Biggest worry: the organization dying a slow death, particularly in North America, Western Europe and Australia.
I know this subject is discussed at branch level in the West. Symptoms of this slow, lingering decline;
1. Poor meeting attendances.
Congregations are only reporting 80 to 90% attendance. Bear in mind that a meeting attendance count includes kids, and other non publishers. So a congregation of say a 100 publishers should have 120 at the meetings if everyone turned up. This same congregation is likely to see only 80/85 at a Sunday meeting during the summer, inreality just 67% of the potential max attendance.
2. Lack of enthusiasm for the field ministry.
Fewer pioneers and less auxillary pioneers. Additionally, fewer and fewer magazines are being placed as the public tire of the same old message.
3. Young people leaving in droves.
The attrition rate ,often quoted as 1 in 4, must in reality be closer to 50%. Also, it must be noted that although not so many years ago it was common to see young ones coming into the truth on their own (i.e. without their parents) this is almost unheard of today. There is absolutely nothing specific to grab young ones attention and to help them reason on the issues that religion attempts to address.
4. Good Elders Stepping Down or Resigning
There has been a loss of many good elders recently, leaving behind the hardliners. What is also worrying is the fact that there are few capable men coming through the ranks. Good elders are either not going to be replaced or be replaced by poor substitutes.
5. Poor Quality Meetings
Related to 4. I never case to be amazed that despite the continued counsel to keep the quality of the meeting high just how poor many of the parts are. Many public speakers appear to make no attempt to research new material or use any imagination, they simply parrot off from the outline.
5. Fewer and fewer getting baptised.
At one time we expected 15 to 20 to be baptised at each Circuit assembly. This is now down to 4 to 6. I have even heard of Circuit assemblies where no one was baptised and the speaker simple gave a living up to our dedication talk.
What is interesting is that none of the above has to do with Satan! It is all down to the organization and the failure to tackle these internal problems.
Edited by - eyeslice on 12 August 2002 17:27:21