Fudging the Numbers: Is the WTBTS in decline? (page 5)

hoser

In my part of the world they are in decline and I am pretty sure they are fudging numbers on the reports. The numbers and what I see/hear happening don't add up

Vidiot

OnTheWayOut - "If she never wakes up, I would love to see the cult around her simply shut down."

Strangely enough, that may be what it takes to wake her up.

x

That's one of the things that helped me come to the conclusion that the WTS would eventually wither and die...

...the more rank-and-filers wake up, the more leave. The more that leave, the more rank-and-filers wake up, and so on, and so forth...

x

Feedback loop, cascade effect, whatever you want to call it.

insidetheKH

Coded said

It's no secret that the WTBTS has a cash flow problem.

So what is your source? I think they have more ca$h than ever before

I can't comment on how much cash they do or do not have. Considering a purchase of a 250-unit apartment complex in Fishkill, NY for an undisclosed amount, but a transfer tax of $57 million, this puts it at $228,000 per unit. They'd have to have SOME cash for this sort of transaction.

As for baptisms, I'd be willing to wager that the majority are children of JWs. Our recent Circuit Assembly had three baptized, all under 18.

As for the increases in number of congregations, it appears to be foreign language "groups" being formed into actual congregations. One of the speakers at the CA mentioned three new congregations formed in the U.S. from Russian-speaking groups. Based on the number of baptisms, there are less than 3 new publishers per existing congregation, so that wouldn't normally warrant new congregations being formed. However, foreign language groups morphing into congregations would, as would the formation of english groups in non-english countries. This seems to also be on the upswing.

Is there a decline? No. Slowing growth? It would appear so.

Coded Logic

Perhaps "decline" is too strong a word. How about a "decreasing influence"?

Magnum

The OP is far more interesting in light of recent developments. I do believe the org massages the numbers or presents them in a way to make it look as good as possible, for example, by letting infirm individuals turn in 15min so they can be counted as publishers (as already mentioned in this thread).

Many JWs thought that was "so loving" when it was announced, but I think it was selfish; I think they wanted these ones to be counted so the org's numbers would look better.

The numbers can only be massaged and manipulated for so long. I believe we are going to see them start to go down in the near future.

steve2

When your pickings are slim, you gotta beef up the numbers.

Fudging the Numbers: Is the WTBTS in decline?