Posts by john.prestor

21

Short-sighted WT ?

by Tech49 in

it has always struck me that wt is so very short-sighted in many things.

often, they are very re-active, and not so much pro-active in their reasoning and the way they plan for the future.. just thinking today, and have kicked this one around for a while now.. is the watchtower organization truly sustainable?

is a new monetary structure on the horizon?

john.prestor

For all intents and purposes the organization serves the interests of the Governing Body and their helpers and a few other elites worldwide, Branch committees and Bethel heavies, Circuit Overseers, and that's pretty much it anymore since they axed the Special Pioneers and District Overseers. Most of these elites are pretty old by now, at least in their 40s if not 50s or 60s, they don't need to worry about 20 years down the line they'll be dead by then. Because the organization's concern is their concern, because they run the organization and enjoy a comfortable, leisurely, sometimes luxurious lifestyle through the organization they 'serve,' I doubt they think about the next generation very much. While the organization declines year-by-year it's not going anywhere fast, and as long as they keep retaining kids they can and will continue existing for the next 50 to 100 years in some diminished form of their former glory. Yeah, they aint gonna print as much, theyll lat off more Bethelites, sell more Kingdom Halls, keep hanging on the donation drum, but they won't just dry up and vanish like some prehistoric lake.

No fall but preceded by a declination.

24

“Millions now living will never die”

by HappyBlessedFree in

so i’m just reading the part in ray franz book “crisis of conscience” about the 1925 prediction of “millions now living will never die”.. ofcourse all witnesses are very familiar with this campaign.

yet none of us ever had an issue with it, including myself.

since the booklet was published in 1920, we are one year away from 100 years from that time.

john.prestor

Jehovah's Witnesses take pride in their organization's past, in its longevity and history just like Catholics, forgetting their grandparents and parents made the same prophecies for the last 140 years they peddle door to door today and look forward to. They're all complicit in it, not just the Governing Body. People's parents and grandparents, assuming they're alive, don't want to admit they believed things that never came true, especially 1975, and unless they kept a journal it's easy to forget or repress the past, or just listen to the Governing Body's latest revision of the past. Its the same reason they stock the library with old books but dont let you check them out: better to admire the past from a comfortable distance like a mountain range or plain.

21

Giving fake address to elder

by Addison0998 in

so i got married a few weeks ago, living a great life now with my husband, he was definitely the perfect guy for me :) but anyways, we are going to work on slowly fading, going to meetings once a week or every two weeks, and then in a few months move to a hall where nobody knows our families and the elders hardly know each other, and fade out a lot more.

but an elder asked for our address, which we didn’t feel comfortable giving him, because we don’t want any unexpected visits to “shepard” us, when we miss a few meetings, because they already text us when we miss 2 meetings in a row, which we had just gotten back from our honeymoon 🙄 so we “accidentally” gave him the wrong apartment number.

so if they ever come pokin around they will be lost, and if they call or text us we will just have an excuse for not replying.

john.prestor

I brought a buddy of mine to the hall one time and a Ministerial Servant I knew asked for his phone number within two minutes of meeting him. He gave him a fake number and the next time I saw the Witness he said he tried calling him and the number wasn't in service, did he write the number down wrong? I stifled a laugh as I insisted no no, that's his number, give it another try.

In other words, good for you. Be shrewd as serpents, right?

24

JW at a thrift store....

by Muddy Waters in

so i was recently in a thrift store, looking through some of the stuff there, when another aisle over, somebody sneezed.. (as far as i know, nobody lost a meatball.... 😅🙃 ...).

anyway, somebody sneezed.

and somebody immediately said, “bless you!”.

john.prestor

I mean if the lady doesn't want to say bless you so be it but she's going to tell somebody else not too also? Did she plan on explaining that whole nonsense to them? Bizarre.

3

Priests to made report..

by zeb in

today the 6-3-2019 .

the attorney general for the state of victoria, australia is to push legislation that will require priests to report any confession that reveals child abuse.. will elders be required to do so?

elders.

john.prestor

Probably depends on whether the Governing Body wants to call Elders clergy or non-clergy that week. Which way do you think they'll lean? Ain't a hard decision from where I'm sitting.

36

Need Help - How do I refute this???

by HappyBlessedFree in

so i was talking with my husband about all the things the organization is doing ie.

hiding pedophiles, lying about what 1914 was etc.

so his response was that the nation of israel had times when they weren’t doing the right thing, but it was still gods chosen organization.. another topic we were talking about was disfellowshipping.

john.prestor

I don't know what you believe or don't believe but I would really encourage you to avoid the whole Bible says this Bible says that thing in trying to help your husband see that the Governing Body takes advantage of him and others. You can go around in circles for your entire life debating what the Bible says or doesn't say because the Bible quite frankly says so many things.

24

Question? How Many Hours of Field Service Does it Take

by new boy in

jw
friends

currently, to create one new jehovah's witness convert?.

john.prestor

I'm pretty sure there's a page about this on jwfacts, you should go there. Paul Grundy knows his stuff.

14

JW.ORG at the grocery store.

by Queequeg in

today while i was having my groceries checked out, a lovely woman came up next to me in the line.. i glanced over at her... her face screamed "i'm a pain in the ass!

" she was obese and frumpy, and (i know maybe i'm projecting a little too much here...) she seemed to exude a sense of superiority, like, "i'm too good to be around these losers.".

i paid for my food and made a point of being especially nice to the checker because i figured her next person was going to be unpleasant.. as i was gathering my things, the checker asked this lovely woman, "is plastic ok?

john.prestor

Why wouldn't you feel self-conscious walking into a restaurant wearing a nametag, like who else does that? Maybe the Goberning Body hopes someone will ask about it and you can 'give a fine witness, kinda turn you into a walking advertisement kinda thing, but it almost feels like they're asking you to out yourself and feel like everyone's watching you instead of just enjoy your meal.

7

Is this JW Investment for the future?

by wozza in

jw
friends

i first had contact with jw's in the early 70's so i have seen many changes in that time like many people here.. in recent years we have seen the talk of many new kingdom and assembly halls to be built with urgency ,then suddenly it was put on hold ,then the halls were legally taken over by the society and congregations now renting ,if you will, back the halls they paid for and built with their own hands .i am talking generally as it would be different in some parts of the world.. people have been consolidated into neighboring halls as a lot of halls have been sold bringing in massive amounts of money for the wts.

over time policy ,scripture interpretation etc have changed ,people move about new ones get born in ,new people become jw,s and all this churning keeps people distracted.. eventually,over time surely the halls will fill up again with there being less of them around .i wonder whether this is part of wts strategy for the future fiscal plan ,that they can once again build the hysteria of the 80,s for quick built kingdom halls again ,and so then completing a cycle for future sell offs again ensuring future money and investment?

for ones born in or newer ones who were'nt around in the 80's it would all seem so fresh and exciting for the wts to sell it to them!.

john.prestor

I think you're right Wozza that any event that sounds Armageddon-esque (wars, natural disasters) definitely riles up the faithful, and maybe fills them with a little bit of 'zeal' which keeps um coming back and donating and preaching, but I still see that sustaining membership or slowly the decline, not growing membership; far as I can tell Russia didn't do much for them and they milked that for all its worth. For them to grow again I really think the Governing Body needs to predict a specific date for Armageddon, like 2040, Flodin hinted at that a couple years ago in a morning worship video on jw.org, or 2034, the 1990 Watchtower hinted at that. But they learned from 1975 not to do that, and with the age of the Governing Body Cook and Sanderson withstanding, they don't wanna rock the boat. They can live out the rest of their lives in comfort and moderate luxury as is, even as growth tapers off and donations dwindle. Most are what, 70-80 years old?

7

Is this JW Investment for the future?

by wozza in

jw
friends

i first had contact with jw's in the early 70's so i have seen many changes in that time like many people here.. in recent years we have seen the talk of many new kingdom and assembly halls to be built with urgency ,then suddenly it was put on hold ,then the halls were legally taken over by the society and congregations now renting ,if you will, back the halls they paid for and built with their own hands .i am talking generally as it would be different in some parts of the world.. people have been consolidated into neighboring halls as a lot of halls have been sold bringing in massive amounts of money for the wts.

over time policy ,scripture interpretation etc have changed ,people move about new ones get born in ,new people become jw,s and all this churning keeps people distracted.. eventually,over time surely the halls will fill up again with there being less of them around .i wonder whether this is part of wts strategy for the future fiscal plan ,that they can once again build the hysteria of the 80,s for quick built kingdom halls again ,and so then completing a cycle for future sell offs again ensuring future money and investment?

for ones born in or newer ones who were'nt around in the 80's it would all seem so fresh and exciting for the wts to sell it to them!.

john.prestor

That's an interesting thought. I don't think they can get the excitement of the late 20th century back Internationally or nationally, it's too late in the game at this point, what's there to be genuinely excited about? Armageddon ain't coming around the corner anytime soon and people kinda know it by now, at least, enough of them do.

That being said, if you got a nearly empty hall and you add in two or three more congregations it does change the emotional experience, there's more of a community, more temporary excitement, and frankly I imagine it'll come across like the organization is doing better than it is when Witnesses come flooding into the Kingdom Hall twice a week instead of looking at a driedup lake every service. I can see that sustaining membership, but not growing membership. What do other posters think?