August KM provides solid evidence of declining JW morale

by sir82 62 Replies latest jw friends

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  sir82

  As you may or may not recall, the February '07 KM (for the US) had a huge article, taking up the full 4 page insert, on the "blessings" of auxiliary pioneering. The part covering that insert took up the entire Service Meeting (aside form the announcements). The "encouragement" was that the US branch had set a goal of 160,000 auxiliary pioneers for the month of April ("if only one of every 6 publishers signs up, we can make it!").

  In the August KM the April field service report is included. The count of auxiliary pioneers in April for the US? Less than 130,000. They missed their goal by nearly 20%.

  As a "punishment", the August KM contains an insert once againing extolling the "blessings" of being an auxiliary pioneer. This is the first time I can ever recall an August insert pushing auxiliary pioneering - that is typically saved for the winter months leading into spring. And of course nary a mention of that prominent goal of 160,000 from the February KM - they seem to be counting on the notoriously short memories of the publishers.

  It used to be that when the Society said "jump", the publishers would say "how high?". Now it seems that enthusiasm is way down amongst the R&F.

  There are anecdotes on this board about shrinking congregations, elders removed, etc., but by and large these are regional anomalies. As the US population shifts from the midwest & northeast to the south & west, some congregations will shrink while others grow. But these numbers from the August KM are, IMHO, quite telling. They point to a malaise that quite probably has alarmed the GB -- it is solid, numerical evidence that their ability to motivate the congregations is waning.

  How about posters from other countries - UK, Canada, Australia, etc.? How close did the April service report come to hitting your auxiliary pioneer goal?
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  WTWizard

  Well, the good news is that they failed to make their target by a sizable amount. The bad news is that they exceeded 100,000 for April. I was hoping that they would have missed it by more than 50%.

  Why are they pushing auxiliary pioneering as a blessing? I bet so many of the people have tried it once and did not feel the "blessing". They were told that it begins at "regular pioneering", at which point they realized that they were being led up the ladder. The actual blessings are being tired all the time, not being able to eat a good diet, having to screech around all day from one thing to another to get all necessary things done, wasting all that gas running around in the territory, getting stuck with a call that's so ugly or smelly that they want to puke, and getting hounded to regular pioneer after showing the lead hounder or the hounder-hounder that they can do the auxiliary level.

  No matter how they tried to doctor it up in the Kingdumb Misery, they could never get me to see pioneering as a blessing. I remember the year they presented it as if on a menu, hoping that people would select the schedule the way they would select a meal off a menu. I saw it all as fast, foul-tasting poison right at the outset, and picked none of the above. (For the record, I got precisely zero hours of field service in April).
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  drew sagan

  We are over ten years out from the 95' generation change. It took some time, but I think the effects of this are finally starting to catch up with the JWs. This is the first time in 120+ year history that this religion has not had a timetable for the end of the world set. Even up until a few years ago I knew JW edlers that where still pushing the generation teaching quite hard. It only stopped with the CO made a point in one of his talks saying that 'we do not teach that anymore!'.
  
  Younger JWs are just not going to see the point in giving a special push for the WTS when the end isn't on a schedule. Having a time table set is naturally going to make more excited pepople and without it results will vary.
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  kerj2leev

  How long can you cry wolf?
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  unique1

  It is a shame taht 130,000 complied but awesome that they missed their number.
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  lawrence

  130,000 rabid, donut eating, coffee chugging, malcontents in restaurants bitching about everything. Getting back into cars to count time pushing bullshit literature, while their toxic emissions are spewed into an earth that will soon be destroyed and repaired by a great crowd of lunatics. What a religion!

  Great news though, be better if they missed the mark by a 100%. We can only wish for better results during the next campaign!
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  lisavegas420

  It used to be that when the Society said "jump", the publishers would say "how high?".

  Was this ever published anywhere or mentioned in a talk? My dad used to say that to us all the time.

  lisa
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  Priest73

  Interesting thought. 130k. I wonder how much they "rounded up?"
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  JAVA

  Great news though, be better if they missed the mark by a 100%. We can only wish for better results during the next campaign!

  If the publishers spent the same hours knocking on doors as the Governing Body the goal would be missed by 100%. Lets hope the rank-n-file follows the example of the GB next time around.
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  AK - Jeff

  I'm out of touch with the 'numbers' - how does the 130 grand compare with the average number of AP's in that month?

  Jeff