We've all read, heard and have seen in the videos where JW's and their leaders talk about the "huge" growth that is taking place. They've talked about how many KH they needed, branches etc...
Our CO last visit he mentioned how quickly the organization is speeding up and the huge growth they are seeing.
We however, know the truth about that. It's hardly seeing a 2% growth. People are leaving extremely fast and it seems to be more of the people with wealth that are leaving. Any growth is from born in's or undeveloped countries. There have been many articles people have written on that subject alone.
I think they almost believed their own hype of growth. They started putting up KH like crazy, building branches all over, buying up properties and so on. They are now seeing first hand that this growth they have hyped up isn't actually there and have found themselves holding the financial bag.
I also think within the last 6 months they have killed their own donations. The GB making themselves more prominent and in your face all the time has let people see their true colors. I also think their "branch meeting" killed a lot of donations. I don't know too many people, even hardcore witnesses that weren't offended by tight pants Tony's statements. They also have the child abuse cases. I know for a fact people stopped donating for that alone. Mix in people knowing you got a pay day on your property sales while your average JW can barely make rent, it's the perfect storm.
Now, on a more local level. In my congregation we had 2 people baptized in the last year. We'll say a little shy of a 2% growth. BUT, we had 2 JW die, 1 completely leave, 3 DF and I can speculate on a few going inactive but I have no proof for that. For the 2 that were baptized, we lost 6. Most halls are close to the same in the US.
Our donations have completely dried up. We had to lower the amount we send to the branch each month by $1,000.00 just to try to stay afloat. Not to mention we just had a hall remodel right before the the arrangement changed. Our hall should be donating a lot more as per the direction. We have not had a positive financial month in the last 2 1/2 years. I have proof of that from the congregation statements.
That is just one hall. I think things have gotten pretty bad for these PROUD men to start asking for money. We're going to see bigger downsizing or a collapse. They will be forced to really downsize in the future if this last year is anything to go by.
I wonder how much longer they can keep this artificial "growth" going for. I can't imagine they can be down sizing and saying how much growth their is. They're trying to keep it up even after closing down branches and KH but eventually it will get too obvious.
Them asking for money is also hurting them. Only so man JW are really hardcore. I suspect that 1/3 if not more of JW want out or just do enough to get by. If they were donating and now have the GB saying they're in trouble I could see it making them completely stop for a chance to get out.
I feel them asking for money will cause people to donate less on a large scale basis.
What I worry about is how hard they will start tightening their grip if they don't get the needed donations to keep up with their current life style. They've already started asking, I can see them going to even more extreme measures.