If the statement, "4978 per week" is accurate, then:
4978 times 52 = 258,856
compared with 323439 (99)
288907 (00)
263431 (01)
Interesting.....
metatron
Are Baptisms Declining?
by metatron 11 Replies latest jw friends
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RunningMan
I believe that the baptism rate is the most significant number in all of the stats, because it represents the new growth of the organization. Over time, if they don't pick up enough new members, aging demographics will start to run the numbers down.
I don't have the numbers for 1998 handy, but in 1997, there were 375,923 baptized. This year's figure is the lowest since 1988.
As well, when you consider that Witness kids have a tendency to get baptized, then leave the organization later, the numbers look even worse. In my area, at least 80-90% of the baptisms are now witness kids. Almost no one is ever converted anymore.
For the most agressive recruiting organization in the world, one which spends over 1 billion hours recruiting, they don't have much to show for it.
If you take out underdeveloped countries (Africa, Central America, and the former USSR), the picture for the society is bleak indeed.
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rocketman
I had noted too for a long time that it's been mostly only jw's kids getting baptized. The numbers as some assemblies for actual new converts seemed pitiful some years, none at all, or maybe just one or two, in a circuit of 1,000 or so publishers working 5-10 hours per month for six months.
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integ
If you liken a pioneer to a salesman the numbers are dismal. I know pioneers that spend 70 hours a month supposedly actively attempting to make "sales". What is a sale in watchtower ease? Getting people to come to the hall. Nobody new had come to the hall in the 4 months before I basically stopped going, and the only ones that did come to the hall were mentally slow, stinky, half retarded type people. If they were "sales people" in the secular sense, they would be fired, not praised as exemplary. Getting somebody to "study" for fifteen minutes a week, cannot be considered a "sale". If that were true, sales people would be getting huge commissions for just talking a few minutes with prospective clients, and showing them their products. For there being a true "sale", the "client" would have to make some sort of commitment, such as attending the hall for a period of time, and that ain't happening.
Integ.
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dmouse
The figures for baptisms in the UK are
1999 - 2765
2000 - 2590
2001 - 2418
2002 - 2516
So far this year the trend is below that of last year.
The last assembly I went to the number of baptisms were remarkably low compared to my memories of the 80s - about a dozen men and women of all ages would get baptised at each assembly; now it's just a few arm-twisted JW kids.
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shamus
I would have to say that you need to see how many leave the troof. That's a huge number... and, like was said earlier, many ppl who get baptised are indeed the children, who end up leaving anyways.
Out of the crowd that I hung out with, like 15 people, only 5 are still in. Pretty slim pickings, I would say.
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Panda
Metatron, I'm glad that you posted this info. Who is getting baptized? Only dub kids? You'd think they'd know better? Are they baptizing younger? That way catch them before the autonomy of puberty hits.
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freedom96
I would love to see statistics on what percentage of those getting baptized are the kids in the hall, and it would be interesting to see how many leave via df'd, da'd, and those that fade away.
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ozziepost
<<mostly only jw's kids getting baptized>>
And then I wonder if the birthrate among dubs is declining? If so, as I suspect, then this source of baptisms is decreasing.
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kgfreeperson
Is childlessness still strongly encouraged?