Countries with zero or neg growth up from 7 to 22

by confusedjw 22 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  AK - Jeff

  If you were contacted or your children by JWs wouldn't you do research on the internet?

  I think this is the point, Confused. You hit it on the head!

  Even for those of us who just 'knew' something was wrong in the organization, but couldn't pinpoint it, the internet was the answer. A few searches and mouse-clicks later we find all sorts of information. True, we may have been dubious for a while, but with time we began to investigate and prove these things.

  And - viola - I and Mrs Jeff are out. So are many others.

  Absolutely - if any religion ever came to my door - the first thing I would do is look up what I could find on the internet. I don't see how the organization can battle it successfully. The more they demonize it - the more appealling it will seem. And those on the outside don't care how much the organization demonizes it.

  Thank the Lord for the internet!

  Just my opinion

  Jeff
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  JustTickledPink

  Did you count Alaska and Hawaii? You know they list them as "countries" also.. even though we know they are NOT. I don't have the figures for them though.

  Besides the internet, I don't think you can scare people as easily today as you could 100 years ago. It's the information age!
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  eyeslice

  I believe the underlying reason for negative growth is primarily due to the JW religion being an 'End time' religion that has made failed predictions in the past and now does not know what to teach next.
  
  What the internet has done is drawn that fact and a good many others to the attention of ordinary folk like myself. I was 'in' all my life and knew quite a lot of the history of the witnesses. What I never knew though was that Ray Franz had written a book or where to get it. The internet taught me that.
  
  Knowledge is power and that is what the WTBTS fears about the internet.
  
  Eyeslice
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  Poztate

  Remember when Japan was growing by double digits each year?

  I really get a laugh out of seeing Japan go to "0"

  For a number of years they were the "poster child" for the WT.

  They would have parts on the meetings.....look at Japan 15% growth last year

  look at Japan...35% are pioneers

  look at Japan...5000 new congregations formed last year

  I bet it's been a long time since Japan has been brought up at a SM in a effort to goad the flock into doing MORE..MORE MORE

  The % I quoted were made up but I know the numbers were quite high.

  I don't know how much is internet related and how much is due to cultural changes in the fabric of Japanese society...BUT I LOVE IT
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  ballistic

  Well you know how the Watchtower always put their own slant on figures, dates, proportions, numbers of acres per person, well...

  all those countries which were zero or even those with some small growth made a loss due to the fact world population is still increasing.
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  GermanXJW

  The charts remind me of the 1975 situation: a peak in 75/76, then figures go down to regain at the beginning of the next decade.
  
  It looks similar now: 1995 (done away with "Generation of 1914"), decline, some stagnation with the beginning of 2000
  
  But they had no internet back then, did they?
  
  I would have expected a bigger psychological effect of the beginning of the millennium...
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  willyloman

  At the elder's school a little over two years ago when the 15-minute "rule" was announced, the CO told us that this had been "piloted" in a European country and the result was a net gain in the publisher head count of about 2%.

  Therefore, all the worldwide numbers from last year are artificially inflated by that much (compared to prior years).

  It would be interesting to take your "survey" which revealed 22 countries at or below zero growth and ADD to it the number of countries that have 2% or less "growth." The result would be a far more accurate account of the decline in dub attendance and participation in recent years.
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  IP_SEC

  Yep and we also had the special campaign to reactivate inactive ones. In our cong we got 2 new pubs outa that as a direct result. That comes out to what? another 3% per cong?

  In the past 3 years we've only had 2 baptised. 1 already has grown family in the truth and 1 was a dub kido that got baptised.

  IPSec
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  jgnat

  GermanXJW and willyloman, another reason that decline is not as steep as hoped, fearful events. Since 9/11, there has been steady church growth in the denominations I am familiar with. People flock to the familiar when afraid. The slow growth may indicate that, in spite of fearful events, people are not sticking to the Kingdom Halls as fast as they might have.

  People coming back to the church these days are a new generation, with new demands. My church leaders have expended a great deal of time and energy understanding their needs, and adjusting their programs to accommodate.

  The WTS does not accommodate, does not flex. Generation lost.
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  badboy

  Its appears that in Japan,the jws become seen as anti-social etc.