cleveland ohio convention results (page 2)

freddo

Exeter UK last weekend ... drum roll

2,816 produced 6 baptisms.

0.21%

Alfred

Yeah but that's because we're so close to the new world order.

shepherdless

Firstly, I love reading these results. I hope people keep posting them.

I have been reading these baptism percentages for some time. I think the highest I saw was one in Germany where a ratio of about 1% were baptised. From memory, there were some people from other countries getting baptised there, and that was some time ago. Generally it has been in the range 0.5% to 0.25% for a while, with most of the conventions in USA or U.K.

However, in the last Yearbook:

USA had a baptism rate of 2.4% against av publishers (around 2 per cong)

"Britain" had a baptism rate of 1.7% against av publishers (around 1.4 per cong).

I was wondering why such a difference. I think there is around 3 times a year where people get baptised in numbers. Is that right? Also, do a lot of non-publishers attend regional conventions? The only other explanation I can think of is that where a lot get baptised at a convention, perhaps people tend not to report it here. I am not one who thinks the numbers are falsified. Anyone have any other possible explanations?

steve2

Shepherdless, I haven't seen or heard of anyone on this or other forums withholding higher baptism numbers. What would be gained? Besides, we could reasonably expect that JWs themselves would be loudly proclaiming higher baptism numbers at specified Conventions - if there were instances where the numbers baptised were larger.

But you are right in that baptisms are not confined to RCs.

A better point of comparison are the annual baptism numbers from the 1990s when JWs were fewer in number and the numerical annual baptisms easily exceeded those of the last decade.

freddo

Shepherdless: You are right that there are three "opportunities" per year to get baptised.

So if the rate is e.g. 0.5% at any three "opportunities" then obviously there will be 1.5% (0.5% x 3) in the given year.

So if Exeter at 0.21% were extrapolated the X3 number for all of the circuits in its catchment area would be 0.63% in the year.

I remember an Exeter R.C. last year (2016) where the baptisms were (from memory,) something like 14 from 3,500 in attendance so 0.4%. This years figures on attendance and baptisms are well down - but bear in mind that although the percentages hold good as being a significant decrease the WT hiked off about 500 publishers from the Avon Circuit (Bristol area) and sent them to a different convention in Cardiff this year.

steve2

Sometimes looking at absolute (total) raw numbers is more helpful than looking at percentages for indications of "growth".

I have started a separate thread comparing the JW Yearbook-sourced worldwide raw baptism numbers in each of the years in the 1990s with those of the last ten years.

redvip2000

To me, this is the best way to get a sense of the growth of the cult in the developed world. So basically every report here, has a growth of around 0.2% to about 0.35%. Seems about right

The Org reports growth rates higher than this in the West, even though i know it's for publishers, but you always wonder how the Org is massaging these numbers. The conventions are a good indicator, because both numbers are announced and likely accurate.

This meager number of new baptisms is probably made up almost entirely of Jdub kids, with the odd and often rare case where someone actually is a convert. Gives you a sense of how much of a waste of time preaching is.

ToesUp

Jehovah's Witnesses baptism at Coliseum, Richfield, 1982 Cleveland, Oh.11,500 attended.

Here is the link to the archive: http://www.summitmemory.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/ABJarchives/id/6073/rec/1

Photograph of two baptisms at the annual district convention of Jehovah's Witnesses, which took place at the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield Township, Ohio. About 11,500 people attended the convention. Pictured from left to right are: Dan Adams, Bill Kennell, Sandi Stairs, and William Dryburgh.