by berrygerry 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
In our congregation, there were 40-something APs in August, and at least 1/3 did not get their 30 hours, a few got less than half way there.
There where two elders that I overheard talking about it, and both stated that they had come up 10 hours short. I suspect this is widely the case.
Were not those hours spent just delivering Tracts advertising JW.Org ? The work could not have been easier, but even then, 30 hours was too much to for the poor saps.
Decline in "Bible Studies" ? that must mean an awful lot of JW's no longer indoctrinate their children one to one, good. A genuine possible convert from outside was rare even in my day.
Many JWs are too old to have kids now, were not encouraged to have kids when they were younger, and the kids they bore left. The End was supposed to come already, and a decreasing population of JWs wasn't supposed to happen. But, reality sucks. Now, there is a decrease in Bible studies.
The statistics part of the program was in Leon Weaver's talk.
What is interesting about the downward trend in bible studies is that effective January, 2015, the first Saturday is no longer Bible Study day. So, go figure.
I've seen lots of bible studies come to the hall. They come for awhile, then they go. In the last ten years, several were baptized. One quit attending almost immediately. Another one who attended quite regularly at first now attends very sporadically. Another family attends, but the husband was raised "around the truth", so there's the advantage there. I've seen plenty of other studies come for awhile and then disappear.
What's my point? Bible studies is NOT a good measure. How many of those bible students get baptized should be the real measure. There is no record in the Bible of anyone conducting a bible study with anyone else. Yes, there were those who would explain the scriptures for a few hours, but that doesn't count as a bible study. What counted was that the person was baptized.
Baptisms were also trumpeted by one of the speakers -- something about 'a whole new congregation baptized every week' or something. He neglected to mention how many of those baptisms were of born-ins. I mean, jeez, of course there's tons of baptisms, there's 8 million JWs, and they haven't stopped having kids, last time I checked.
Yeah, a little over 5000 each week. Big deal. Mormons have that, too. 5000 per week is 260,000 per year. Definitely not an increase. More like status quo.
5000 per week is 260,000 per year.
In the 1990's, it was ~7000 per week, 350,000 per year.
Funny how that little fact never makes it into these statistics talks.
