I just don't get where people say this "hemorrhaging" of members. In my entire 30 years of being a JW in my city nothing but growth has happened over time. New halls were formed or split and new halls were built. The circuit went from 2 parts to 3 and even now the attendance is almost at the max capacity. Where is this massive members leaving? In my own personal life I don't even know one apostate outside of myself. Most of the people that got df'd in my lifetime eventually came back. Even the young kids that left or got in trouble came back in their late 20s and 30s.
sloppyjoe2
JoinedPosts by sloppyjoe2
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31
Make your predictions!
by Coded Logic inthe more specific the better :) here are mine:.
i predict that within the next two to three years (2017-2018) we will start seeing negative numbers in growth.. i predict that within the next thirteen to fifteen years (2027-2030) the number of jws will be less than 4million.. and i predict that by the time the first person sets foot on mars there will already have been a major split in the organization with either one of the gb or a branch overseer starting a new religion..
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31
Make your predictions!
by Coded Logic inthe more specific the better :) here are mine:.
i predict that within the next two to three years (2017-2018) we will start seeing negative numbers in growth.. i predict that within the next thirteen to fifteen years (2027-2030) the number of jws will be less than 4million.. and i predict that by the time the first person sets foot on mars there will already have been a major split in the organization with either one of the gb or a branch overseer starting a new religion..
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sloppyjoe2
I do love these predictions of demise for the organization that have been on this board for the past 15 years. I predict the organization will grow as always, changes will be made. People on here will continue to predict it's demise and give reasons why, and it won't happen. The org will be around long after we are all gone. -
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Does the W.T have financial problems are are they just rebranding?
by The Rebel init is evident that the w.t has recently re-branded itself, and has become fairly modern in its marketing techniques.
so the organisation is in that respect forward thinking, and the former way of doing things has past.. .
but this rebranding has been done by marketing experts, who maybe realise progress is progress, and that with modernisation many bethelites " even as free volunteers" are possibly no longer required.
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sloppyjoe2
There is more to a cost per bethelite than just the monthly stipend they receive. Everything a bethelite is given access to has a reduced price. They get fuel, auto repairs, commissary food, and so on all supplied with a lower price. Food for 3 meals a day 7 days a week, electricity consumption and what I believe to be the highest cost, healthcare. With the 25 percent reduction you can cut all of that out plus whatever these 25 percent do for work can it now be done electronically or by machine? The costs begin to start to build. This isn't a business to be extremely profitable, they merely want to have more money coming in than going out. As far as waking people up, everyone seems to forget that they had lay offs from bethel out of no where back in the early 2000s. People then who had been at bethel for years were reassigned as pioneers, because, the preaching work needed to be done more quickly. JWs have no memory at all, not one I have spoke to even recalls that being the reason the last time this happened. There was no "waking up", all those people just went where they were reassigned and moved on. The same will happen again. -
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Does the W.T have financial problems are are they just rebranding?
by The Rebel init is evident that the w.t has recently re-branded itself, and has become fairly modern in its marketing techniques.
so the organisation is in that respect forward thinking, and the former way of doing things has past.. .
but this rebranding has been done by marketing experts, who maybe realise progress is progress, and that with modernisation many bethelites " even as free volunteers" are possibly no longer required.
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sloppyjoe2
Stephen Lett told everyone in the broadcast that more money is going out than is coming in. In big business when this happens, cuts are made. Sometimes those cuts help the company stay afloat. Sometimes they even turn the company completely around to be a thriving profitable business again. That's what the 25 percent reduction is. They are cost cutting so that income is higher than expenditures again. When all is said and done, there will likely be no financial problem anymore. -
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Our assembly expenses were $16,900 for ONE DAY - Please share yours
by nmthinker in~2300 in attendance.
one day cost of $16,900!.
this was at romeoville, which was built ground up in the 90's and was fully paid for by the illinois circuits!.
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sloppyjoe2
The per person charge is the "profit" they make. Actual expenses are tallied into that total cost that are read at every circuit assembly. The entire amount is not the per person cost. The actual expenses are put into that total and THEN they add the per person cost. That per person cost is pure cash money to the branch. -
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Our assembly expenses were $16,900 for ONE DAY - Please share yours
by nmthinker in~2300 in attendance.
one day cost of $16,900!.
this was at romeoville, which was built ground up in the 90's and was fully paid for by the illinois circuits!.
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sloppyjoe2
I posted this in another thread. Circuit assemblies have a set expense per publisher assigned by the branch. In your case the likely assigned expense was 5-6 dollars per publisher plus actual expenses. So every assembly pays their share of heating, upkeep, renovations, traveling expenses for speakers and then they add the per publisher fee. That's how it's been done for many years. -
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Blondie's Comments on the 11-8-2015 WT Study
by blondie inblondies highlights from the 11-08-2015 wt study (july 15, 2015).
excellent general website: www.jwfacts.com .
paragraph 11-15 recreation.
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sloppyjoe2
How did got put a conscience in the humans but no knowledge of good and bad? It wasn't until they ate from the tree that a conscience would have even kicked in. -
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One day assemblies
by Sour Grapes inthis may have been discussed before.
the costs for using the assembly hall for a one day last saturday was $12,000 with another assembly for the other half of the circuit on sunday, which will ring up another $12,000.
if the assembly was for two days the friends might roll their eyes if it were announced the costs for the two days was $24,000.
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sloppyjoe2
You have to know how assembly costs work. There are fees shared by the entire circuit such as flights for speakers, upkeep of the buildings and renovations, televisions or projector screen bought and so forth. Those are tallied up AND THEN the assembly overseer notifies the accounts department of what the cost per publisher the branch has set for the assembly. This either comes by letter or through the circuit overseer. So let's say that the ACTUAL expenses of the assembly for a day are 5000 dollars. The branch then adds a cost of $7.50 per publisher. The his cost per publisher is different based on the location. There are 900 publishers assigned to that particular assembly. 900 x 7.50 = 6,750. Add the actual expenses of 5000 to 6750 and the total expenses become 11,750. THAT is how circuit assembly expenses are factored. Now what jay dubs haven't seemed to figure out yet is that even though two day assemblies are no more, the one day they are there the expenses have remained the same. Even my dad mentioned that they should have gone down, but yet he keeps on donating.
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Let’s Speculate!!!
by John Aquila inyou know the organization is slowly going down.
not as fast as we would wish, but nevertheless it is crumbling.
five (5) year old child baptisms, smaller magazines, child sexual abuse exposed, smaller annual growth, no one wants to reach out, young ones leaving.
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sloppyjoe2
Will there still be a Governing Body?
Yes, of younger anointed.
Will they finally drop 1914?
No, check out he seventh day adventists. They still hold 1844 as a significant date, JWs will hold to theirs.
Will the blood doctrine finally be dropped?
No
Will disfellowshipping be dropped?
No
Will there still be Circuit Overseers, Elders, Pioneers?
Yes
Will there still be Judicial Committees?
Yes
Will they still have conventions 3 times a year?
I think the push here is to do as much as possible in watchtower owned assembly halls. But that will take time. The conventions are big money makers.
How many meetings will they have a week?
Your guess is as good as mine but I say still 2.
Will they still go door to door preaching?
I think they will still have some forms of it but I think trolly cart is where they are headed.
Will they drop the name; “Watchtower Bible and Tract Society?”
No, that's their legal corporation names.
How many members will they have worldwide?
My guess is 18-20 million
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Is Satan really a liar, and the father of the lie?
by Israel Ricky Gonzales in5 for god knows that in the very day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like god, knowing good and bad.. .
genesis 3:22. jehovah god then said: here the man has become like one of us in knowing good and bad..".
for god knows that in the very day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like god, knowing good and bad.?.
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sloppyjoe2
Genesis 3:22 Jehovah God then said: “Here the man has become like one of us in knowing good and bad. Now in order that he may not put his hand out and take fruit also from the tree of life and eat and live forever, 23 With that Jehovah God expelled him from the garden of E′den to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken.
This is a topic I never really can get anyone to discuss. But I would like to point out that as JWs we were taught that Adam and Eve sinned and therefore that was the moment that their bodies began to die. The bible indicates that this is not true in my opinion. As you can see at the end of verse 22, if God had allowed them to stay in the garden, they would have still lived forever by eating from the tree of life, this would be even after they "sinned". In other words they still would have lived forever even after "sinning". So eating the fruit did not cause their bodies to start dying, but not being able to eat from the tree of life is what caused their bodies to start dying.