Me to. It's like saying you have to marry a psychopath to experience the joy of divorcing him. Better to have known what he was before he could beat you senseless.
Are Baptism numbers going down?
by Julia Orwell 37 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
Pistoff
Take a look at the entire group of charts on this link:
http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/statistics.php
It sure seems like the WT has tweaked the year over year number of publishers; that number is very smooth, keeps going up about the same every year.,
But: baptisms vary quite a bit.
How is that possible? How can the number of publishers not reflect the year over year variations in baptisms and member numbers?
-
steve2
That's cynical. I wish I was never baptised.
Can't it be both cynical and regrettable?
-
Tech49
We recently had our Circuit Assembly, 1,000 attendance with 3 baptized, all 3 under 18 and they were "buddies". I know 2 of the 3, and niether of them cares for anything other than skateboards and bmx bikes. The other half of the circuit had an attendance of 1200, with 6 baptized, same age group and level of "maturity". It was almost laughable. Pitiful really. I too remember when it was very common to have at least 1 from each congregation, and they would be serious students at that. Not anymore.
-
LisaRose
I remember back in the seventies there was always a lot of people getting baptized at every convention. It made you feel you were in the right religion, because there were so many joining, it sort of confirmed you made the right choice.
What is interesting is that they used to brag about the increases, saying that Jehovah was "speeding it up in his own time". Now, what can they say about the fact that most increases are coming from less developed countries? Combined with the lousy retention rate, it sure isn't anything to brag about. If numbers are increasing, it shows they are the only true religion, that Jehovah is blessing them. if they are not increasing so much, they bring up the scripture that says the road to salvation is framed and few are finding it, so that also proves they are the only true religion
-
steve2
Baptisms increasing = Jehovah is richly blessing the work.
Baptisms decreasing = the road to life is narrow and few are the ones finding it.
Hey, who among the oldies can remember the halcyon days of the organization growing so fast that we even had baptisms at Circuit Assemblies? Ah, they were the days: 3 days of programmes starting early in the morning and finishing well after 8.00pm, meals were prepared and cooked on site, orchestras provided real musical accompanimemts and long lines of adults - yes, adults not kids - waiting to be baptized with most of the adults "newly interested ones" who had been through months and months of "Bible" studies.
Perhaps I'm revealing my age, but the modern breed of Witnesses are pussies, who prefer looking in mirrors than in the Bible and who wouldn' t know a thing about ' reasoning' on the Scriptures, let alone reasoning on anything. Those old breed Witnesses may have been bordering on cranky but boy, did they know their stuff and how to make a stand....
-
Julia Orwell
Indeed they did. These days the kids are just along for the ride. Some are right into it of the kids I meet through work and when I was in the cong, but they argue from Watchtower rather than the bible. Scripture knowledge is poor, but watchtower knowledge is good. Pity it can't be used in a real debate.
-
Jaidubdub
I've noticed that last few years majority getting baptised are young & have jw parents. Very few from d2d work... The one person I knew who was baptised thru d2d work became inactive after a year later. We caught week last week. I planted a few seed subtle seeds - I don't think they will set foot in a KH again. Mission accomplished!!