Convention visit observations

by Gorbatchov 20 Replies latest jw friends

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  Gorbatchov

  This weekend we visited the convention. My findings:

  - No JW.org marketing here at this moment. Seems a step to far for non-english speaking country's.

  - No Silver Sword for the Netherlands. We got a dutch translation of the intro and the appendix only. The Bethel speaker told us that a new translation is not expected in our language.

  - The 100 year of Kingdom rule was mentioned at some time but the year 1914 is not mentioned once!

  - the multi media parts were over the top. The flatliner video was making adventage of cheap emotions. Some left crying the convention hall. It was a stap too far.

  The new film, showed for 1.30 minuted seems an US real happened movie.

  Stephan Lett was presenting the Drama. He seemed Donald Duck. He was more drama then the play.

  So my overall conclusion was that this convention was not bad at all. No crazy remarks it went very mainstream.

  With the use of all the multi media stuff I see a transformation to a US Television mainstream religion.

  G.
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  smiddy

  Thanks Gorby for your input , " the multi media parts were over the top." I wonder how the real oldies are taking to this trend.

  "With the use of all the multi media stuff I see a transformation to a US Television mainstream religion". An effort definitely trying to become more mainstream .

  "The 100 year of Kingdom rule was mentioned at some time but the year 1914 is not mentioned once!"

  How could they mention the 100 year kingdom rule without mentioning 1914 ?

  Gorby , were their any musicians , singers, welcoming delegates ? Was it an International Convention you attended ?

  smiddy
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  steve2

  Thanks Gorby for your observations. What was the total number attending at the convdntion and how many were baptized?
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  Phizzy

  I found the comment "The Bethel speaker told us that a new translation is not expected in our language" to be illuminating.

  Does this presage the religion contracting to concentrate only on English speaking peoples ?

  The costs of producing Bibles just to give away is not something the W.T, sorry JW.Org , wishes to carry anymore .

  No longer a Bible Society, it will soon be the JW.Org Electric Church.

  I find that shocking.... (groan).
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  insearchoftruth

  My wife told me for the Landover, MD (Wash DC) convention they have assigned seating sections......her reasoning is they want it to be organized....I think they want better accountablity for who is there and who is trying to skip out early.
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  pronomono

  Stephan Lett was presenting the Drama. He seemed Donald Duck. He was more drama then the play.

  I always saw him as more of a C-3P0 kind of guy.
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  AndDontCallMeShirley

  "The Bethel speaker told us that a new translation is not expected in our language".....No longer a Bible Society

  Compared to other religions, WT has never been a Bible society. In fact, its original name was Watch Tower Tract Society, not Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.

  WT is just going back to its roots.
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  Gorbatchov

  No international convention, just a DC.

  There are 5 DC's in The Netherlands with aprox 8000 visitors, in total 40000. Every year the same.

  34 baptism this weekend and 34 at the other DC.

  Again, they are more mainstream then ever. In a few years it will be a convention like the TV religion in the US.

  The drama was Lett, worser it was a mefiafile with Lett and undertitled in Dutch.

  Because it was so mainstream attending was not so hard for this critic analyzer.

  G.
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  jgnat

  Does this presage the religion contracting to concentrate only on English speaking peoples - phizzy

  I believe I-L-TTATT crunched some numbers and there are now more hispanic speaking Jehovah's Witnesses than English-speaking. It seems to me the WTS would concentrate on English and Spanish translations and give lip service to the rest. Especially Europe, where growth is stalled anyways.
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  Designer Stubble

  My aging JW-mother attended the convention recently and told me (her apostate son) that she was not impressed. No real new publications, everything electronic, which she can't comprehend. She really came back exhausted and not refreshed. Sad - if she was younger I would try to wake her up.