More congregations? One of the strategies they used to inflate the numbers in my city.

by Tempest in a Teacup 27 Replies latest jw friends

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  Tempest in a Teacup

  I looked at the 2017 yearbook figures this morning, and it reminded me of something which happened in my former congregation 2 years ago.

  It was a tiny foreign language congregation with at most 25-30 publishers. C.O. Comes and splits a 30 member congregation into....THREE. These new groups were made of one family, with a few single people/couples.Reasons given were that the members were coming from afar, and that more people would be interested in joining if there's a group close to their area of residence.

  I rather suspected that it was a plan for the C.O. to pompously announce (while shouting) in the following assembly that "the number of (...)speaking congregations have increased from ONE to THREE, all within a year."

  The thrilled crowd would then applaud the 'blessing from Jehovah', thinking that the split happened because the congregations overflowed with publishers.
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  DesirousOfChange

  Figures lie and liars figure (how to lie with figures).
  
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  scratchme1010

  Anyone who knows basic statistics can see right through their interpretation of their numbers. But then again, they are presented for their crop which are already sold on their nonsense and conditioned to believe any crap they come up with.
  
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  eyeuse2badub

  Yep the wtbts uses mathmagic to spin their "increases"! Man do they love to brag about numbers!

  just saying!
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  steve2

  That's why I am not keen on using the number of congregations as a measure of growth or stagnation in jw organization. Worldwide - and even nationally - numbers that comprise congregations vary enormously.
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  Crazyguy

  I believe the other thread that thier going over about the numbers in the new year book is a waste of time. Those number are just plain out of wack. They list that thier still growing but I think those numbers are just a delusion like when they use the word Truth. Everything they publish is bullshit including thier numbers.
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  Landy

  Everything they publish is bullshit including thier numbers.

  
  

  No, I think they're fairly honest with the numbers. If they were going to make them up they would put a lot more of a positive spin on them.
  
  
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  Crazyguy

  I disagree if they were to put to much positive spin people would figure it out easily. The numbers they provide are discombobulated so as to keep ones confused just like the watchtower lessons where one paragraph contradicts the last one.
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  berrygerry

  "That's why I am not keen on using the number of congregations as a measure of growth or stagnation in jw organization. Worldwide - and even nationally - numbers that comprise congregations vary enormously."

  I had thought similarly.

  However, I added the congo numbers to the Western country spreadsheet, and they have generally dipped proportionately to the publisher dip (Canada and Britain increased - probably foreign language)

  https://onedrive.live.com/embed?cid=76DDE14542F75FED&resid=76DDE14542F75FED%21131&authkey=AA73ZGpctkb3kBg&em=2&AllowTyping=True&wdDownloadButton=True

  ( 87 fewer total congos in the Western countries listed - 32499 in 2016, 32586 in 2015 )
  
  
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  Richard Oliver

  For a long time people on here, possibly some of the same people who comment on this thread, have been saying that Watchtower has been merging halls in order to sell off property to make money. It cannot be both where Watchtower is trying to make these large central congregations in order to sell off property, but at the same time making small congregations everywhere in order to inflate numbers. These are contradictory things, so which one is it. Are they money hungry so they are forcing people to travel longer distances to that they can sell the property or are they number-centric and they just make congregations everywhere to inflate the congregations number?