Posts by konceptual99

74

The Watchtower's Real Crisis

by JeffT in

jw
friends

when discussing the watchtowers financial problems, i've generally been of the opinion that they probably are not in a real financial crisis.

i've come to believe that money may be something of an issue, but its wrapped up in a much larger problem.

this came to me this morning when reading about the annual meeting.. i think the society's leadership is just plain out of ideas.

konceptual99

Virtually everything over the past few years has been distraction.

Rebranding, carts, meeting changes, organisational changes, restructuring, Warwick, Chelmsford, South Africa, the Silver Sword, broadcasting etc. etc.

The only major doctrinal point addressed in recent history has been the overlapping generation and that has been a classic exercise in trying to sell the impossible.

They have offered nothing in the meat of the scriptures and how world events are reflecting a progression towards Armageddon for YEARS.

The fluff and guff continues with the change to the WT & Awake. It's just meaningless and more and more people are working it out.

130

2017 Annual Meeting

by Jules Saturn in

this just in from the 2017 annual meeting:.

1. watchtowers and awakes won't be released regularly, at least three watchtower and awakes per year.

6 magazines a year.. 2. a new book is being released: remain in god's love, more of an update like how they did for the what does the bible really teach book.

This is very true Steve. The org is lost about it's position and place in time as far as it's understanding of the Bible is concerned. They are caught in this dichotomy of needing to feed urgency and expectation whilst also having nothing to give back in terms of concrete understanding of world events and their relationship with their beliefs.

To that end, I can believe that they might create their own news but you are absolutely right about the risks.

130

2017 Annual Meeting

by Jules Saturn in

this just in from the 2017 annual meeting:.

1. watchtowers and awakes won't be released regularly, at least three watchtower and awakes per year.

6 magazines a year.. 2. a new book is being released: remain in god's love, more of an update like how they did for the what does the bible really teach book.

konceptual99

I've seen this rumour hinted at on pro jw sites as well. Not sure if it's people speculating, people having some inside knowledge or simply the rumour mill but it would be interesting if true.

If true then it could be a tactic to raise expectation further or even something to try and deliberately encourage persecution and that feeling in the org that the world is turning against the Witnesses.

130

2017 Annual Meeting

by Jules Saturn in

this just in from the 2017 annual meeting:.

1. watchtowers and awakes won't be released regularly, at least three watchtower and awakes per year.

6 magazines a year.. 2. a new book is being released: remain in god's love, more of an update like how they did for the what does the bible really teach book.

konceptual99

Probably only publishing stats online so they can make adjustments to the # on the fly and not have to worry about print copies floating around proving the change.

Maybe but I am not sure that even the WTS would try that trick knowing how good a memory the internet has. I think it's simple financial common sense. The YB takes time to write and print. Every Witness orders one but how many read it? It ends up on a shelf, no use to anyone.

The website has plenty of capacity to promote the various experiences. The monthly broadcast has numerous life stories and accounts of times past. The Awake already has articles about countries around the world.

I think they will continue to publish figures. If they take this away then they reduce the drive to report. If they reduce the drive to report then they risk reducing the drive to go out. If people don't go out then the hold of the cult diminishes.

When I was an MS and always being battered about my hours in the ministry they would talk about the average hours being a benchmark. I used to argue the toss over this. Firstly I would ask about what scriptures they could use to back this up. None of course. Secondly I would ask them what the average is - congregation or national - and how would I know what it is? The national numbers had not been published in the Kingdom Ministry for years and the congregation average is not announced. Therefore how could I know what the benchmark was and if it was such an important benchmark why was it not being published.

Take that argument forward to if they stopped publishing the numbers. There is no incentive to report. The common argument used to be that the org needs to know numbers to know what literature to print. They've all but stopped compared to a 10 years ago. It makes no difference to them. Now they are not even printing different mags, just recycling the old ones.

Take the numbers away and people will ask why they bother at all.

4

Child Baptism

by konceptual99 in

the latest round of changes to the magazines are yet further confirmation that the wts has lost it's way with the preaching work.

imho this is driven by the incessant prioritisation of fiscal goals but also by the fact the gb don't have a clue what is happening in the world and how it really relates to their traditional eschatology.. what they have turned to is child baptism.

i know the wts says it does not baptise infants but the drive to encourage children to get baptised at earlier and earlier ages knows no bounds.

konceptual99

The latest round of changes to the magazines are yet further confirmation that the WTS has lost it's way with the preaching work. IMHO this is driven by the incessant prioritisation of fiscal goals but also by the fact the GB don't have a clue what is happening in the world and how it really relates to their traditional eschatology.

What they have turned to is child baptism. I know the WTS says it does not baptise infants but the drive to encourage children to get baptised at earlier and earlier ages knows no bounds. They seem to have accepted that the only way to keep the organisation from imploding is to lock in the kids.

We have seen numerous references in publications to child baptism in a positive light over the past few years. It's mentioned regularly and there plenty of pictures of young people getting dunked. Anyone who has attended CA/RC events over the past few years will testify to fact that most of the people getting baptised are born-ins and it's not uncommon to see pre-teens and early teens lining up to get baptised.

This gives the WTS two problems. Firstly, a bit like the congregation money grab, once a person is baptised that's it. They may inflate the baptism figures for some years but at some point is is highly likely that the rate of youth baptism will decrease simply because the pool of available young ones is filling more slowly than the numbers committing the organisation.

Secondly, just because a child is baptised it does not mean they will stay faithful. It's much harder for young teenager or pre-teen to follow through on their vow than someone older who has made a commitment to the organisation. They are changing and developing as people, subject to intense peer pressure and don't know how they might be affected as they change.

I think it is really telling therefore that the org has published an pair of articles specifically on this.

https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-december-2017/help-children-become-wise-for-salvation/

https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-december-2017/keep-working-out-your-own-salvation/

The first is aimed at parents but is clear that children can be encouraged to get baptised. It discusses what happens when a baptised child then expresses doubts.

The second is aimed at young people but it makes direct reference to pre-teen baptism:

For example, if you were baptized as a preteen, you likely will face new feelings and pressures as you enter and pass through adolescence.

The WTS wants kids to be baptised. It says it wants them to be convinced about their faith but knows that parents have to push that. It knows that there is far more chance of a child having issues through their teen years and so is trying to address it.

It's the a tactic of desperation and cannot work in the long term.

74

The Watchtower's Real Crisis

by JeffT in

jw
friends

when discussing the watchtowers financial problems, i've generally been of the opinion that they probably are not in a real financial crisis.

i've come to believe that money may be something of an issue, but its wrapped up in a much larger problem.

this came to me this morning when reading about the annual meeting.. i think the society's leadership is just plain out of ideas.

konceptual99

100% agree Jeff.

They have a massive issue in that nothing is panning out in the way they expected. Time goes on and the world keeps turning. 1914 and the generation has become a joke even amongst the faithful. They cannot make any statement that has any meaning about TKOTN since they know they don't have a clue. Predictions about the outworking of events leading to the big A and things like Gog of Magog are woolly and predicated on future events that can always be alluded to but never firmly established with concrete certainty. The figures they publish show the exact opposite in terms of indicators that were used to imply the nearness of the end 20, 30, 40+ years ago. Sustained large increases in certain fields have slowed, in some places reversed.

The doctrine and predictions are as unsatisfying when peeled back as everything they have ever criticised Christendom for and I think they know it. They seem to have accepted that the only route to sustaining some kind of base is to lock in the born-ins and try and offset yearly losses through some organic growth but mainly by getting kids to get baptised.

7

Door-to-door Going Forward

by berrygerry in

i found that the sale (placement) of books and magazines was always a challenge, but it was still attainable.

when the magazines switched from semi-monthly to monthly, magazine calls were automatically cut in half.

return visits that were made "just to say hi" were hugely awkward.. i never participated in the "please watch a video on my tablet" work, but i would imagine that the fail rate compared to magazine placement is massive.. reducing magazine frequency yet again would make me worked up inside.

konceptual99

I actually think that their approach has been changing to try and claim they are concentrating on reaching as many people as possible. The carts are in public places, where people are. JW.org is available 24/7 in hundreds of languages so that (in principle) anyone anywhere can access Bible Truth (tm) without the need to wait for someone to knock on their door. The D2D work continues in exactly the same way in terms of organisation and with the same visibility and focus.

The latest reduction in magazines and the shift to essentially a round robin of brochures means that Witnesses shall be encouraged to push route calls to being progressive studies or drop them for more productive work. The use of electronic media is natural for many people now and saves precious resources.

The R&F don't see a reduction in focus on preaching and are lapping up the changes.

Of course, the reality is that all of the above allow the WTS to reduce the manpower and resources needed to produce the literature. It saves an enormous amount of monthly burn and will make what they have last longer.

I've no idea if there is any knowledge or understanding that they are increasingly going through the motions, have no hope of realistically reaching let alone converting vast numbers of the global population, are actively undermining the sense of urgency they try and create elsewhere and are sacrificing whatever efficacy with preaching they had simply for fiscal gains.

What I can see is that they are increasingly open (desperate even) about getting born in kids baptised at as early an age as possible, perhaps recognising their only hope for long term survival is to bag the hearts and minds of young people as early as possible.

37

Do They Still do Door-to-Door as Much as Before?

by cofty in

since the advent of the trolleys do the majority of jws still go door to door like we used to?.

do they still have meetings for field service on sat mornings and sun afternoons where most head off to the local territory while one or two go to do trolley work or has the importance of door to door work reduced?.

with the reduction of printing wts and awakes what will they offer at the doors?.

konceptual99

The door to door work has not decreased in terms of opportunity. There are still the same number of meetings for field service as their always has been through the week and at the weekend. Territory is still worked in exactly the same way.

Attendance and participation in the door to door ministry is still as much a requirement for MS and elders as it ever was.

Most congregations organise the carts so as not to conflict with field service events, especially at the weekend. I suspect this is an instruction from the org but don't have a reference to hand. So those on a cart on a Saturday may start at 10:30/11:00 for example, and then it be manned until perhaps 12:30 or 13:00.

The Metropolitan Witnessing arrangement, which is basically the same cart work as everyone else but with a fancy badge so only the select few can take part is slightly different in that this work takes place for far longer, all day into the evening typically, but because it's essentially limited to pioneers then it's OK to conflict with congregation FS events.

So standard congregation cart work is not meant to be a substitute for other FS activities. The reality is that there are undoubtedly some who offset door to door work with standing for hours babysitting a trolley.

The other thing to consider is that Witnesses are encouraged to use videos on the ministry now far more. It's back to the days of the phonograph except now the literature side of it is not printed but electronic.

I don't have any insight on the impact on the ministry in terms of how regularly maps are worked but my wife does not seem to think there are less people out and she goes midweek and on a Saturday. She has not done the cart yet.

14

Simplified study watchtower

by Saltheart Foamfollower in

there seems to be some confusion over what is happening with the study edition of the watchtower - i notice it isn't mentioned in the letter to be read out.

if, as seems likely, it is going to be dumbed down even further then i think this could be the first step to shortening the watchtower study (to 30 mins?

) - it is the only meeting not to have been reduced in recent years.

konceptual99

I would speculate that is not just because the Spanish field is where they have had significant growth over the past few years but that this growth has been especially in poorer, less highly educated communities that still have a relatively high proportion of religious adherents. I don't think it's coincidence that they wanted to simplify the text for this audience.

14

Simplified study watchtower

by Saltheart Foamfollower in

there seems to be some confusion over what is happening with the study edition of the watchtower - i notice it isn't mentioned in the letter to be read out.

if, as seems likely, it is going to be dumbed down even further then i think this could be the first step to shortening the watchtower study (to 30 mins?

) - it is the only meeting not to have been reduced in recent years.

konceptual99

The Spanish edition of the study was turned into a single edition a while back. This uses simplified language. This same approach is being implemented with the English language version.

The reasons?

Firstly there is only one document to produce. Less cost.

Secondly it means that ideas are presented in a way that can be easily assimilated. You'd think that simplification would fail to satisfy those with some intellectual capacity but I think the evidence is that people like having this stuff on a plate. Those who wish to have a pseudo intellectual toss off session over things when answering, having private conversations or posting on jwtalk can still do so.

Thirdly it paves the way for a future reduction in the meeting length and/or merging with the CLAM workbook.