Question? How Many Hours of Field Service Does it Take

by new boy 24 Replies latest jw friends

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  redvip2000

  If I was Jehovah/Jesus I would sack all of the GB for not getting the job done and producing results that matter in preaching in all of the inhabited earth and making disciples .

  Not only that, but if Jellohoba was actually behind an effort of distributing an urgent message which is the most urgent message in the world, the best he can do is tell a handful of people to go knock on people's doors? Or to stand with a cart next to a train station hoping someone will approach?

  What nonsense. Even the governments of the most inadequate countries in the world do a better job informing their citizens of an urgent message.
  
  
• 

  slimboyfat

  It’s something of a puzzle to me just how ineffective JW preaching is nowadays. You would think that JWs would acquire at least some extra followers just by being so visible publicly and calling on lonely people from time to time. And it’s particlarly puzzling because it seems that their preaching was quite effective at one time. From listening to older members of the congregation, there were many converts to JWs in the 1950s through to the 1970s from the door to door work, a few in the 1980s, and hardly anything since. What went wrong? Their methods haven’t changed all that much, so why is the outcomes so drastically different?

  I have a few ideas, but I’d be interested to hear what others think:

  1. Society itself has changed and people are just not interested in the Bible any more or joining a church,

  2. There is more information available to refute JW teachings these days.

  3. JWs have lost their urgency and don’t really believe the end is near.

  4. Additionally I think many JWs are fatigued by JW lifestyle and simply not terribly eager to drag others in. I recall a candid comment from someone that they wouldn’t necessarily recommend becoming a JW to anyone not already in it. Subconsciously I wonder how many JWs really feel this way. Very few JWs make great efforts to drag other family members, work colleagues, neighbours and friends, to the KH, as once was more common. So no wonder their efforts to actually convert householders is often halfhearted.
• 

  blondie

  SBF, my experience has been that most jws feel they no longer have to make return visits because the territory will be worked again and be someone else's responsibility. or they turn them over to the pioneers to follow up. I wonder how many people wonder what happened to the first person.

  It is like the brother who told me he did not keep not-at-homes (in my territory, the bum) because the territory would be worked again. I found people who had never been called on by jws when I went around 6:30 p.m. I crossed them all off my list in one hour satisfied I had given them at least one chance to accept the message and I would not feel guilty if they died at Armaggedon.

  I also knew jws that did not want to conduct studies so either did not return or even pass it along, because it would interfere with their fun time in the evenings without meetings, and the weekends.

  I once said if jws had to work on commission and show results to survive Armaggedon, that might build a fire under their rears.

  I am glad that I am no longer part of that organization, claiming to care but only wanting to give an appearance of righteousness and love.
• 

  truthlover123

  If you look at countries were a ban is on, Muslim countries, -(growing at a rate of 32%)

  you are looking at 35% of earths population ( estimate )that has not "heard" of Jw's. This is not a world wide preaching work- impossible! So they upbuild the congregations by calling it a name that is a MISNOMER.

  According to PEW Research 2017 - earth population was 7.7 billion - deducting Russia, China, NK, Phillipines, just some of banned areas we see 3.1 billion where bans are occurring, ( there are more) leaving a total that receive the" good news" of 2.8 billion. For the WTBTS to say the good news is a worldwide work and needs money to continue is incorrect. For there to be ONLY 281,744 baptized in 2017 (and mostly born in at a tender age) with 8.5 million ?? doing the work, does not make sense.
• 

  Half banana

  The issue is how much JW time is spent preaching and to what effect in terms of new recruits.

  The 2017 figure from JW statistics is 13,880 hours spent in the field for one new baptism. (Thank you Giordano) That includes time spent on Bible studies with JW sprogs born in captivity--who are now something like an 80% majority with 20% of baptisms being new converts. Even this might be over optimistic, it may be a 90%10% split.

  The "born-ins" will receive around say seven years indoctrination at one hour per week. This amounts to an average of around a mere 350 hours of preaching as a lifetime total Bible study for JW offspring who get to be baptised.

  Relatively speaking it doesn't then take that many hours for a "born in" Bible study to get to the baptism stage as already mentioned so if the average hours preaching before one new baptism is 13,880 that must mean that for the remaining 20% converts, those figures are immensely more than the already high average of 13,880. I'm guessing 25,000/30,000 hours-- just for one convert!

  From a practical aspect it would be cheaper for JW HQ to pay people to become one of Jehovah's Witnesses!

  From a field service point of view, it is no longer worth going from door to door, it's nigh on a complete a waste of time. Who on earth spends this amount of effort for such dismal returns?

  Perhaps this is why eventually most cults don't proselytise but just plod on in cloaked obscurity, breeding new recruits within their families, fighting invisible foes but smug with the feeling of certainty in their divine assumptions?