Let's hope so Slimboy but in central and eastern Africa especially where there have been wars and insurgencies the population is left feeling hopeless and disoriented. The fantasy paradise promised by the JW org appeals to these people and in consequence they are optimistically building lots of kingdom halls. Note that although there are many merging congs in the West the number of halls is increasing worldwide. Bad news! The newbies in Africa typically are young and not well informed and also lack internet information. As soon as that becomes readily available the pattern of the advanced western world should also take effect there.
Is attendance down in your location too?
by StarryNight9 90 Replies latest jw friends
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slimboyfat
Where is the evidence that lots of new KHs have actually been built in Africa?
Remember it was only a few years ago they promised thousands of new KHs in the United States, right before they started closing KHs down.
If any new KHs are built in Africa my hunch is it will only be in countries that disallow Watchtower to remove funds from the country as is the case in India.
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Half banana
The evidence for new congregations is in a comparison with the figures from about five years ago, I remember the figure then of 114,000 and last year that figure was 120,000.
Where are the nine or ten thousand new congregations bearing in mind, give or take three or four thousand must have closed?
Nevertheless wherever those congregations are the official JW figures show a distinct state of stagnation with only USA and France making a 1% increase in the developed world otherwise it is flat or like Poland, in reverse. No growth equals decline. Next years stats will be interesting.
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Dagney
I heard last month from a bro that he moved from our last congo to the one I attended when I was a teen, because he was actually in that territory. He said in my old old hall there are 65 cards, active maybe 50. It was a normal 100-120 pubs for years and years. The elderly died off of course, kids grew up and live elsewhere.
Definitely...the numbers are heading down.
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Vidiot
Pete Zahut - "As you will remember, an increase in Congregation size means Jehovah is blessing the work. A decrease means that the love of the greater number is cooling off and Bible end times prophesy is being fullfilled. Either way it's always good news for JWs."
"Everything is proof we're right! Even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff!"
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slimboyfat
If I remember correctly (and I think I do) the percentage increase in congregations last year was the lowest on record. An increase of only 568 congregations, or 0.48%.
I suspect there may actually be a worldwide decrease in congregations next year. Surely a very significant development if it comes to pass.
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StarryNight9
No merges here, just super-declining attendance. Merges here (rural area) would simply cut off all but the most die-hard JWs since the KHs can be spaced over an hour apart. A sell-off would increase some of the current travel times from 50 minutes to almost 2 hours (one-way). -
steve2
SBF, for the first time this year, jw organization website started giving country-country numbers but the report categories are reduced compared to the Yearbook report: click on any country where JWs are active and you get peak publishers, ratiio of witnesses to population and number of congregations - and nothing else. They provide global totals for Memorial attendance, baptisms ,Bible Studies, hours reported preaching, pioneers - but not country-by-country breakdowns. Very telling indeed. You can guarantee that a thriving, growing organization would NOT truncate its annual report on its activity. I call this phase, “Hiding the decline”.
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Drearyweather
They provide global totals for Memorial attendance, baptisms ,Bible Studies, hours reported preaching, pioneers - but not country-by-country breakdowns.
Steve2,
They do provide country by country breakdowns of baptisms, memorial attendance and pioneers.
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/books/2017-service-year-report/2017-country-territory/
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Phizzy
Interesting point from StarryNight9, the more they close Halls, the more likely attendance will drop off. A few years back some die-hard elderly JW's told me they no longer attended mid-week because of the cost, travelling by car in our Rural area.
How long before people like that don't go at all ?
Then more Halls will close, and more Congregations will be disbanded.
Good, the demise of JW Org gets closer !