Some Interesting Numbers to Compare With 20,000 Baptisms Each Month

by LostGeneration 24 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  factfinder

  I agree with blondie.

  I was a witness for 30 years. During that period it was always understood that the good news would be preached to "all the nations" not to all of the people.

  I never believed or preached that ALL people would be personally reached with the good news, but that Jehovah could read peoples hearts.

  Last year over 21,000 got baptised monthly but that is less then in 2010.

  The baptism figures do not matter much as far as the fulfillment of Matt.24:14 goes- and it did not matter to me.

  Yes it was encouraging when the baptism figures went up- now its encouraging when they go down!
• 

  Phizzy

  Para said "roughly 7000 falling away each month".

  "Falling away", it is walking away, not a fall an elevation ! LOL

  Interesting thought that, 7,000 people who have believed, and lived, the religion walk, or perhaps run, away each month.

  If a commercial company was losing that many customers a month they would be reviewing their sales techniques , marketing, and more importantly perhaps "customer care", to improve retention.

  All the WT can do is vilify and smear those who leave, as has been said: "Cults shoot their wounded"
• 

  factfinder

  They only care about those coming in the front door.

  They could not care less about those leaving through the back door.
• 

  sir82

  15 years ago the count was closer to 30,000 / month. In one 3-year stretch in the late 90's they had 1 million+ baptisms.

  The trend of the baptism rate has been declining pretty steadily. It may have nudged upward slightly in the past year or 2 but it is still significantly less than in the late 90's.

  The growth rate curve has turned the corner.
• 

  Gayle

  http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html

  Shows for U.S. for 2010. Under 18 @ 24%. Under 5 @ 6.5%. Do JWs fit in this percentage, close enough?

  As publishers in general: Since JW kids under 5 are not pubs. for the most part. So, this potential number of JW kids publishing at 6-17 ages would be at @ 17.5%. 2011, U.S. reports 1,145,723, so 17.5% would be 200,502, with potential pubs.(under 5) of 74,472 within next 5 yrs.

  How many kids are already baptized? How many annually? There are 13,309 congs. in U.S. How many JW youths per cong. are getting baptized annually? One? Two? If there are two in each avg. cong, the baptism amount would be apprx, that would come to 26,618. Last year baptized, was total of 32,953. The percentage at that rate JW youth baptisms would be 80%.

  I am just guessing around, of course. How the U.S. is compared to other countries, especially third world countries, would be different, ofcourse.
• 

  BluesBrother

  "20,000 new ones each month! That is AWESOME!"

  Don't leap on me ! that comment was placed on JWTalk by a committed J W who thought that the increase was wonderful......

  It does sound good, in isolation - until you come to see it in the context of the facts that others have written here. I am surprised that the movement does not use their "Service Meetings" to point all this out and to stimulate a more professional approach from the publishers. Most of them seem happy to fill up their time ambling about chatting to their partner. Perhaps the system of recording activity should change since it rewards time spent, not productivity.

  My theory is that they concentrate on training the Pioneers to get increase and leave the rest to do their own thing.

  Still why should I worry? I do not want to see more people drawn into it
• 

  Disillusioned Lost-Lamb

  Proof that the "work" will NEVER be done and thus the "end" will NEVER come.
• 

  Londo111

  At the SAD recently, two kids were baptized. It made me wonder--what would have happened if there were nobody being baptized? Has that ever happened? What would they say during the baptismal talk?
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  NeverKnew

  Looking at the trends in your Kingdom Hall congregations, would I be safe in asking my JW friends how many new converts their congregations have had baptized into the organization who were not born in to the WTS and hear low numbers?

  I'm going to get numbers of increases in local churches for comparison. My goal is to ask questions about the effectiveness of their door to door ministry.

  Given my readings, I think you need to know that I live in a US city where immigration rates would be considered relatively low.
• 

  MrFreeze

  Wish I had seen this thread 6 months ago. We had a SAD where there was nobody being baptized. They gave the baptism talk but at the end they said something along the lines of "We have nobody being baptized today but this is all good thoughts to remind ourselves of our dedication."