Knockin' on doors when nobody's home, processing ten of thousands of hours that u know are fake, refusing to embrace modern-technology to further the work just adds up to the most ineffective public relations campaign of the 21st Century---yep, you guessed it the house-to-house work.........
Door-to-Door Work - Most Inneffective Work of the 21st Century
by Black Man 52 Replies latest jw friends
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kat_newmas
eh... eh... eh now... NEVER say INNEFFECTIVE! ... Wrong maybe... something... but NOT inneffective!
This "work" has had an EFFECT on a very large portion of the world. It has re-produced and "become many" . Like a virus. It has EFFECTED families and children. It has EFFECTED every last one of the people who post messages on this thing... what is member count, here again? Oh.... it EFFECTS allright. . . Effect,,,, Affect same difference.
Maybe "ludicris" or "judmental" or " decietful" or ... whatever..... but NEVER ... inneffective.
ah.... I feel better now, thank you for letting me vent.... and no I am not attacking anyone. Just a little friendly reminder that's all.
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Matty
Do a vox pop on a typical congregation and you will find that the amount of people who were converted straight from first call is very small. Most were either born-to's or were "informally" witnessed to. I would be interested in some real stats on this.
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dedalus
I think it's safe to say that the amount of effort put into the door-to-door work is negatively disproportionate the desired result (i.e. the "effect").
Dedalus
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metatron
The door to door work is a colossal pretense - inefficient hardly describes it. Mostly, it doesn't even exist as a ministry in most
Western nations. Spend two hours talking to no one and write down 'two' on your field service slip --- or skip the inconvenience
of actually doing anything and write down whatever you want - I do!
Take a good look at baptisms at your local circuit assembly - Witness kids and maybe somebody's relative
If the door to door work ever cost the Society anything, you'd see it disappear quickly.
metatron
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jgnat
From a strictly marketing perspective, door-to-door work, or cold calls, are notoriously ineffective. PSST. Don't pass this link on to the WTS. It might give them ideas.
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SixofNine
Proof of it's ineffectiveness? Think how relieved you were when the householder said "oh, you're Christians?" and seemed to accept you as such. 100 years of preaching and people don't know they are a "christian" religion.
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AMNESIAN
Quite right you are, BM, if the purpose of the hth work continued to be proselytizing. I submit, however, that, unbeknownst to the clueless herd [going through the motions of] carrying it out, making a disciple today is, arguably, merely the occasional and extremely rare serendipitous by-product of what the true purpose of the hth work has necessarily evolved into.
While field service's original---and effective---purpose for decades was that of making converts, its primary function in the late 20th/21st century would appear to serve a wholly different, but equally as, if not more, critical an aim: to keep JWs obligated and occupied on a numbing treadmill of busy-ness (which includes attending meetings that almost literally rehearse the identical rosary-like mantra of "spiritual food" meeting after assembly after convention after meeting after...; "studying" and distributing 4 issues of magazines every month with articles that almost literally for years and years has recited the identical chants issue after issue after issue...) who, left to their own devices, gifted with guilt-free "extra" time on their hands every week suddenly not booked by the WTS, might have their manic pace slowed sufficiently to find themselves contemplating that which they had never previously dared---an especially horrifying and unthinkable prospect for the Society in its present floundering state.
Just a thought.
AMNESIAN
(E-mail address appearing in profile is presently fubar; please do not attempt contacting)
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Nathan Natas
Keep in mind however that it costs the WTS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to engage in this most ineffective work. All the costs - time, gasoline, car maintenance, etc., are borne by the individual "minister." It's about as sweet a deal as any scamster could imagine.
It may be ineffective, but as the old joke goes, they make up for it with VOLUME.
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jgnat
Excellent points. I have a sneaking suspicion that the door-to-door work also helps confirm the "persecution complex" in the average believer and solidify their faith. Nothing like a few beery curses and slammed doors to convince them the world is a nasty place slated for destruction. Also consider how often Noah and Job are held up as fine examples of faith.
I am with you, Amnesian. They have all these free labourers at their disposal, and they have to be kept too busy to think. The WTS really does not want spectacular growth. High growth would be hard to control. Too many independent thinkers. Also, how can they continue the myth of their exclusivity if just anybody were let in?