Random thoughts about the organization. In 20 years.....

by stuckinamovement 40 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  breakfast of champions

  I think we're in for some big organizational/doctrinal changes in the next 5-10 years. The wackiness we've seen with the generations overlap is just the start.

  The free-flow of information over the Internet is their worst nightmare, and the generation born in the last 5-10 years has not known the world without it. They will not have has much (or any) "fear" in googling their questions as older generations.

  And, as much as many doubt it will have any effect, the passing of 2014 will be a tipping point. Time is not on their side.

  I mean, be honest: imagine knocking on a door in 2015 and telling the householder you have GOOD NEWS! That Christ has been ruling in heaven for over ONE HUNDRED YEARS! Wow, that is some great news. . .

  Not saying I think it will implode, although I hope it does. . .

  Not with a bang, but a whimper.
• 

  breakfast of champions

  As for the lack of qualified brothers--- BIG BIG PROBLEM. Super big. #1 problem.

  Yeah, they'll make it work, but it is certainly not te best situation.
• 

  sir82

  reducing congregation numbers by 20% or something: five congregations become four congregations, and you distribute the Elders and MS as appropriate. Problem solved.

  Not so sure this really helps. So instead of 5 congregations with 100 publishers and 5 elders each, you have 4 congregations of 125 publishers and 6 elders each.

  What happens 5-10 years later, when half those elders have died or are senile, and there are no "qualified" men to replace them?

  Plus, there are all sorts of levers you can pull to get more MS and Elders: you can make the requirements lower, you can make the jobs easier, you can make the perks better.

  I take it that you have been out of the org. for quite a while? The requirements are already preposterously low.

  Here are the only true requirements, in order of importance:

  1) Have a penis

  2) Report 10 hours per month in field service (actual time spent, and quality of work, utterly irrelevant)

  3) Family in line with the WT standard (kids baptized while still in school, not DF'ed, wife reports 8+ hours in ministry, etc.)

  4) Attend and participate in meetings (quality of said participation utterly irrelevant)

  There's not much "wiggle room" (insert joke related to requirement 1 here...)

  "Perks"? Like what? Preferred parking space at the DC? There ain't no "perks".
• 

  DesirousOfChange

  when gas hits $5-$6 a gallon who's going to go door to door. [in the US]

  When gas hits $5-$6 in the US, which means £10 in Europe, they won't have to go door-to-door. The masses will think The End has come from the disasterous world economy and people will flock to Kingdom Halls to be saved.

  Doc
• 

  Alfred

  Printed information will be scarce in the year 2032. Also, very few people will have cash on hand in their homes.

  So the WT will need to find something else to sell and a diffrent method of collecting contributions during Field Circus... I can see brothers walking around with Portable Debit Machines but no one willing to enter their PIN numbers...

  Yeah, the WT is really just 2 decades away from collapsing entirely...
• 

  Sulla

  Sir82, I think the reconfiguration of congregations like I outlined may actually be pretty effective. We're talking about sort of a "flow" process, and those are sometimes very responsive to smallish changes. But, maybe not.

  As for perks, your point is well-taken. But it seems to me you could give MS or Elders more of what they want, which is power, prestige, a feeling of being insiders, etc. I mean, how do you keep a corporation in line? Well, you pay the guys at the top a boatload of cash to keep all the underlings in a frenzy trying to hit the jackpot. Similar sort of thing here, maybe: reverse a little of the "post apostasy" tightening and paperwork and let Elders get back to running with a little more autonomy. I suggest the problem with too few MS is not that that particular job sucks (it has always sucked) but that the Elders' job isn't good enough.
• 

  Marvin Shilmer

  -

  Since the early 1990s the Watchtower organization has been remodeling its finances away from a product and toward a service. Today’s Watchtower Society has found novel ways of covering its overhead and ending up with excess beyond expenses. There are fees for everything, and products are decreasing.

  -- Fees for covering traveling overseer costs. Fees for covering construction, operation and maintenance of assembly halls. Fees for KH insurance (yes Watchtower is in the insurance business). Fees extracted from donations at assemblies for Watchtower’s general fund. Fees extracted from donations at assemblies for various construction funds. Parking fees. It's an open-ended list!

  -- Less hardcopy literature (a LOT less!). No more food provided at conventions and assemblies (formerly THE major money maker!)

  Watchtower’s future business model will be wrapped about the deliverable of service. Promoting this deliverable makes it more important than ever to have itself looked at as important and necessary. It’s no wonder we keep seeing Watchtower after Watchtower pounding away at the Witness community to ignore all other providers and look to it as the sole source of virtually everything important. Watchtower is fighting for its future as a business.

  Marvin Shilmer

  http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com
• 

  stuckinamovement

  Great observations Marvin.
• 

  Bella15

  I wonder what product they will sell next too.
• 

  agonus

  The biggest problem with their business model is that the product has an expiration date that precedes the shipping date ;-P