India is experiencing explosive Christian growth (not JW growth) despite the hostility. China went from 1 million to 30 million Christians between 1950 and 1980. The numbers are far greater now with China on track to become one of the largest Christian populations in the world. The key has been signs and wonders as the gospel is preached. WT will never know any of this kind of growth (3000 converted at Pentecost). Many churches are being planted around the world, the Bible is being translated by Christians into many dialects, etc.
Where the need is great
by noontide 35 Replies latest jw friends
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ThomasCovenant
It isn't serving where the need is great.
It is serving where their (own) need is great.
It makes them feel better .
It has nothing to do with reaching new people for other peoples sake.
There are several younger ones from around here that have gone to serve in the Caribbean tropical paradise holiday island of Dominican Republic.
Not many go to either Inner or Outer Mongolia. Funny that.
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Slidin Fast
It used to be called, with a knowing glint in the eye, serving where the need is nicer. I know one family that moved from the UK to the Seychelles on that pretext.
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sizemik
I'm sure I've read somewhere some time back, that as much as 2 thirds of the worlds population have NEVER EVEN HEARD of Jehovah's Witnesses. The "worldwide" work is an illusion.
Down here in New Zealand families would "serve where the need is greater" around mid-summer. It usually involved an area where the beaches were great and the fishing was even greater. It became a joke even among the publishers . . . being referred to as "Surfing where the need is greater"
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Alfred
Not only is the GB deliberately ignoring areas WHERE the need is greatest... they also ignore WHEN... I mean seriously, unless you're working a retirement communities, why would you expect to find people in their homes 9AM-11AM on week days or even awake at 10AM on a Saturday... if the GB really wanted to reach people with this "door-to-door" method, they'd be scheduling field service after dinner time (MON-FRI) or Sunday afternoon... but that ain't gonna happen...
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mindseye
Forget the Islamic countries. What about seemingly more accessible countries such as subcontinent India? The Watchtower Society's been "active" in that country for over 100 years. Yet, look at the tiny number of JWs and the vast millions upon millions of people who've never heard of JWs.
I'm guessing the difficulty JWs have in making inroads in some of these countries is mainly cultural. Its roots are American through & through - born alongside that sort of reactionary fundamentalism of the Millerites and other religions founded in the 1800s. Going door to door is a lot easier when there's a chance you'll be preaching to the choir. And no matter how much work is done "where the need is greater", the results will be mediocre if there's a huge cultural barrier there.
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WTWizard
This is an incredible waste. They usually end up wasting lots of gas, not to mention the time, to reach the "need is great" areas. Then, meals on the road usually eat more money. Lodging is usually a waste--someone has to pay it. And for what? They usually end up leaving some littera-trash that is usually going to end up in the garbage or sitting in the attic, forgotten, before the next time the witlesses show up. Then they have to start from scratch. Not to mention the high risk of getting bit by a dog or even shot at.
I don't know what those cockroaches are going to do when hyperinflation hits full blast. It's wasteful enough when gas is 4 toilet papers a gallon, when they are not able to make much money because of their religion. But, when prices double every hour, that is going to be just about impossible to afford anything. That $5 burger could easily cost $5 sextillion or more before they get to lunch, and it could easily be $4 nonillion a gallon for gas and climbing. I wonder what those witlesses are going to do about returning home when they get caught off guard like that.
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godrulz
Are field service times really dictated by GB? Can a JW go out whenever they want, including supper hour, early morning, later at night? I am open to sharing my faith anytime, anywhere, with anyone. If I was going out systematically, I would use common sense and be led by the Spirit and vary times. I would expect millions of other Christians would also do the same and that we would not all be clones/drones doing what an organization dictates.
Mormons are also an American thing. They actually have success cross-culturally because poor people in struggling nations want the material success that they seem to have.
Christian missions is impacting every corner of the globe. There is simply not enough JWs properly deployed to fulfill the Great Commission (they are false, so they have a cultic commission).
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dgp
Mormons are also an American thing.
They actually have success cross-culturally because poor people in struggling nations want the material success that they seem to have.
Yep. For some, an American spouse would be good, too. Een-gleesh esspawkenn.
Mormons also don't seem as pushy. I have personally never been invited to join the Church of Latter Day Saints. Plus, they leave the impression that they do "own" a State, one which is successful (or so it seems). Plus, Donny and Marie Osmond, weren't they so nice and Mormons?
Marie looks (looked, maybe) great to me.
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steve2
Sizemilk, I'm also from New Zealand and live right on the coast in a very popular semi-rural region for holiday-makers. I swear we seldom if ever see the JWs door-knocking in these parts regardles of the time of year - and on the rare occasions when we do, they're a few wizzened oldies with conspicuously few young ones present.
The JWs who claim to swarm to these coastal areas in summer where the need is allegedly greater at least appear to have the good sense to go to the beach and swim and chill out with everyone else rather than trudge from door-to-door (in contrast to earlier decades when they swarmed in large numbers around the "territory").