Take it from me, the Watchtower WILL completely disappear. You cannot stop evolution. The organisation is already being watered down by those from within. The internet is also playing a major part in its downfall. I'm pretty sure there'll be one or two new Ray Franz's, also, who can no longer stomach the hypocrisy, lies and the allegiance to a hegemonic upper class who receive less spiritual diection from Christ than Muslim Mullahs!
This may ramble a bit I usually do when annoyed
Dansk in some ways is right. The WT is its own worst enemy. The way it behaves, the things it comes out with. People who leave are no longer afraid to speak out against , publishing books etc. The books available now is tremendous. The Internet of course is the biggest factor, if only it had been around 30 years ago then I would never have become a JW. The WT is fight a desperate action against all this, its toughing up on those still in. The District Conventions theme shows that £Godly Obedience" every talk about obeying the WT. One day they will implode in on themselves
I know that my old congregation is the same number of publishers as it did when I left 6 years ago. When I look back to the early 1990's and we built a new Kingdom Hall, shared by two congregation capable of seating 300 people. Its never come anywhere near that doing that , even during the Memorial. Sunday meetings in my old congregation used to average 120-130 now they lucky to get a 100 I believe and thats a congregation of 85 publishers. I think at one time they even thought of merging the two congregations back into one, but it was vetoed.
I hear more and more often of those who are still JW's who are just "going through the motions" no longer believing but staying in because of family they would loose if they did leave. Then there are those that do leave no longer frightened by the threats of the Elders.
One of these days something will happen which will shake the majority of the members of the WT. Back 1995 they changed the "generation and sheepand goats" teachings, two major teachings, caused many to leave and to question. Can you imagine the effect if they do something similar again. Lets say they drop the blood doctrine, or make it a "matter of conscience" without any strings, like if you have blood you DA yourself as they say now. Make it no different than the teaching on organ transplants. That would be world news.
As numbers dwindle the maintaining of Bethels etc will not be sustainable. Patterson was built on the assumption that growth of the WT would be a 5-6% increase every year worldwide. But since the late 1990's its averaging about 2-3%, some countries, like Britain, are even having negative or zero growth which at one time would have been unheard of. When I left Britain had a peak of 132,000 publisher, average 125,000, now it will be lucky to get a peak of 125,000, with an average of 120,000.
The Watchtower organisation itself may dwindle and might disappear, but there will be that hardcore who will still meet in maybe the only KH in their area, or even in a home.
But we can be assured it will happen. We must be sure it does by our continous attacks on the WT, revealing information about them like the UN debacle, making sure people know about them. Helping those in, to come out.