JWs Back to No. 1 in Growth!

by Amazing1914 40 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Amazing1914

  
  The Jehovah's Witnesses, while nearly the smallest of the US denominations, is now back on top as the fastest growing in percentage. In previous years, the Roman Catholic Church not only grew more than the total number of JWs in the USA, but they grew about 3 times as fast. All that has changed now.

  The following chart is created from data supplied by the NCCCUSA. It is sorted by growth percentage. Several denominations show no change, likely because they only report restimates, or did not get their reports in on time. The total church members and actual total increases are shown at the bottom.

  It is interesting to note that of the total actual growth of all churches put together in the USA, 98.8% went to the Roman Catholic Church (852,663 RCC vs 863,448 ALL ). So, even though Rome loses to Watchtower this year in terms of percentage, they still exceed all churches put together.

  Rome increased 852,663 while the Watchtower increased 18,663. In other words, Rome grew nearly 46 times more than the Jehovah's Witnesses. The following chart was made much smaller, but the JWD program automatically reformats it:

  SIZE	CHURCH	2005	2004		ACTUAL		PERCENT
  RANK	DENOMINATION	MEMBERS	MEMBERS		GROWTH		GROWTH
  24	Jehovah’s Witnesses	1,041,030	1,022,397		18,633		1.82%
  4	Latter-day Saints (Mormon)	5,503,192	5,410,544		92,648		1.71%
  10	Assemblies of God	2,729,562	2,687,366		42,196		1.57%
  1	Roman Catholic	67,259,768	66,407,105		852,663		1.28%
  2	Southern Baptist	16,439,603	16,247,736		191,867		1.18%
  20	African Methodist Episcopal Zion	1,432,795	1,430,795		2,000		0.14%
  3	United Methodist	8,251,175	8,251,042		133		0.00%
  6	National Baptist, USA	5,000,000	5,000,000		0		0.00%
  8	National Baptist, America	3,500,000	3,500,000		0		0.00%
  11	African Methodist Episcopal	2,500,000	2,500,000		0		0.00%
  12	National Missionary Baptist	2,500,000	2,500,000		0		0.00%
  13	Progressive National Baptist	2,500,000	2,500,000		0		0.00%
  16	Churches of Christ, TX	1,500,000	1,500,000		0		0.00%
  17	Greek Orthodox	1,500,000	1,500,000		0		0.00%
  18	Pentecostal Assemblies	1,500,000	1,500,000		0		0.00%
  22	Baptist Bible Fellowship Int'l	1,200,000	1,200,000		0		0.00%
  23	Churches of Christ, MO	1,071,616	1,071,616		0		0.00%
  26	Church of God, Tenn	Off of Top 25	944,857		Off List		0.00%
  15	Episcopal Church	2,320,221	2,333,628		(13,407)		-0.57%
  5	Church of God in Christ	5,449,875	5,499,875		(50,000)		-0.91%
  14	Lutheran – Missouri Synod	2,488,936	2,512,714		(23,778)		-0.95%
  7	Evangelical Lutheran	4,984,925	5,038,006		(53,081)		-1.05%
  21	United Church of Christ	1,296,652	1,330,985		(34,333)		-2.58%
  19	American Baptist	1,433,075	1,484,291		(51,216)		-3.45%
  9	Presbyterian	3,241,309	3,407,329		(166,020)		-4.87%
  25	Orthodox Church in America	1,000,000	New		New		New
  	GRAND TOTAL	147,643,734	146,780,286		863,448		0.59%

  SOURCE:

  2005: http://www.ncccusa.org/news/050330yearbook.html

  2004: http://www.ncccusa.org/news/04yearbook.html
• 

  Elsewhere

  lmao!

  Very sad when you think about it. Looks like the christians are having some trouble keeping their numbers up.
• 

  acsot

  And when we factor in those who are faking their time and therefore shouldn't be counted as JWs? Just might offset that "increase", hopefully! Besides the fact that much of their "increase" is due to the kids getting baptized way too young. Anything for numbers!
• 

  Nathan Natas

  Baptism is the first step to becoming an XJW.

  Simon, get ready for more visitors!
• 

  potleg

  But when you figure in all the preaching/recruiting work etc and the thousands of hours spent, it doesn't seem so good to me. Isn't it a bit like someone who trains for a race and only just beats some out of shape guy who smokes,drinks and watches 15 hours of TV each day. Not an impressive victory! Given all the time and effort witnesses put in , along with their regular (sales) meetings, you'd think they'd be miles ahead.
• 

  Satanus

  Like potleg said. The catholics don't try at all. The wt meanwhile beats it's slaves mercilessly to go faster, do more, do more, go faster, calls them slackers. Poor, dumb beasts.

  S
• 

  Satanus

  I would say also, as a side note, that the more of the us population that goes catholic, the more the usa becomes like europe, becomes like the people of the world, and less of the permanent revolution mentality. Not that i'm procatholic, or anything. It's just a stage towards oness and tolerance.

  S
• 

  Rod P

  I would point out that percentage can create a wrong impression.

  If you have a smaller membership base, it is a lot easier to bring in a higher percentage increase in the number of members. It takes fewer bodies to produce a higher percent increase if you have a lesser population.

  If you have one million members, it is a lot easier to bring in 20,000 new members to produce a 2% increase, than it would be if you had five million members having to bring in 100,000 new members to produce the same 2%.

  I am reminded of the stock exchange, where a stock starting off at ten cents a share is a lot easier to increase by 100% to twenty cents a share, than it is to take a $1.00 stock to $2.00 to get the same 100% increase. I know some stock promoters who work on exactly that principle.

  JW's are supposed to be pro-active about bringing in new recruits. Catholics, on the other hand, at least in North America, seem to be a lot less involved in recruitment (proselyting); yet look at how many they increased in one year. I just think that putting JW's at number one on the chart based on simple percentages seems to me to be presenting a questionable impression.

  Rod P.
• 

  Amazing1914

  Rod,

  If you read the text of my post, I deal with your concern. Of course the little increase for the JWs is 45 times less than the increase for the RCC. Of course, as the base gets larger, the rate of increase is harder to maintain. Over the last few years, the "%" rate of increase for the RCC has been 3 times that of the JWs. So, in addition to being a giant church, their increase dwarfed the JWs.

  This is the first year in a few where the JWs have come up in their rate of growth compared to other churches. Actually, it is not so much that the JWs rate has improved, as the rate of the larger churches was not so good in 2004.

  Jim W.
• 

  kls

  Actually, it is not so much that the JWs rate has improved, as the rate of the larger churches was not so good in 2004.

  Amazing ,i think that is the answer and the real explanation for the so called growth.