in a separate thread on the very latest figures for the current world wide annual report of jws, discussion turned to how "we'll know decline has really set in.
one of the posters said: .
the figure that interests me most is the number of congregations.
My anecdotal evidence comes from shirt tail relatives in the US northeast. They had 1 congregation in their area in the 1980s which split into 2 congregations in the early 1990s. Now both congregations are nearly empty and they are considering merging.
I've heard them say that attendance is way down in most of the congregations in their area. Their area is suburban.
i'm in a crazy situation.
about a year ago, i was going to get baptized.
it was all planned and arranged until ttatt was learned.
Great advice everyone. My thought was to talk with the elders. Perhaps even stalling your dad by saying you want to study more and get your service hours up....all lies just meant to buy you time.
While slowing them down by seeming sincere you could talk to your school counselor, find an alternate safe place to live and find some sort of job that would help you get ready to live on your own or with some roommates.
There's no easy answers when dealing with fanatics like the witnesses. Best of luck.
me and my wife are still "in".
we had the "talk" a couple of times, but shet is not ready to leave yet.
while a couple of years ago she started crying on the thought that i am an "apostate" and even gave me an ultimatum until she would rat me out to the elders (never happened), now i sense that she might is a little bit more open to the the thought to leave one day .... anyway, all out friends and family are still in the truth and whenever we are meeting with other witnesses topic #1 is always the recent changes to the meetings / conventions (reduced to one day) which always lead to the changes to the magazines and the recent lay offs of the special pioneers and bethelites.
I've heard similar talk among my wife and a couple of her friends and relatives. Mostly they try to not talk about witnessy stuff if I'm around so I don't hear a lot but I hear enough to know they're confused by all the changes. Sort of happy and sort of confused. In the end it seems they all feel it must mean the end is around the corner....What will happen when the end doesn't come real soon?... I have no idea.
Right now there's a zealous sister who was assigned to my wife to get her more involved in the congregation. This happens every few years. It works for awhile but my wife is truly apathetic and so far all attempts to really get her to be more active only work for a little while and then burn out the person assigned to help her. We'll see what happens this time.
i was having dinner at olive garden with my cousin who was disfellowshipped for apostacy.
a holier than thou pioneer couple saw us.
if that was not enough i saw her take a picture of me with my cousin.
what if the governing body members bought a ticket or somehow obtained one.
then the unthinkable happens...they won!
how would they be able to hide that?
MNNC, If I win the lottery at this point in my life - I would buy as many lots of land next to the KHs in my area and build adult stores, strip clubs, liquor stores and masage parlors.
With one fell swoop I would offend half the dubs and get richer off the other half.
so i had a phone conversation last night, i'm not proud of myself but that is how the cookie crumbles.
started off all well & good then up came the arc which i was informed was all propaganda & the oct 2012 polices i got from the internet are apostate & not true.
so i lost the plot, completely lost it, & let out everything i was feeling.
well, well, that was quite a heartfelt welcome on this site four days ago.
thank you all for the encouraging replies.
one of them was this one from magnum: "hey now, don't just pop your head in and disappear.
i belonged to this forum for about 5 years ; 14 years ago and made many good online friends here.. it became my new family for awhile and i am very grateful for all the help i received.. for the first time in 10 years i went into a kh for a funeral, bearing in mind it was at the hall where my husband had been the presiding overseer and regular pioneer for many many years.. they were very surprised that i remembered all their names and was confident and happy.. someone said so are you back in the truth, i said simply !
yes i have my truth, thanks.. the elder in question said " well time will tell ?
"and i said yes it has hasn't it, but we aren't in competition..
Great reply to the people at the KH Happeanna! I will try to remember it for my own use at this year's memorial (it's the only meeting I still attend with my wife).
David_Jay great to have you on the board and to see you posting. I totally agree with what you said about reconnecting with other ex-witnesses that we used to know. I remember finding it really hard to approach other ex-witnesses that were my good friends that were disfellowshipped. I was embarrassed about how I treated them. They were forgiving, loving and kind and our friendship continues.
what if the governing body members bought a ticket or somehow obtained one.
then the unthinkable happens...they won!
how would they be able to hide that?
When I was a witness I always thought that if I bought a lottery ticket Jehovah would allow me to win so I would get in trouble with the elders.
That is just so stupid and wrong on so many levels. Very embarrassing to be brainwashed.
i wanted to relate an experience that happened this morning.
it is regarding the new format for the meeting on thursdays in my area.
its not word for word but im summarizing what i heard, the best i can remember.
