by konceptual99 42 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
The preaching work is basically a wild goose chase. It is set up so the publishers will not have a lot of success and will feel that somehow they are inadequate.
It is more about retaining existing members that recruiting new ones.
It seems to me that it is a social club of sorts. The Saturday morning group gets together, does a couple of calls, goes for coffee break and the members make social plans for spending Saturday evening together.
@theredeemer i am fully aware of the statistics. I live next to a LDS Ward. Active membership within the mormon world is about 5 million. The number you mention is inflated since it includes inactive members and everyone who is baptised no matter if you still show up or tithe or not.
If JW'S would count like that they would exceed 20 million (on the memorial alone they had 19.5 million attendants this year)
Everyone who is really interested in this subject Mormons vs JW's and growth statistics should read some studies and essays of this LDS Mormon website
One of their conclusions is :
The percentage increase in the number of Adventist and Witness congregations has dramatically outpaced growth rates for the LDS Church in nearly every nation where all three denominations operate.
For example in my (european) country all people have had witnesses at their doorstep but almost none ever saw a mormon show up.-ISTKH
So ISTKH you live next to a LDS ward yet you claim that no one ever sees them come to their door? What the hell is the ward for then? Members that come from out of the country or imaginary members? But certainly not members who were preached to or converted in your neighborhood!
I wonder how many of the JW in the 8 million are of the 15 minute category like my Alzheimer's stricken mother or my bed ridden aunt who some how magically put in 15 min? Do you have numbers for that?
Also, my drunk atheist uncle attends the memorial to appease my aunt so maybe thats why they dont count memorial attendees. Also many of the attendees are mentally unstable annointed ones so maybe we shouldnt count those as witnesses. Also, the number of witnesses counts those that are later disfellowshipped that same year. So I wonder how many of those we can subtract.
So, if I can pull a number out of my butt I would say that maybe 4 million are actually fervent preaching witnesses. There, they are even.
ITKH,
The point is not really about JW v Mormon statistics. My local pub football team can win 8-0 every week but it does not make them ready to face Real Madrid in the Champions League. Do the headline figures constantly promoted by JW publications and leaders really reflect a meaningful preaching and warning work when looked at in the context of how that translates on ground?
If the answer is that Jesus never said everyone would be reached and Jehovah will no doubt show compassion to the billions not reached then what is the point of all this time and energy expended by millions of Witnesses? Why not just bring the big A and let people make a truly informed choice?
@theredeemer most visitors to this church are expats from the united states and a lot of american youngsters. In my country of 17 million people there are officially about 9000 part of the LDS church. About 50% of them show up at their church meetings.
I live next to the ward for four years now. Before that i lived 40 years in 4 different cities. Never saw one at my door and heard never anyone speaking about having mormons at their door. Contrary to that, all here have had JW's at their door.
@konceptual the question is did the world notice the preaching work of Noah? Or did they notice the preaching work of Christ and the first Christians? How well were/was their message known and what impact did their message had on their societies? The problem is not the messenger nor the message.
The problem is that most people are not interested in the message
including a growing number of still-in Witnesses....to add to the even larger pool of ex-Witnesses. The zeal has gone.
Fair enough. People are not interested. Aside from the fact this makes it even more pointless, what is the logical conclusion about the fate of those who do not listen? If they are all to be destroyed then God's justice is called into question. If they stand a very good chance of getting through thanks to Jehovah's compassion then what's the point of preaching?
If you want to bring up the story of Noah as an example then all that shows is that God was happy to drown innocents. I recall the Bible Story Book picture of the mother with a babe in arms for example. All that means is all but a handful of the worlds population will survive, the vast majority never even reached with a meaningful message let alone able to make an informed choice.
ITKH - where do you really stand on this?
If ISTKH believes in the story of Noah then I think we know where he stands on this.
I don't see any door to door activity in my area these days. All I see are brothers / sisters looking half comatosed in the vicinity of a cult cart.
