TheOldHippie

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Posts by TheOldHippie

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  74

  Jehovah's Witnesses May Have Peaked in Membership at 8 Million (+/-)

  by OnTheWayOut in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i don't have all the details of their new "service year" numbers, but i have read enough on jwn to state my opinion pretty strongly.. memorial attendance for 2015 was down.while they kept saying they were going to build a bunch of new kingdom halls, and everybody is still in recovery from watchtower taking all the local money away, they say pretty much that there isn't enough money to build new kingdom halls.putting gb members on the videos at jw .

  org has allowed people to really put a face and personality to these guys and remove the mystery of how they should be such deeply spiritual serious men.

  instead they see silly thoughts about tight pants and, really everything that comes out of lett's mouth is delivered ultra-goofy, along with the money reports.. the gb lost credibility a little more with every new light that shone down, with the strangest one being "overlapping generation.

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  TheOldHippie

  Let us get down to business:

  Let us see it from within:

  It is God's organization. How can God show His displeasure, show that He is angry with what is happening? He can let the organization experience stagnation or decline.

  How? He cannot do it thru letting "members" flee from His organization, because whereto would they then flee? (I am careful in choosing the wording "where" and not "whom" here). Should they flee to Christendom? No way. It is His organization, it sticks to the core beliefs He wants it to uphold, such as trinity, soul, hell, hereafter etc. He does not want His followers to join organizations supporting unchristian belief. He can do it, therefore, in slowing down the pace of new members entering, thus showing that this no longer is His clean organization to which He wants His followers to enter.

  What has changed? A decade ago, the number of new converts was at an all time high. Have the members changed? No, they are the same, they are as firm in their belief as before, He would not condemn them. The elders are the same. There are problems with paedophilia etc. sure, but the elders are the same as a decade ago. On the membership and congregational leaders' level nothing has changed.
  

  Beliefs and methods have changed. The servant, sheep/goats, mark in the forehead, fewer magazines, more on the internet, television, fewer meetings, lots of stuff. But that is only a result, not a reason.

  What is different now and 15 years ago? What has changed?

  Think hard.

  Done it?

  A frightening thought:

  What has changed, what is different - is the GBv2 towards the GBv1. The members.

  Gone is the gentle Barr. Gone is the beloved Sydlik. Gone is the humble Booth. Gone is the Swingle who KNEW. Loesch is the same, but all the rest are new ones.

  So what is it God can disapprove of?

  ............... Right. You've got it.
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  74

  Jehovah's Witnesses May Have Peaked in Membership at 8 Million (+/-)

  by OnTheWayOut in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i don't have all the details of their new "service year" numbers, but i have read enough on jwn to state my opinion pretty strongly.. memorial attendance for 2015 was down.while they kept saying they were going to build a bunch of new kingdom halls, and everybody is still in recovery from watchtower taking all the local money away, they say pretty much that there isn't enough money to build new kingdom halls.putting gb members on the videos at jw .

  org has allowed people to really put a face and personality to these guys and remove the mystery of how they should be such deeply spiritual serious men.

  instead they see silly thoughts about tight pants and, really everything that comes out of lett's mouth is delivered ultra-goofy, along with the money reports.. the gb lost credibility a little more with every new light that shone down, with the strangest one being "overlapping generation.

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  TheOldHippie

  "I don't have all the details of their new "service year" numbers, but I have read enough on JWN to state my opinion pretty strongly."

  Yeah, nothing is a good as strongly stating one's opinion without having bothered with the details ....
  
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  48

  Massive Plunge in Number of New JW Congregations from 1990 to 2014

  by steve2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  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.

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  TheOldHippie

  And fair enough to you, Steve2, that perhaps my observation is exceptional. I can only refer to what I see here, and one should be very cautious in believing that what one sees in one's own little pond magically is what can be observed worldwide. Outskirts congregations here - I know at least five of them - that consisted of say 20 people 30 years ago now consist of 70 to 120 people. Closer to city center outskirts congregations - "half way outskirt" - I know around ten of them - that consisted of 50-60 people now consist of 100 to 120 people. Then there are city center congregations - five perhaps - that have been dissolved, and finally center congregations - also perhaps five - that have as many people as before, some 100 each. Additionally, some eight to ten foreign speaking groups have emerged, each with 30 to 50 people. I see now that if I add it all up, then 30 years ago it added up to 1,500 people - which is fairly correct - and now it adds up to 2,500 - which is also fairly correct. Not a huge growth, but a growth nevertheless, and a change from a city center based organization to a suburbian and increasingly foreign speaking organization.
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  48

  Massive Plunge in Number of New JW Congregations from 1990 to 2014

  by steve2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  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.

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  TheOldHippie

  I don't think the number of congregations is that important. In my part of the world, 30 years ago there were many congregations in the center of the big cities and a few smaller ones in the outskirts. Now, the city centers are populated by Moslems, and the congregations mostly have been shut down. But the outskirts congregations exist, and are many times as big as 30 years ago, partly because that is where population growth has taken place and also partly because the city center members drive to the outskirts congregations.
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  37

  Why does Antoine Leiris' powerful tribute to his wife, killed by ISIS in the Paris attacks, bother me so much?

  by nicolaou in

  1. social
  2. current

  here is the translation of monsieur leiris' words;.

  friday night, you took an exceptional life - the love of my life, the mother of my son - but you will not have my hatred.

  i don't know who you are and i don't want to know, you are dead souls.

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  TheOldHippie

  I do not "on a daily basis" go around hating the man who killed my child. If I did so, I would allow him to play a part in my life, to be someone around whom my thoughts and feelings would center, and I refuse to allow him that luxury. He is no part of my life, he is a nobody, a being void of importance, someone I do not care to hear about or know anything about. He does not exist for me.

  At times, the knowledge that he is out there comes to me in hours of sadness and despair of what did happen, but I manage to sidetrack the thoughts about him, in order to concentrate on the important thougths, the ones about the lost one.

  But this I know, about this I am sure - if I suddenly stumble upon him, I am not at all sure about what would/will happen. The hate is not there - but the knowledge is.
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  22

  "the Kingdom work is expanding at an accelerated pace"

  by Londo111 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if recent intel is true, there is only a .23% increase worldwide in 2015. .

  notice what is increasing is not the average publisher count, according to the above watchtower quote to spin the bethel downsizing, but the work.

  "the little one will become a thousand and the small one a mighty nation.

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  TheOldHippie

  The work is expanding, the results are not.
  
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  29

  2015 Worldwide Memorial Attendance: Another Sign of Decline

  by steve2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jw memorial attendance last year - 2014 - was about 50,000 shy of 20 million.

  some posters on this forum had confidently predicted before the 2014 memorial that attendance would hit more than 20 milion.

  they were wrong.. now, in 2015, and the memorial falling on a weekend night (where attendance is historically much higher), attendance has not only failed to top 20 milion but has declined by more than 87,000 in attendance over 2014:.

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  TheOldHippie

  "Memorials are better attended on weekends"

  I would think it is the other way around, as the one showing up at the Memorial and rarely at other times, the so-called "cousins" or "submarines" are away on holidays or at least weekend trips during Easter and therefore do not attend the Memorial, but they do when it falls on a mid-week night.
  
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  23

  New Book About Jehovah’s Witnesses Starts Creating a Buzz in The JW and Ex JW Community

  by GodZoo in

  1. social
  2. current

  a recently published book, by best selling author eugene walker has started creating a buzz inside the jehovahs witness community.

  in his new book, "jehovah's witnesses exposed - what really goes on inside the kingdom hall walls", eugene walker brings to light hidden issues that many jehovah's witnesses now face in the organisation.. .

  http://www.prweb.com/releases/2015/11/prweb13083118.htm.

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  TheOldHippie

  "Eugene Walker (a member himself for over 40 years)"

  Born in 1973, 42 years old - and a member for over 40 years. Wow! How is that for an early baptism!
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  121

  No more printing of WT and Awake in my country.. Shit just got real

  by cognitivedizzy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  guys .

  a letter was just read in out kh stating that all printing of wt and awake is ceased for the coming year and we will just place tracts on fs, countries which were cared by our branch will be cared by other countries...along with this they read the new fs form and stuff about reporting links of videos wtf..lol.

  i can't tell which country perhaps that will give away a lot, any one with a similar information.

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  TheOldHippie

  This thread is further evidence that money....not love of man or neighbor...is the motivation behind the operations of the WTBTS!

  ..............

  India is special, because no money from abroad is allowed, so the branch is on its own and can receive no contributions from NY.
  
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  40

  What is the org’s view on extraterrestrial life?

  by My Name is of No Consequence in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i am sure that it has been discussed before.

  but just out of curiosity, what is the orgs view on extraterrestrial life?

  the org certainly agrees that the universe is infinitely large.

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  TheOldHippie

  The view is that we do not know, probably there is no life, but IF there is, then Earth would still be the most important place in Universe because it was here that God's Son died for mankind and this has importance for all the Universe. So the reply goes "perhaps, but it is of lesser importance to us".