2008 Annual Report on web

by Dogpatch 64 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  justhuman

  Regarding faking report, I think they don't do it in the local branches of the WT...

  The secretary in the Cong does this, and those who go(still) preaching work. I recall when the secretary was calling those who did not report their hours. For istance we had elderly ones, and he was asking if they have talked to someone this month. Most of them they would say that they did, and the total was an hour. Sometimes when he could not reach he would add time according to last months report!!! And in my days we had the ONE HOUR goal for a month to be counted as regular publisher... Now things change and with a 15 minute preaching activity you can be count as regular...

  Then we have those who preach. How many times they strech the hours to catch the "time goal" of a spiritual person? How many times they count their 15-20 minute brake for a coffee in Mcdonnald's? And how many people of a 2 hour preaching session they find at home to speak? And since most of the JW's are going by 2 to preach, then we must sepparate the total preaching hours into half..

  And Jw's seriously believe that they are message it is reached to the entire plannet!!! Give me a break man... Most of the people in the Western countries they don't know what they teach. Most of them think that JW's are loonies that allow their children to die instead to have a blood transfussion if is a medical need. And not to mention the 3 world countries, Muslim Countries, India, China, and the last 2 are the 1/3 of the population of the earth. Indeed JW's are living in their own fake world, believing that they are the ones who will save mankind...

  So the hours are faked:

  1. By the local Secretary

  2. By those who preach
• 

  Witness 007

  Thank you for this champ! Japan our former star country is flat AGAIN!

  Countries with high increase % are all 3rd world....Cambodia, Burundi, Azabijan, East Timor, Guinea Bissau, Madagascar, Milaysia, Mongolia, Nepal......you need to teach them to read using a Watchtower!
• 

  ozziepost

  Will they ever figure out that the 144,000 are figurative, like the rest of Revelation?

  They're between 'a rock and a hard place' on that one. If they did acknowledge that the number 144,000 was symbolic then the whole "Great crowd" doctrine falls. Remember that Joe Ratherflawed introduced that doctrine to meet the embarrassing position they were in when it was obvious that the number of JWs was fast approaching that number, so what did he do? Voila! A new class apart from the heavenly one. Simple, a sleight of hand worthy of Houdini.Never mind that it also made sacrilege an art form in the Borg, the most heinous being the Great Rejection Feast held each year when they sanctimoniously reject Christ!!!!!!!!!!!
• 

  MissingLink

  Don't forget in your calculations that statistically from their total (average) number - they should have lost about 85,000 to death last year. (based on a mortality rate of 1.25%)
  
  
  "I wonder why the decreases in some of the bigger countries do not have a negative percent listed. See Germany for example."
  
  Those actually have a decrease which is under 0.5% (rounding down to 0)
• 

  dozy

  On the face of it , not disastrous figures. If the WTS can grow by 2%-3% per year , then they will be quite happy with that. Barring a schism or scandal , I would guess this would continue to be the trend for the next few years. If the economic downturn persists , it might even be better for growth , as Jws tend to prosper in difficult times.

  It does look like almost all the growth is coming from the third world & immigrant communities , though in terms of activity the WTS seem to be motivating the core support - pioneers seem to be springing up almost everywhere.

  As far as Japan is concerned , Jws there seem to have plateaud. An interesting article actually quoted by the WTS a couple of weeks ago giving the reasons for the initial growth spurt in Japan is quoted below - perhaps the factors that the author mentioned no longer exist , especially the growing number of Japanese women in the workplace nowadays:

  http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8381/japan.html

  Regarding the partakers , at least the WTS has managed to keep the figure down below 10,000 - psychologically that would have been a tremendous blow. Surely if there was a degree of massaging there to miss the figure by 14! The odd witness might be disturbed but the vast majority really couldn’t care less. Most Jws take the view that the figure is inflated by “brothers in Africa” , the occasional confused bible study or “nutters” and reckon (encouraged by the WTS) that the real number of “genuine anointed” is much less.
• 

  slimboyfat

  Can you ask the person to scan the whole report? It should be on the next few pages...

  2% growth is a bit disappointing for the Witnesses. And the increase in the anointed - well.

  However there are numbers in there for them to be pleased about. Total average pioneers is over 1 million for the first time ever I think - a number that has been steadily rising the past few years.

  Plus the number of Bible Studies has overtaken the number of publishers.
• 

  passwordprotected

  @ ozziepost - actually, before Rutherford brought in the 1935 revised teaching of the 'great crowd', all Jehovah's Witnesses were going to heaven. The 'great crowd' were merely a secondary heavenly class.
  
  In the last 18 months we've seen the WTS revert back to pre-1930s teachings on the 'generation' and they've undone Rutherford's 1935 sealing of the 144,000.
  
  I don't think it's a great leap for them to once again position the 'great crowd' in heaven. That is, after all, where they are...
• 

  Amha·’aret

  I was having a look at Ireland's report as that's where I'm from. And I'm sure the stats on there are representative of many western countries.

  What was interesting to me was the memorial attendance as witnesses view attendees as potential converts. In Ireland, there were over 10,000 at the Memorial but there are only 5700 peak pubs and only 2606 studies. So if my calculations are right, then about 22% of the people there are neither publishers nor studies but just people who happen to either a) be curious to see the inside of a KH or b) be married to a witness and attend to keep their partner happy. But they will view that number as a positive thing even though people's reason for going are often less than spiritual.
• 

  slimboyfat

  Ooops my bad, I didn't realise the whole report was in the download.
• 

  Amha·’aret

  SBF:
  Total average pioneers is over 1 million for the first time ever I think - a number that has been steadily rising the past few years.

  Surely this is because of the hour drop, even though that happened a couple of years ago. Perhaps enough people's circumstances have chaned to allow for "the priviledge of full-time (*cough*) service".