To their credit, at least the WTS doesn't count those who are 'inactive' as members as the Mormons, my wife's church, has been doing for decades now. At least they're only counting those who are 'reporting' their monthly hours and their time in FS or DTD ministry. One could join the Mormon church tomorrow, and never return the following week and they would continue to count that one as a member and number them among their almost 14 million members worldwide, even if that person left the Mormon church to be come a JW, they would still be counted on the rolls of the Mormon faith to their advantage in the eyes of what they term 'investigators', in Mormonism, you're either an 'investigator' or a 'member', or in other words, a "Mormon" or a 'gentile'.
Up-to-date numbers of JWs and DF ones?
by Pams girl 25 Replies latest watchtower bible
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sabastious
Never again will they see the increases of the 1970s
I wouldn't be so sure. There are a lot of natural disasters that are taking a toll on the people of this planet. We live in a time where the Doomsayers are an empowered people. I would project a spike in growth over the next few years.
-Sab
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sabastious
To their credit, at least the WTS doesn't count those who are 'inactive'
What's funny about this kind of statement is that we have to take the Watchtower's word for it. They could easily count inactive members and say they don't and the Witnesses would none the wiser.
-Sab
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Mad Sweeney
---"@Pams girl- be carefull when looking at charts that count baptism figures seperatly from peak publishers to try to find out how many are "missing".
It seems many on this forum do not understand how to read the WTS figures." ---
I'm pretty sure jwfacts.com knows how to read the WTS figures and what they mean. I am also pretty sure we all know that one has to be a publisher before getting baptized and that not all publishers get baptized. The analysis jwfacts does is an estimate and doesn't pretend to be an exact number of people that have fallen away.
It may be a more accurate estimate to link one year's baptisms with the previous year's publisher increase, to make up for the fact that other than born-ins, a Bible study will become a publisher around a year (give or take six months) before getting baptized. But really, we're not talking about anything that would make a huge difference in the outcome. The point remains that lots of JWs fall away, even as they still consider themselves JWs (according to USA Today and Pew research).
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factfinder
@Mad Sweeny-
I don't believe you can link one year's baptisms with the previous years publishers increase. Both my brother and I began in FS and thus became publishers in 1976. We both were baptized during 1978. I was already being counted in the publisher figures for 2 years BEFORE I got baptized. Others also took a long time to get baptized.
Those who fall away (like us) don't get included in the publisher figures. The elder who studied with me was the congregation secratary and I many times watched him compile the cong reports. Some sisters I worked with in FS would not hand in FS reports- I told the brother of the times I worked with them and what I saw them place- he would not count them. They had to report for themselves. He was very accurate and strict.
The cong. secratary before him was the same way.
I only believe the figures published by the society in the YB. Surveys may have innactive or others who fell away identify themselves as jws, but the wts does not recognize them or count them
I have not attended meetings for 5 years. The cong secratary told me I am not a publisher and not a brother.
I no longer claim to be a jw. I am not part of any religion.
But , the point I was trying to make is that you cannot use the baptism figure to compare to any publisher figure to try to estimate how many fell away.
Such information can not be made by the figures the wts makes available.
The CO may be able to find that out for the congregations he serves, but of course, that information is not made available .
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Pams girl
Went past the KH last Sunday and there looked like there were only about 30 people in there...wow.....when I used to go (last time for a funeral a few months ago) there was always about 60 people every week....looking back now, I never noticed how many were old, or sitting at the back in the naughty seats.....seems lots have moved away...........somethings definately up with this picture! to lose 50% of numbers within 4 monthes is pretty huge imo......................