication, foreword, etc.). British spelling conventions are retained in the American edition.
The British dust jacket has a tarot card with lightning striking a tower and two people falling from it (Harry Potter fans, take note: "The Lightning-Struck Tower" ). The American dust jacket (which my copy is missing, but I remember it, vaguely) is an illustration of a man handing out one of the magazines, either The Watchtower or Awake!; I can't remember which one.
Cathy
This is an interesting and slightly humorous book, offering a insight into the frenzied activity of the Witnesses in the sixties, and it describes some of the less known doctrines that have since been abandoned.
It's available as a free PDF download (6Mb) fom a link on this page: http://www.jwfiles.com/online_books/index.htm
bttt for the nightshift. Some other good books in PDF on this site too.
I'm not sure about statistics.
Figures lie and liars figure. Example: 100% markup = 50% profit, but to most ears, 100% sounds like twice as much.
The real figures are NOT the people missing from the Hall and thus missing in the published statistics.....
The real figures are those that are OUT MENTALLY. And those are difficult to tabulate. If you are still IN -- what % at your Hall are OUT MENTALLY?
I say at least 30% are just going through the motions for social relationships, staying in for family, staying in for business connections, keeping one foot in the door (just in case the Big A comes), etc
DOC
P.S. My local will not accept a gift of Raymond Franz's CoC or ISOCF; they are only taking "fiction and children's titles." Yet the WTBTS Kingdom Proclaimers is in the stacks. Go figure!
The Proclaimers book fits well in both fiction and children's titles!
Link is still good...
