Posts by HappyHappyHappy1914

192

Question for SBF

by Fisherman in

slimboyfat, it appears that wts is going, gone digital.

can you show your view what is wts next move after they are completely gone from kings county and settled in warwick?

- this thread is your if you want it..

I've really like this thread. It's nice hearing a lot of differing opinions on the topic, although I think all of us can appreciate how little we ultimately know about the organizations financial situation. I think it is clear, however, that they have a bit of a cash flow problem. Otherwise, they would not be so quickly downsizing. And, for those that still think this is done to "speed up" the work and move more people into the field, you just have to look at the situation with the special pioneers. In many developing areas, special pioneers were the only thing propping up certain congregations/circuits. Once they leave (and they will have to to find work) the growth in many of those areas will decline.

I think we can all agree that there has always been a bit of unnecessary spending in the organization. What are all those people at Bethel even doing? One of the biggest shifts, that will save the organization heaps of case, is the off-side remote bethalite. This is someone who ties in via computer and who supports themselves entirely. The organization has no investment whatsoever. They can, essentially, run this organization this way. Graphic designers, video editors, proofreaders, translators. All this can be done from home.

I do think the numbers will begin to decline, but I don't think it will phase many of the faithful. It can easily be spun into the "end is getting close" and everyone will be excited to be a part of a nice select few.

Another asset that I think we tend to forget is all the older ones in the org who have no kids (or have shunned the ones they have) and are leaving everything to the org. I would guess the org has quite a few life insurance policies coming there way. I wouldn't be surpassed if there is more and more push for some of these more "alternative ways" of donating. I think people also tend to forget how saturated with KHs some of the metropolitan areas can be. Some are just a few blocks away from each other in rather expensive areas. Those can be sold and newer, muliple auditoriium halls can be built. And, if the org was really desperate, they could shorten the meeting times to fit in extra congregations. Can you imagine if the meetings were just an hour?

42

The special talk is now BEFORE the Memorial

by wifibandit in

august 11, 2017 to all bodies of elders re: 2018 memorial invitations and date of special talk .

fyi:.

the 2018 memorial will be held on saturday, march 31, 2018.. the 2019 memorial will be held on friday, april 19, 2019..

HappyHappyHappy1914

This honestly makes sense. The special talk was always a bit deflating because it followed that great "high" that was the memorial. It was tough, at least when I was "in," to see so many people packed into the hall for the memorial and then the numbers plummet back down to normal for the "special" talk.

28

An infographic I just created...

by HappyHappyHappy1914 in

hey everyone.

i don't post here often, but i lurk pretty much everyday.

i just created the following infographic based on the recent yearbook stats.

HappyHappyHappy1914

Happy1914, may I have your permission to translate it to portuguese?

Go for it!

28

An infographic I just created...

by HappyHappyHappy1914 in

hey everyone.

i don't post here often, but i lurk pretty much everyday.

i just created the following infographic based on the recent yearbook stats.

HappyHappyHappy1914

The problem in doing the extrapolations you are talking about is that being baptized and being a publisher are two entirely different things. When someone gets baptized, they are already a publisher and will continue to be one after baptism. That is why I kept most of my analysis to increases in average publishers. There is really no good way of getting at the numbers of those leaving unfortunately other than in kind of broad strokes.

28

An infographic I just created...

by HappyHappyHappy1914 in

hey everyone.

i don't post here often, but i lurk pretty much everyday.

i just created the following infographic based on the recent yearbook stats.

HappyHappyHappy1914

Hey everyone. I don't post here often, but I lurk pretty much everyday. I just created the following infographic based on the recent yearbook stats. I would love your thoughts.

66

Do you think the general public cares about former Jehovah's witnesses?

by Christian Gutierrez in

jw
friends

i was wondering if you guys think if the general public cares about our stories or if they even care what the watchtower does to people??

?.

HappyHappyHappy1914

The wider public doesn't really care about much for an extended period of time. It seems like, at least with American media, we jump from one scandal to another. I think the only real way that the wider public is going to care is if there is some large salacious scandal that the media can talk about for ratings. If, for example, there is an egregious lawsuit that has all the right elements to get blasted on the news.

I've thought long and hard about this topic, and from the perspective of JW activism I think we need to be focused on how the public views witnesses and from their perspective the only time they interact are those sleepy Saturday mornings every six months. I think the biggest thing, then, that activists could promote is that the person knocking on your door could be a child preditor and you would never know. The witnesses could be sending unreported sick pedophiles to the doors of the public when often the parents aren't home and a small child opens the door. I think that is the biggest lever to push in my opinion

67

Recent mistakes of the Governing Body contributing to the decline of JWs

by slimboyfat in

they have made so many strategical mistakes it's hard to keep track.

some changes within the last decade or so that are contributing to declining numbers of jws:.

1. elimination of book study groups, the most informal, enjoyable and sociable of the jw meetings, contributed to loss of sense of community among jws.. 2. policy of consolidating kingdom halls.

HappyHappyHappy1914

Great comments but I would like to add a few.

-The new songs and song book are terrible. No one likes them and, while maybe not a huge deal, made the meetings less enjoyable for alot of people.

-Over a decade ago, the organization could have done what a number of other evangelical groups did and adopt technology to court younger people's attention. Instead, the WT warned everyone about the dangers of the internet. Fast forward to 2012, WT abandoned that notion and threw themselves into technology at a rate that made the biggest technophiles scratch their head. The transition would have been much softer if they gradual rolled out these changes, instead of suddenly doing an about face. Congregations are frantically trying to set up TVs in all the halls and older ones are desperately trying to figure out their tablets.

43

Kids continue to leave in droves - so what is the organization's grand plan? This

by sir82 in

jw
friends

jws have one of the worst, if not the worst, retention rates among their kids.

i've seen numbers from 65% to 88% who leave, never to return.. you'd think this would be a priority amongst the leadership, right?

where do tomorrow's leaders come from, if the vast majority of kids leave the organization?

HappyHappyHappy1914

I think the organization has actually done alot to retain younger ones, all of which will ultimately fail. So much of the push to digital in the past few years, the largest transformation I have seen in the past few decades, is aimed at those youth who no longer see the org as dated, or simply the religon of their parents.

As far as reaching out for "privileges," there have been a number of recent WT articles that discuss how elders can "encourage" young ones. As you probably already know, their main tactics are to buddy up with those young ones and then engage in guilt pushing, "reminding them of their dedication" Dedicating your life to the org via baptism no longer just entails go to meetings and services, but essentially means you have to give every last ounce of your time and energy. If you are a young one with time one your hands and aren't reaching out, you essentially are going on back on your promise to God. You know, that one you were pressured to make when you were 11.

As much as they may try to keep youth with clever videos and fancy websites, today's young people are way too educated for that to work. They are bombarded at an unprecedented rate with information and entertainment opportunities. They are the instant gratification generation, who are not going to endure hours long boring meetings. No matter how much lipstick they slap on the pig that is this organization, meetings are still boring, the elders are still unreasonable, and service is still unproductive and terrible. Those things don't change because you have a tablet and the young people understand that.

44

Honeymoon over for the carts

by Deltawave in

speaking with inlaws i another congregation today who said exactly what is being said in our own hall.

the trolly work is long and boring and no one even notices they are there anymore but walk right on by.

jehovah really is speeding up the work lol.

HappyHappyHappy1914

I think we've seen this for a long time. However, it remains that the trolley work is still promoted heavily in magazines and broadcasts and sold as a super efficient way of ministering. However, it simply serves as a very easy way to get time.

Everytime I ask people who have done it how successful it is...they always get quiet and mumble something about how important is just for people to see it. They make it clear that people are not interested in having a conversation or even grabbing a book.

And I must add that this is another example of setting to lofty expectations. They are constantly told how amazing the work is and makes everyone who doesn't find success feel terrible about themselves. They must be doing something wrong. Its much like any other presentation.

13

Just realized this recently - as a JW, I never "owned" any of my accomplishments or talents & abilities....

by Muddy Waters in

just realized this recently - as a jw, i never "owned" any of my accomplishments or talents & abilities....we were always told how we are nothing, just specks of dust, grasshoppers, worms.... lowly, despicable sinners in need of redemption, born into sin & misery, constantly facing temptations that we could never handle on our own but only with "jehovah's help"... so we were continually marginalized, all our abilities and talents... they would even quote scriptures that said things like "why should we boast as if we didn't receive these abilities..?

"it was a weird mentally psychotic dichotomy -- being told we were worthless sinners, undeserving of god's kindness -- and on the other hand being the only ones who would survive the great day of jehovah the almighty god at armageddon.

(well, probably, maybe, if we did enough and *kept* doing enough...)so we didn't "own" any of our abilities and accomplishments.

HappyHappyHappy1914

I really appreciate what has been said in this post so far. One of greatest instruments of control the organization has is to make sure all the young ones only feel good about themselves for accomplishments inside the organization. You could cure cancer at 16 and the congregation would eye you suspiciously for not pioneering. They want your self worth to be determined by how many hours you put in each month or what "privileges" you have. Academic accomplishments are treated like nothing.

And this has a hugely traumatic affect on a person growing up, particularly teenagers who are have a natural tendency to please people. Once your self-esteem is tied to the organization, they have you were they want you. They can use guilt to make you do more and reward you for accomplishing everything by love-bombing and other carrots.

It is an absolutely cruel and horrible thing to do to a child to not celebrate their accomplishments. To punish them for pursuing anything other than a narrowly defined path. To relegate them to second-class citizen for not parroting WT thinking or fitting into some bizarre circuit assembly demo mold.

I think it is incredibly important to have discussions like these because sometimes we forget how controlling the environment and how manipulative the organization can be.