Never let inconvenient facts get in the way of a good story!
FFGhost
JoinedPosts by FFGhost
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5
Annual meeting 2021 - food right on time
by closed inmy apologies if it was covered.
mark sanderson was stressing several times how timely the watchtower teachings are.
my thoughts on his example : the article on neutrality from november 1939. .
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SETTING LIMITS ON HOW TO LOVE by the the Guardians of Our Doctrines (G. O. D)
by Longlivetherenegades ina balanced view of jesus’ role.
like those in christendom, the early bible students mistakenly allowed their love for jesus to overshadow their relationship with jehovah.
beginning in 1919, however, they came to see that jehovah and their relationship with him should be the focus of their worship.
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FFGhost
In WT-world, it's all about qualifications.
Do you qualify for privileges of service?
Do you qualify for baptism?
Do you qualify to survive Armageddon?
Do you qualify for eternal life?
So, "do you qualify to love and be loved?" fits right in.
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Tony Morris hijacking GB
by asp59 inhas the gb been hijacked by tony morris?
hes the host many times on jw videos.
saying gb members wanting him too host.
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FFGhost
Remember that intelligence does not equal knowledge.
Not to worry - both are in short supply at the Warwick compound.
Speaking of which, someone on the JW Blabber site posted that the US Bethel compounds are on a semi-strict lockdown - folks can leave, but must go into quarantine when they return.
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Tony Morris hijacking GB
by asp59 inhas the gb been hijacked by tony morris?
hes the host many times on jw videos.
saying gb members wanting him too host.
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FFGhost
Morris strikes me as very likely the least intelligent (yeah, that's a low bar) guy on the GB. He doesn't seem very charismatic either, so it seems unlikely he is "taking over".
Splane always presents himself with an "I'm the guy in charge" air, and Sanderson does seem to be getting more prominent roles in explaining their "deep" things. If I had to guess, I'd say those two are the most influential.
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More cracks in the dam - WTS pleading for elders "in their early 20s"
by FFGhost ini have another post here about how the wts is reeling from covid, as reflected in their abysmally catastrophic service report:.
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6315842470936576/annual-service-report-yet-another-analysis-big-trouble-wts.
here's another rupture showing.. in the latest "announcements and reminders" to elders, there is a paragraph with these sentences:.
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FFGhost
Calling the service report abysmally catastrophic is a bit of a stretch.
OK, OK, it was a bit hyperbolic. How about merely "catastrophic"?
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More cracks in the dam - WTS pleading for elders "in their early 20s"
by FFGhost ini have another post here about how the wts is reeling from covid, as reflected in their abysmally catastrophic service report:.
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6315842470936576/annual-service-report-yet-another-analysis-big-trouble-wts.
here's another rupture showing.. in the latest "announcements and reminders" to elders, there is a paragraph with these sentences:.
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FFGhost
I have another post here about how the WTS is reeling from COVID, as reflected in their abysmally catastrophic service report:
Here's another rupture showing.
In the latest "announcements and reminders" to elders, there is a paragraph with these sentences:
It has been observed that in some congregations, few baptized brothers in their late teens and early 20’s are reaching out to serve as pioneers or ministerial servants. In some lands, relatively few young brothers are applying to attend the School for Kingdom Evangelizers, to serve at Bethel, or to assist in Kingdom Hall construction and maintenance. On the other hand, qualified younger brothers in some congregations have been held back simply because of their age.
Therefore, the Governing Body requests that all bodies of elders worldwide give priority to helping younger brothers grow in their relationship with Jehovah and qualify for congregation responsibilities.
Although relatively young in years, exceptional ministerial servants may already be viewed as spiritually older men and qualify as elders in their mid-, or even early, 20’s.
LOL^1000!
Coming soon: You too can get marital advice, counsel on raising children, and direction concerning your lack of appreciation for spiritual matters from Joe Elderson, who has never kissed a girl, who was homeschooled since the age of 6, who is still living with his parents in the same house, heck, same bedroom he's always had, who still has acne breakouts and who was not yet born during the Clinton presidency.
But hey! he's "exceptional", so it's all good.
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From MacHislopp--Grand Total Questions!
by Atlantis ini was asked post this for machislopp.
cookie thief!.
machislopp writes:.
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FFGhost
Are you factoring in deaths of JWs? There would close to or even over 100,000 JWs deaths per year in a population of 8 million plus, given that "true believers" tend to skew older.
Add in 10's of thousands of disfellowshippings per year and folks becoming "inactive" and there doesn't seem to be too much mystery.
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Annual service report - yet another analysis - big trouble for the WTS
by FFGhost inthere's already been a couple of threads on the 2021 report with insightful comments, but i'm vain enough to want to start my own topic with some additional thoughts..... as others on the other thread noted, it's useful to compare the 2021 numbers not only to 2020 but also 2019 (the last non-pandemic report).. there are some really troubling (if you're a wt headquarters guy) news in the latest report.. 1) baptisms plummet.
2021 - 171,393. baptisms dropped 20% in 2020, and 30% more in 2021. the total drop from 2019 to 2021 is an amazing 44%.. one could argue that without in-person assemblies and conventions you'd expect baptisms to drop.
but....if someone really wants to get baptized, jws will find a way.
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FFGhost
BB:
Point taken but
Whenever I did it in my dub days I found it incredibly boring
As if trudging from one empty house to another to another to another, in sweltering heat & humidity or bone-numbing cold, was something more than "incredibly boring"
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Annual service report - yet another analysis - big trouble for the WTS
by FFGhost inthere's already been a couple of threads on the 2021 report with insightful comments, but i'm vain enough to want to start my own topic with some additional thoughts..... as others on the other thread noted, it's useful to compare the 2021 numbers not only to 2020 but also 2019 (the last non-pandemic report).. there are some really troubling (if you're a wt headquarters guy) news in the latest report.. 1) baptisms plummet.
2021 - 171,393. baptisms dropped 20% in 2020, and 30% more in 2021. the total drop from 2019 to 2021 is an amazing 44%.. one could argue that without in-person assemblies and conventions you'd expect baptisms to drop.
but....if someone really wants to get baptized, jws will find a way.
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FFGhost
There's already been a couple of threads on the 2021 report with insightful comments, but I'm vain enough to want to start my own topic with some additional thoughts....
As others on the other thread noted, it's useful to compare the 2021 numbers not only to 2020 but also 2019 (the last non-pandemic report).
There are some really troubling (if you're a WT headquarters guy) news in the latest report.
1) Baptisms plummet
2019 - 303,866
2020 - 241,994
2021 - 171,393
Baptisms dropped 20% in 2020, and 30% more in 2021. The total drop from 2019 to 2021 is an amazing 44%.
One could argue that without in-person assemblies and conventions you'd expect baptisms to drop. BUT....if someone really wants to get baptized, JWs will find a way. JW social media is blanketed with video after video of JWs getting baptized in swimming pools, lakes, rivers, even laundry tubs & 55-gallon drums.
The count of JWs is based on "publishers", not "baptized people", and you can be an "unbaptized publisher", BUT....
The number of "unbaptized publishers" in any congregation is typically very small, usually less than 10% of the total. And probably 90% of the "unbaptized publishers" in a congregation are kids of baptized JWs not yet old enough to get dunked.
The decreasing count of new baptisms points toward major declines in future publisher counts, especially as the COVID death toll adds to the usual JW attrition.
2) Field service hours plummet
2019 - 2,088,560,437
2020 - 1,669,901,531
2021 - 1.423.039,931
Field service hours dropped 20% in 2020 compared to 2019, and another 15% in 2021 vs. 2020. The 2 year drop is 32%.
Without actual door to door or public witnessing, you'd expect the number to decrease, BUT....
On the other hand, it has literally never been easier to "get your time in". Just sit at home in your bathrobe making phone calls or writing letters. If you have Zoom, join in with your friends in their bathrobes, writing letters. With all the "easy time" that is possible now, how is there a 32% drop?
If a JW were really "zealous", he'd be writing, phoning, informal witnessing, etc. at every opportunity. Theoretically , we're in the "last days of the last days" - hardly time to reduce your activity by one-third.
3) Average Bible Studies plummet
2019 - 9,618,182
2020 - 7,705,765
2021 - 5,908,167
That's a 26% drop in 2020 vs, 2019, and an additional 23% drop in 2021 vs. 2020. The 2-year total drop is 39%.
This is arguably the most devastating number of all. Without Bible studies, no one progresses from "Bible student" to "unbaptized publisher" to "Baptized JW". The "pipeline" is drying up.
It's even more horrific when you consider that virtually all JW parents with kids under the age of 12 are counting the "family study" on their reports. In no way, shape, or form does a pandemic affect the ability of JW parents to study with their own kids in their own home - so that number is unchanged. So, the drop in [Bible studies other than with your own kids] is even more dramatic - undoubtedly more than a 50% drop in 2 years.
The WT organization is reeling. The overall numbers are still pretty OK for now, but that's mainly momentum. The numbers will drop precipitously in years to come. They have been utterly blindsided by the pandemic (so much for Jehovah "telling his prophets in advance") and have no clue how to right the severely listing ship.
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FFGhost
IIRC, Edward G. Robinson's last film role.