By the way, the figures show that if you are a Pioneer, you can expect to help someone to baptism every 10+ years of your services time.
2018-Annual Service Report!
by Atlantis 42 Replies latest watchtower bible
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steve2
And we know that “peak” publishers is a conveniently inflated number. Now that they have ditched publicising average numbers of publishers, we no longer have access to perhaps a comparatively better indicator of growth, flat-lining or decline.
i am surprised by the high number of baptisms over the 2018 service year given frequent reports of low numbers baptised at the latest series of Regional Conventions.
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careful
The comments here are good—the OP has even brought SBF out of the woodwork!
Just a thought: since the pioneer numbers are up, do you think the cart work was designed to do just that, make it easier to get in the required number of hours by sitting in a chair texting and reading instead of doing the real preaching and teaching work? If so, it would be a rare instance of the GB actually planning something out instead of just being reactive.
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steve2
You could be right, careful. Strong anecdotal evidence suggests JWs are not going out door-to-door in the numbers of even more recent years. It is rare to see them in the neighbourhood. Yet, they report an increase in pioneer numbers. I will be very interested to see the number of peak publishers and pioneers in my country, New Zealand, and any western country where peak numbers have flat-lined in recent years.
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Atlantis
steve2:
JWs are not going out door-to-door in the numbers of even more recent years.
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steve2 is right! I haven't seen a JW in our neighborhood in years.
A former Bethelite who writes to me on a regular basis told me, the Mormons have called on his home three times in the past five years, and not even one JW has been seen in his neck of the woods during that time.
They don't even come to visit his disabled wife who is still in good standing!
Atlantis!
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asp59
Most things in that report are fake from THE beginning. Most hours in service are spent sitting around carts. Bible studys are mostly children to JW s that are force to study. Elders put in there hours that way. They should stop with the anual report period.
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careful
My anecdotal evidence is a bit different. For two years (2015-2017) I lived in one place where they did come around 2-3 times a year (surmised from tracts left in my door). I was always gone save once. That time was a lone, middle-aged sister. What struck me was the zero attempt to engage me in any meaningful conversation. She had a tablet, read no Bible passage, offered no literature, and just invited me to a meeting. Given that she was alone, I figured she was a pioneer who was getting her hours in. After that I moved and lived in another location for one year. It was a secure building, so they did not come by. However, the neighborhood was mainly accessible single-family homes and one time I had to park on the street about a block away. When I went to fetch my vehicle, I found a group of 5, 2 bros and 3 sisters, going D2D. We chatted a bit so I could find out about local downsizing. Sure enough their KH was going up for sale, and according to one sister, gullible enough to buy the party line, the money from the sale was for "KH building in foreign lands." Anyway, it's just my experience and I realize that is limited and the situation may be different elsewhere, but in two places where I've lived for the past 3 years, it's both carts and D2D.
If the carts were planned by the Muppets, err, I mean the GB (thank you, Orphan Crow!) for making it easier to pioneer, it's a remarkable case of them being proactive instead of reactive.
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steve2
Some changes happen by fluke and are seized upon as if planned and purposeful. So it is with the literature carts. This has morphed over several years to now become the good-standing JWs “go to” work ( I use the word “work” very loosely because JWs do anything but work when they stand - or sit - by the literature stands).
The perhaps unintended consequence of the literature carts is it seems to have led to a drop off in the D2D work. I recall my younger years - 1970s - when the territory was humming with very large numbers of active JWs of all kinds (mothers, fathers, their children, young teenagers, young adults right through to the very young). We covered the territory rapidly - which befits a message that the end is so very close and we did not want to give impression ours was a non-urgent message. Move forward well over 40 years later and the “preaching” work is a pale shadow of its heyday. The irony is JWs pretend to seek out people to share their message with and at the same time avoid the very few who seek JWs out ( ex-JWs). If the end is so close, JWs are doing a perfect job of sleep-walking their way towards it.
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Amelia Ashton
Our territory was supposed to be worked approximately every 2 weeks. It was nearer monthly but that was 20 years ago.
I've had Mormons here twice and JWs 3 times in the last 10 years. Hardly urgent.
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_Morpheus
When you consider it took 8 million salespeople to convert a mere 200k, its bleak. I see little to be encouraged about, from the jw point of view.... but, being the voice of logic, i must point out: its still not “decline”. They did in fact grow, albeit at a terribly slow pace given the theoretical effort into growth.