Could the GB Perceive Preaching As Worthless?

by metatron 16 Replies latest jw friends

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  metatron

  We're seeing a lot of changes that suggest that a drift in attitude may be occuring in regard to the "preaching" work. The latest info on having (real) love for your neighbor(i.e. charity) is just more of the same.

  They cut literature, magazines - and distribution of magazines and pray, pray, pray and still the donations don't come in to allow them to do what they want. A halfway rational person would conclude that either a personal God doesn't exist or He is losing interest in funding the Watchtower cult!

  Of course, if you have wasted most of your life in chasing Watchtower fantasies, those thoughts are automatically rejected. Instead, you must conclude that the End is Near because the Glorious "Preaching Work" is winding down.

  I have to wonder if they have become collectively aware that the "preaching" work is an utter waste of time in regard to trolling for converts. Sure, it is useful as busywork, similar to the Army's 'dig a hole and then fill it'...... but the baptisms are mostly Witness kids or the occasional guy at work who gets suckered into becoming a Witness. Aside from the 3rd world, the door to door work is an embarrasing anachronism and I think Witness kids know that better than anyone.

  The other factor that may be changing their view about "preaching" is that the whole work may have shifted into a net economic burden. You waste endless amounts of paper that produces few converts and fails to score donations.

  The really amusing thing about this subject is that, after decades of fanatically promoting "preaching", they now may find themselves stuck with finding some way to reduce it!!! The sudden emphasis on charity may be a defensive move to counteract their being viewed as tightfisted parasites in most developed countries.

  Sorry to bring up my favorite analogy here but even the Communists had a tough time trying to get people unhooked from unproductive collective work after many decades of fanatical devotion to it. Collective agriculture and the Watchtower "Preaching" work require effort to stop and then discard into history's trashbin.... and I wonder if some GB members are ahead of the Witless curve on this topic.

  metatron
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  OUTLAW

  Could the GB Perceive Preaching As Worthless?

  Does the WBT$ GB,go from Door to Door?

  If not..

  Theres your answer..

  ..................OUTLAW
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  compound complex

  Greetings, Metatron:

  I wonder if some GB members are ahead of the Witless curve on this topic.

  On this and other matters so much a 'part of the collective body of Bible truths unique to Jehovah's Witnesses,' there seems no longer the stomach to fight "Jehovah's putative righteous cause in the face of all His enemies," viz, the putting of increased pressure by European countries to the Society for the violation of basic human rights.

  Not all members of the GB, according to Ray Franz and Edmund Gruss, are in concert with these violations so arbitrarily countenanced by an arrogant, prevailing majority. If not all individuals of the majority are "arrogant," they, at the very least, are tacitly in agreement with policies that harm the unsuspecting, ignorant brotherhood.

  Thanks for the thought-provokers.

  CC
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  Chalam

  Hi MT,

  My guess is that the WT are responding to the huge weight of evidence that is now coming from the internet that clearly shows they are not Christian and not "God's organisation". Indeed, the savvy have seen that the bible speaks of only one organisation and it is call the "body of Christ" or "the church". The WT trick is to distance themselves from Christ and His followers as much as possible yet try and appear to be the followers of Christ the New Testament writes about.

  Matthew 22

  37 Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

  The WT proclaim the are following the first commandment but the second is so clearly not being followed that the wise actually question which god is being loved by JWs in the first command.

  I suggest, be like Jesus, ask the same questions. The way the WT answers are key

  Whose Son Is the Christ

  41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?"
  "The son of David," they replied.

  43 He said to them, "How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him 'Lord'? For he says,
  44 " 'The Lord said to my Lord:
  "Sit at my right hand
  until I put your enemies
  under your feet." ' 45 If then David calls him 'Lord,' how can he be his son?"

  All the best,

  Stephen
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  isaacaustin

  It is certainly not worthless to the GB for their purposes. Of course it has nothing to do with their stated purposes- recruits. If it did they would use efficient methods to reach the masses. Their unstated purpose- to give the dubs busy work slaving for the org, to occupy their time and guilt them to more slavery- for this unstated purpose preaching as done by JWs is extrememly valuable to the GB.
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  sir82

  Worthless in the sense that it is not cost-effective - as noted, they produce billions of sheets of paper for a handful of converts? Absolutely, and I expect more "witnessing" to be done with much cheaper tracts and "special campaigns". Perhaps 5 or 10 years down the road, the policy will change to offering tracts only in door to door work, only offering "real" literature (magazines and books) on a return visit, or maybe even after 2 or 3 RVs.

  But worthless enough to drop it? No I don't see that happening. It is quite valuable as "busy work", keeping the masses occupied (or keeping them feeling guilty if not occupied). It's a strong control mechanism - and they'd sooner turn away a green handshake than voluntarily give up an ounce of power.
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  Doubting Bro

  I think the original goal of service was to sell literature. Sure, they got recruits and that also lead to $$$ but even if they didn't get the recruits, they still had a steady flow of cash from the publishers who were buying the literature and then reselling, er, placing.

  After that horrible decision to drop the set pricing to avoid taxes, they are left with the same model of using fs to move literature but they rely on voluntary contributions (again mostly from publishers) to provide their profit margin. However, folks may be donating the same amount they used to pay (maybe, probably not) but that was what, 15 years ago? Then, add in the fact that most of the growth is coming from poorer countries with less funds to "voluntarily" contribute and you've got the current cash crunch.

  The control mechanism is obviously a huge part of fs and I think they later learned they could use it as a touchstone to measure everyone's worth to the corporation. The more hours you have, the more literature you sell, the more money the corporation makes. Top male salesmen could be promoted based on their production.

  But, if you don't have the motive to move literature since selling literature doesn't have an acceptable margin anymore, it seems like you'd want to come up with another control mechanism with either busy work or legit work (such as in the case of the RBC).

  Organized preaching will always have to be there in some form or fashion because besides refusing blood and not celebrating holidays, its the only thing most people know about JWs. You can't drop your signature trait. But, I do think they will change the methods to reduce the amount of literature moved by going to tracts or special campaigns.

  There are a bunch of different senarios that I can picture where you keep the preaching work but leave it to pioneers (similar to what the Mormons do) or have everyone participate in special campaigns 4 times of the year with the rest devoted to something else. You could still keep the control no matter what the activity.

  I don't think for one minute the GB would ever completely drop preaching. But, I do think something is going to have to change to reduce the amount of literature produced to improve profit margins.
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  OnTheWayOut

  The giant printing corporation known as Watchtower may want recruits and may want believers, but mainly it wants money from the literature they print. The United States and other countries feeling that religious corporations were making a mint on "sales" forcing Watchtower to change over to the "donations-only" arrangement was possibly their slow death sentence.

  I was there for that change. I was there until a couple of years ago, most of you were too. I can remember them "suggesting a donation" (Many people give $5 for a six-month subscription, or $.50 for the two mags.) and eventually having to backtrack on that because it was supposed to be a donation without pressure. I remember C.O.'s telling the BOE that they need to tell the members that they are not giving enough money to cover the literature. They did actually suggest to the elders to find a way to "cover" the donations. They eased up on that, probably afraid they would lose elders. I remember Bethel cutbacks. I remember the hardcover books going away. I remember many "preaching campaigns" where the offer was just some flyer, either an invitation or a Kingdom News.

  There's still plenty left to do before they declare the preaching work over. (Incidentally, they would say that it is "finished.") They can discontinue the Awake entirely, perhaps combine it with the Watchtower mag. They can stress how they are the Watchtower Bible and TRACT Society and tell the members to use tracts. They can severely reduce printing to "members only" and tell the members to use just the Bible, hoping that members still contribute enough at the DC and the Kingdom Halls to cover printing and make a profit.

  They will have to change or die. Newspapers and magazines are going through the same problems. But the "preaching work" is such a huge part of being a JW. I doubt they are ready to phase it out. I can see them allowing more humanitarian works to "count" as hours of preaching as a way to boost the number of hours and the number of "publishers" out in the work. It would be fake, but it would make them look good and it wouldn't cost them anything.

  I wouldn't expect anything major just yet. I would expect them to float an idea out there for a year or so. They seem to recognize that radical changes like no longer offering printed literature would be alot for members to understand from the giant printing corporation.
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  Olin Moyles Ghost

  Great observations on this thread. I remember the change to the "complete donation arrangement" and the more recent migration to softbound books. (even the Bible is now a paperback!)

  In my area, most of the friends didn't mention the donation arrangement at the doors. Rather, they just gave the literature away. On service meeting parts, we were instructed to always mention the donation arrangement in our demonstrations...so we did. But this didn't translate into actually mentioning it in the ministry.

  Also, I recall being proud of the fact that the WTS produced such high-quality hardbound books. Before the donation arrangement kicked in, we sold the 192-page books for $1.00 and the large Live Forever book was $2.50, I think. A hardback Bible was $3.50 and a leather-bound Bible was $7.00 if I recall correctly. Even in the 1980s, that was a pretty good deal!

  And remember, if you were a pioneer, you could buy the literature at a cheaper price. Thus, pioneers could make a profit on the literature they sold! Now don't take it the wrong way--I'm not saying pioneers were getting rich by selling WT literature--but a profit could be made!
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  easyreader1970

  What is this new information on helping neighbors with charity? I must have missed it.