Posts by insidetheKH

72

Is the preaching work, no longer the number 1 priority?

by ToesUp in

i have been observing a pattern in recent wtbs publications and events.

is the importance of the preaching activity no longer the number 1 priority?

are not billions of lives still at stake?.

insidetheKH

my last comment for today

It seems that you're saying that JW growth rate (baptisms) is greater than JW birth rate, and that therefore, there must be JW recruits from outside JWdom. In other words, it seems that you're saying that if, for example, JW growth (baptisms) is 1.5%, and birth rate among JWs is only 1%, that some of those baptized must be coming from the outside due to the preaching work. If that's what you're saying, then your argument is flawed for several reasons.

birthrate about 1.5% death rate 0.8% df'd/da'd/inactive about 0.4%

so if you look only at the birth rate and death/df'd rate you will see that there will be (from births) a net annual growth of 0.3% left

but instead of that the actual annual growth is between 2 and 2.5%

So the question is who are those people that represent between 1.7% and 2.2% ? I agree that a part of them can be other kind of family members (which in my opinion still fall under the witnessing/preaching work) but still a large part of the growth must come from outsiders.

72

Is the preaching work, no longer the number 1 priority?

by ToesUp in

i have been observing a pattern in recent wtbs publications and events.

is the importance of the preaching activity no longer the number 1 priority?

are not billions of lives still at stake?.

insidetheKH

@magnum i understand what you mean but i consider other family connections not as born ins and so also result of witnessing/preaching work

72

Is the preaching work, no longer the number 1 priority?

by ToesUp in

i have been observing a pattern in recent wtbs publications and events.

is the importance of the preaching activity no longer the number 1 priority?

are not billions of lives still at stake?.

insidetheKH

@data dog

No,

we are talking about facts! JW's are humans not rabbits

average human death rates and birth rates are known

the actual growth of average no. of publishers between 2004 and 2014 is also known, like i said 1.9 million

you can do the math.

72

Is the preaching work, no longer the number 1 priority?

by ToesUp in

i have been observing a pattern in recent wtbs publications and events.

is the importance of the preaching activity no longer the number 1 priority?

are not billions of lives still at stake?.

insidetheKH

@village i became a witness myself in 2009 through door to door work. One older lady (56 years old), a cathloic, became a biblestudent because of my witnessing work, she is attending weekly meetings and actively participating in the WT study and is making progress towards baptism.

She was one of those on my monthly magazine route. The first time that i visited her was in the summer of 2013. At that time she was very opposed to JW's and her house was litterally full of Maria and Saint statues. She had drawers full of icons and rosaries.

Every time i was patient and friendly and we had a short conversation. After twelve months or so she became more receptive. i often asked her about her catholic services and sermons. And asked her if she would be interested to hear a public talk on mp3.

She said yes. She was impressed by the public talk. The subject was honesty. She said... 'It was really about the bible!' and decided to type the whole talk on her laptop. Not long after that she agreed to visit a KH once. She was amazed how she was welcomed by everyone and how much the bible was used during the talk and that all people were really reading and studying and that even youngsters and kids were participating and that everyone knew eachothers names. And there was no one asking for money

few months later she had thrown all the maria/holy stuff out.... removed the icons from the frames and replaced with family pictures and wrote herself out of the catholic administration.

Now she is coming every sunday , is a weekly biblestudent. Another married couple (both members of an evangelical church) are bible students. I also met them through door to door work. And a younger man is studying with me but i met him through informal witnessing

72

Is the preaching work, no longer the number 1 priority?

by ToesUp in

i have been observing a pattern in recent wtbs publications and events.

is the importance of the preaching activity no longer the number 1 priority?

are not billions of lives still at stake?.

insidetheKH

@oulaw it seems they have beaten your brains out

72

Is the preaching work, no longer the number 1 priority?

by ToesUp in

i have been observing a pattern in recent wtbs publications and events.

is the importance of the preaching activity no longer the number 1 priority?

are not billions of lives still at stake?.

insidetheKH

@village this thread is about growth and the question if the new ones are born ins or came through the witnessing work.

Anyone who can do math can figure out that the majority of growth comes from the witnessing work, It's very simple. Local or regional situations do not matter.

let me give you an example.

lets assume that in the last 10 years JW's got 800,000 babies and that they all became publishers (the real nr of babies is far less cause this number is based on 8 million publishers).

and lets assume that during the same decade 500,000 JW's died and that 400,000 were df'd or da'd

compare that with the actual growth over 10 years. around 2004 there were about 6 million average publishers. in 2014 there were about 7.9 million average publishers.

so that is +1.9 million.

Its obvious this cant come from births. They are (assuming that 100% of those kids become publishers) barely enough to keep up with death rate and nr of df'd/da'd ones.

conclusion the majority of new members comes from outside of the organisation

72

Is the preaching work, no longer the number 1 priority?

by ToesUp in

i have been observing a pattern in recent wtbs publications and events.

is the importance of the preaching activity no longer the number 1 priority?

are not billions of lives still at stake?.

insidetheKH

@Outlaw it is not a lie. it is what JW's are supposed to believe. Look it up in the study watchtower of this coming weekend.

72

Is the preaching work, no longer the number 1 priority?

by ToesUp in

i have been observing a pattern in recent wtbs publications and events.

is the importance of the preaching activity no longer the number 1 priority?

are not billions of lives still at stake?.

insidetheKH

@DD if you read what i wrote you would have known that i did not tell that local experience as a basis for proof.

On the contrary i showed it only to make clear to @Village that local examples can't be extrapolated to the rest of the world.

if we talk about growth lets stick to the facts. The facts are clear... growth rates,,.. birth rates.. death rates etc etc

72

Is the preaching work, no longer the number 1 priority?

by ToesUp in

i have been observing a pattern in recent wtbs publications and events.

is the importance of the preaching activity no longer the number 1 priority?

are not billions of lives still at stake?.

insidetheKH

@outlaw this discussion is about growth not about pinocchio.

and the growth continues as we speak,.. only 27 weeks to go to 8.4 million publishers.

72

Is the preaching work, no longer the number 1 priority?

by ToesUp in

i have been observing a pattern in recent wtbs publications and events.

is the importance of the preaching activity no longer the number 1 priority?

are not billions of lives still at stake?.

insidetheKH

@village at this moment most growth is indeed in latin/south america, africa, asia. And indeed there is still growth in the US and some other western countries. But also the situation in western countries we should see in the right perspective. The last 5 decades Europe/U.S are becoming secular at high speed. Church attendance and membership is dropping ultrafast. Churches are closing down etc etc. In that kind of environment JW's hold ground or even manage to grow slightly. That on itself is significant.

Informal witnessing is a great way too. But lets not forget that JW's do not believe that they'll have to convert people. They just give a witness and believe that it is Jehovah who makes sure the desireable things of the nations will find their way into the kingdom halls.