what was the jw`s high water mark?

by warmasasunned 20 Replies latest jw friends

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  warmasasunned

  when were the jw`s at there peak. i remember when i became a witness in 1986 there seemed to be almost an electricity in the air in my part of the world nottingham england (for all those outside the uk where robinhood legend comes from).

  when we went on the ministry there would sometimes be as many as 60 people mainly in there early twenties, we couldnt fit in one room and had to stand outside sometimes, now when i see the jw`s out and about there maybe 4 or 5 in number mainly old people.

  i remember those days, coming to the end of the cold war, berlin wall coming down, band aid (feet of clay prophecy) peace and sercurity etc etc, it seemed arrmageddon was just round the corner, of course the jw`s still had there sell by date then (1914 gen)

  was it just me? was that when the witnesses were at there strongest.

  when i speak to old friends who still are jw`s the enthusiasm seems to have gone, they don`t really seem to have the same conviction anymore, is that because the sell by dates gone.

  would love to hear your comments, what was it like in the previous decades 50`s 60`s 70`s...you know how the wt dosent like you to look back...
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  AllTimeJeff

  I think it was 1982-1995. The "Live Forever" book era. They got past 1975, (sort of) DF'd all dissenters, and somehow got everyone energized again.

  In 1995, you got the "Knowledge" book, the generation change, the pedophile problem blowing up, and the explosion of the internet all happening at the same time. Since the mid 90's, JW's have been losing the battle and the war. They just can't fight bad publicity AND access to real information they had been working so hard to hide...
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  journey-on

  When we studied the "Babylon the Great Has Fallen" book, we were pumped up and began looking for all kinds of signs that religion was crumbling. We considered this book deep and prophetic. We felt an urgency to get out there and preach.....not much time left....better hurry....religions are filthy dragon-infested places....come join us in the safety of our religion....it's different (we have cookies!)
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  AllTimeJeff

  It could be the peak was the "Live Forever" era, but the Golden Era were the Knorr years prior to 75. (for the leadership anyway....)
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  sir82

  I tend to agree with ATJ, although I was just a kid in the 60's - 70's build up to 1975, so that probably colors my view.

  I think the basic mindset in the 80's / 90's was that "the generation that saw 1914" was indeed getting older, "this system can't last much longer.".

  The thinking was, perhaps, "1975 was a mistake because it was a concrete date, and we're not supposed to know the 'day or the hour.' But 'the generation' that Jesus talked about - that's definitely in the Bible! A generation doesn't live 120 years, nor even 100 years....and if you count the 'age of accountability' from 1914..."

  The effect of the 1995 "generation change" was like a slow leak in a balloon. Since then, it just hard to get folks motivated.

  As has been stated elsewhere on this forum "JWs are an end-time cult without an end date." That's a heck of a hard sell.
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  OnTheWayOut

  I have to agree that the golden era was the Knorr years. Knorr was all about efficiency and increase. The 1975 frenzy paid for modernization.

  The peak probably was the "Live Forever" era afterward into the 1980's (1986 as Warmasasunned mentions could have been the very peak).
  The reason for the peak was that there was such growth for the 1975 frenzy, and the shift was toward pioneering back then. They needed more money. For some reason, God always needs more money. (Google video George Carlin's theory on that.)

  But it started getting old after that, quite literally. They still depended on "this generation" being people alive in 1914. The end didn't come in 1975, but it had to be soon. Those guys would be 70 in 1984 and 80 in 1994. As the generation got older, the numbers might still have climbed but the corporation expansion was starting to decline. As long as it was profitable, Kingdom Halls were being built and still filled, so WTS didn't take enough action. They were relying on millions of JW's to have millions of babies and a handful of adult converts to keep up the growth. The babies grew up and left, the converts started leaving.

  It's a very interesting study to show the growth of internet and the slow-down of expansion at WTS. Now that internet is worldwide, the growth has really stopped and will soon (if not already) be negative.
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  BorgHater

  i was assigned to Nottingham assembly in the 1980's and although only young at the time, i recall more palpable excitement and expectation and a very different atmosphere in comparison to the 1990's onward.
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  The Berean

  I recall the year 1972 as being most exciting for the "faithful." The book "the Truth that Leads to Eternal Life" was curiously popular and easy to place in the publics hands. The Elder arrangement promised a bridge and structure leading to the new order. People in KHs acted as if they believed as opposed to going thru the motions. The retention rate of children was much higher due, in part , to the lack of information later available on the net. Believers visited each other for the "fun of it" and not for official business only. It was only after the WBTS created a false urgency concerning 1975 did publishers cease living as if there was a tomorrow in this "system of things." When tomorrow came the thrill retreated and many were financially strapped due to a lack of planning.
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  besty

  I remember a few CO visits meeting for FS in the mid 1980's - almost the entire cong was there - both sides of the KH were packed with people

  I'd like to hear about that kind of enthusiasm in the West these days....

  My money for the high water mark was the 1958 Conventions in NYC - 250,000 people, tent cities etc etc - the golden years for Knorr and Franz through to 1975 and downhill from there.
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  mindmelda

  I haven't seen a lot of wild enthusiasm among the Witnesses for a few decades now. They peaked in the early 70s and then briefly again in the early 80s and since then, nada, at least in the USA.