Another thought on the upcomming changes... (page 2)

WTWizard

The "bombshell" on the September 2007 KM is that Question Box. They are tightening their stand against independent Bible study groups, verifying the accuracy (or lack thereof) of the New World Translation, and doing other Bible study except with Society publications. They suggested the Hindsight on the Scriptures and the All Scripture Inspired books, along with other Puketower publications. There are several open threads on the matter, and doubtless numerous more will open once they start going through it.

Meeting Junkie No More

skeeter 1

I think you've hit the nail on the head! The churches are not empty as the WT would have had us believe all these years. This was something I noticed too, and it seemed that all denomination's parking lots were filling up, some much larger than the KHs...even increased church building projects were evident - some quite large - people were obviously attending...this issue was one of the ones that got me thinking - hearing from the platform about the spiritual wasteland 'out there' but seeing something completely different...

Anyhow, shaving 15 minutes off the public talk will not make one iota of a difference to mindnumbing, boring, repetitive public talks. It is interesting that they are attempting to curtail introductory comments that go on and on about the state of the world. Could this be because in many ways the state of the world is not as full of doom and gloom as they like to paint and does more to turn people ''off' than 'on'? The world is full of suffering and oppression but IT IS ALSO FULL OF THE OVERCOMING of suffering and oppression and that fact is becoming ever more obvious to most people. The sad part is that not much of the overcoming of suffering and oppression in a practical way is due to anything that the WT is involved in, and to a lot of the rank and file Witnesses, I sense that dichotomy is becoming ever more apparent.

It's not SHORTER meetings that are needed, it's a totally new MESSAGE. The way I see it, this religion is now out-of-sync with the revolutionary changes that have taken place throughout Society - people are so much more tolerant, so much more educated, so much more aware of what needs to be done to correct things and what they themselves can do to help the process (e.g. environmentalism) and the old message just doesn't cut it anymore.

To me, this is a pathetic response to the changing dynamics of people's lives. It is probably simply motivated by a desire to get more people in and out of City KH's where the carpets are already being worn thin by the ever-diminishing herds coming and going - sometimes 4 or 5 in one day. It is probably NOT motivated by any desire to lighten the rank and file's load of 'theocratic' activites (read meeting attendance). But it all doesn't affect me much anymore, because I am no longer a meeting junkie!

Sorry if this is a ramble.

OnTheWayOut

Maybe they're getting ready to sell a bunch of the KHs for the extra $$ and encouraging this "share-a-kingdom-hall" arrangement.

I strongly feel that this will happen in affluent lands. The Borg will choose the most valuable properties to sell
and move the congregations together into the least valuable properties. Many halls will combine congregations
to keep the "crowd" feeling, and many will just have several congregations.

...I would not be surprised to see the study articles shortened up to 45 minutes max. Get everyone in and out of the KH in about 90 minutes on Sunday. The three meetings on two days during the week has to be their next problem. If they could just declare the preaching work has been accomplished then the school and Theocratic meeting could be eliminated all together.

I feel something like this coming down the road. They will have to do some more measures when the numbers
really plummet and the literature sales is only covered by the JW's at the conventions (Door-to-door work will
be losing money). If they eliminate one weeknight meeting altogether, it will allow for more sharing of the hall.
You can have five congregations in one hall if they each use one weeknight evening and one slot on the weekend.

This WTS is long-term planning. None of this will happen overnight.

metatron

There's a possibility that none of you have considered: suppose some of the leaders are just as bored

at the meetings as you are? This would not be without a degree of precedent. I can recall many years

ago when Br. Knorr was said to have changed the assembly schedule in some areas because it was

too hot in the afternoons. If these old frauds are losing faith in their scam, they may be getting as

tired of it as you are.

metatron

greendawn

They probably realised that they have reached saturation point in the developed countries people there already know well that the dubs are an outlandish cult with strange ideas that led many of their members to death and are not interested in them.

Should a person be interested he can easily do a search on the internet, quickly find out about their real nature and run away from them.

BizzyBee

Soon I hope they are going to crash and burn, burn motherf*&?% burn.

Tell us how you really feel...

Mum

Yesterday I picked up a copy of a February Watchtower magazine in my friend's laundry room. It contained the 2005-06 service report. I noted that there has been a decrease in almost all of the countries in the developed world, even those with a good percentage of immigrants. I also noticed that where there was a 0% increase in publishers, but no decrease shown, there actually was a slight decrease in most cases, just not enough of a decrease to get to 1%. There were a few exceptions, of course, where there was a tiny increase.

We have a few of those non-denominational churches in this area. They have to have 4 or 5 services on Sundays and other days as well to accommodate everyone who wants to attend.

Regards,

SandraC

quietlyleaving

I do know that one of the new appointments to the UK branch committee has extensive lawyer training. So it seems to be that they are focusing on damage control.

steve2

There is no bombshell in the September KM. it is simply a more detailed account of an earlier policy banning independent thinking.

zack

They need to eliminate a meeting night altogether. This "shortening " of the PT isn't that big of a deal to me. What can you say in 45 minutes that you cannot say in 30?

As was said previuosly, the mainline churches have all gone to 30 min. "messages"--- especially guys like Joel Osteen and David Jeremiah.

I agree that what the public talks need is a change of MESSAGE and not of TIMING. But this is JW land after all. Why should anything makes sense?

As for the Sep. KM--- dubs don't study now. This is just meant to give the elders something more with which to brand a JW a heretic if they wish to.

Another thought on the upcomming changes...

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