Posts by Journeyman

24

WT CONVENTION RELEASE LIFE OF JESUS

by blondie in

jw
friends

https://wawa-news.com/index.php/2024/06/14/episode-1-of-jesus-christ-series-set-for-release-at-gfl-memorial-gardens-june-14-16th/ .

episode 1 of jesus christ series set for release at gfl memorial gardens june 14 – 16th.

in new south wales, australia, there exist replicas of regions once visited by the most notable prophet who ever lived.

Journeyman

“The Good News According to Jesus” is an 18-episode comprehensive look at the life and ministry of Jesus Christ — his personality and his interactions with people. Episode 1 will be released as a special feature of the 2024 “Declare the Good News!” conventions of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Subsequent episodes will be released at future conventions.

Oh, Lord (pun intended). So now this Org thinks it's becoming a Biblical Netflix? Releasing extended multi-episode dramas?

EIGHTEEN episodes, to be broadcast at future conventions?!

It sounds like they're only releasing part 1 for 2024. So there will be SEVENTEEN more years of this?

Even if they released one part each day of a convention, with three-day conventions the norm, that would mean this will still drag on for about six years.

So I guess they're not expecting the end of the system before 2030 at least, then? 🤣

I still don't get how this can work. Surely you will have to shoot all the episodes within no more than a couple of years max, as you risk continuity issues with actors being missing (what if they die, become too ill to take part, or leave the JWs in the meantime between shootings?)

But then, if you have all 18 episodes in the can within 1-2 years and just dribble them out a few at a time over several years, how can you stop them all "leaking"? We know the Org is hopeless at preventing leaks of literature and videos as it is.

The whole thing just sounds a ridiculous idea. Just shoot the whole series and release it a part a month with each broadcast, or something like that, if you must. Why drag it out so tediously like that?!

It's not like we don't know how the story goes. It's been around for two thousand years! 🤣

100

The August 2024 Watchtower controversy and potential further changes

by ukpimo in

as an educated guess, the august 2024 watchtower may be delayed because 2 complicated subjects need to be discussed in this issue which haven't yet been approved to be included in the revised shepherding textbook.

perhaps the revised shepherding textbook must be finalised before this watchtower is released publicly.. the 2 subjects may be as follows:.

how to shepherd and appoint brothers based on the removal of the hour requirements, getting to know the brothers instead (does this mean prioritising appointing men who have auxiliary pioneered during the co visit and campaigns or men who are regular pioneers?).

Journeyman

I'm making a guess based on how they think at Warwick Bethel. Perhaps risky, but plausible.
...This is Fantasy Theocracy

I've heard of Fantasy Football, but not that!

The Euro 2024 championships are coming up, but maybe after them that's something new to entertain the ex-JWs and PIMOs - pick your own team of GB members and "helpers", select your own set of "new light" doctrines, choose a few themes for the next convention talks and Broadcast videos, and - voila!
Who will rise up the ladder at Warwick and who will be banished back to their local congregations?
Which court case will the GB contest next, and will they win or lose?
What new doctrines or interpretations will the GB have the R&F jumping to understand and follow next?
Place your bets on... Fantasy Theocracy! 🤣

33

Are the halls of the Kingdom filling up, are they the same as before the pandemic or are they emptying?

by LaFrancia in

i open a new topic, to find out how it's going in your area.

from what i see as a southern european in my constituency the situation is patchy.. the congregation where i am now has 30% old people on zoom but also young couples with almost all their cameras off.

no increase but a slight decrease in the total number of publishers.. circuit assemblies: before covid you couldn't find a free seat if you arrived 10 minutes before the start.

Journeyman

I'm surprised so many people are still on "zoom." The elders have been given instructions to vet each request to see if valid reason and there is some "password" you have to get from them. Like they did when there were phone connections.

To my knowledge, that's not what's happened at all, and certainly not in the Britain branch area.

I remember it was speculated for some time on here that restrictions would be brought back once the COVID pandemic had subsided, but perhaps surprisingly, the GB has not gone down that route. Then again, as was also discussed here at length, there are good reasons why they would go softly, softly. They know that if they came down hard on it, attendance figures would almost certainly fall dramatically. Better to have a small but significant % still on Zoom than lose those numbers altogether. Maintaining Zoom also gives them backup options if some governments get tougher on them (restricting meeting or confiscating halls) and/or if the Org decides to sell off or scale down more halls in some countries or regions.

From my observations, in my part of the UK things are much as LaFrancia and St George stated:

A small but significant proportion of the congregation stay on Zoom, many of whom do not actually need to be on there for chronic health reasons. I'd estimate it varies between 25-40% of total attendance, depending on if it's the weekend or midweek meeting, what the weather's like, etc.

Attendance in person had been gradually increasing (and Zoom attendance gradually falling), but seems to have stabilised now. However, as others have noted, barely anyone on Zoom has their camera on during the meeting. There have been a few local needs talks about returning to meetings in person but they don't seem to have significantly shifted the balance, and it's not a major source of contention in the cong, so I get the impression those items are just put on there by the prompting of the branch or CO who would prefer to see higher attendance numbers across the territory. What does tend to get people back in numbers is the CO visit - then they go back to Zoom again the week after!

Overall attendance is down, but only slightly. Pre-pandemic, the congregations in my immediate area each averaged a bit over 100 attendance. Since the return to meetings, combined attendance (online and in person) has risen to the 80s+. And all those attending in person generally seem more engaged with the meetings than prior to the return. Again, not to the extent of the "old" pre-COVID days, but close to it.

So overall, a slight decline is observed in my area, but no sign of any panic collapse in numbers or significant decline in engagement. No recent hall closures in this circuit either, but I am in a major city. Attendance at the circuit assemblies and the last regional convention were similarly down - noticeable but not dramatically so. Last Memorial attendance was about the same as pre-COVID.

Ministry support is different though. Group numbers are more significantly down, I'd say about 50% across the board. As some have noted, people's ministry - if they do it at all now, with no need to report hours - seems much more fragmented and casual. Those that are keen to do it come to the group with "their own arrangements" already agreed and leave with their partner(s) - the rest you just don't really see at all. 🤣

15

Do Jehovah's Witnesses have to buy any of the organization's literature before distribution?

by Vanderhoven7 in

was this ever a requirement?.

Journeyman

EDIT: Reconsidered my previous point.

I can remember when they removed the charge for literature.

In the UK, initially we were specifically told NOT to say the literature was "free", but to say it is offered "without charge". Were advised not to solicit for donation, but if anyone did ask how it was funded, we should say it was by "voluntary donation" that goes towards printing more literature.

I presume the very strict wording was in order to comply with UK HMRC regulations, as soliciting for funds would presumably be illegal without some kind of trading licence.

Gradually that all faded away, and frankly hardly anyone ever asked or asks how JWs or the literature are funded anyway. Now, JWs are forbidden from accepting any cash donations on house-to-house or at the carts, and are told to direct "interested" ones to pay online if they wish to donate.

The irony is that this now causes more awkwardness, because the few people who might wish to give a small donation just want to give a few pennies or a pound from their purse/wallet, not go through the hassle of signing in to a website and paying by credit/debit card. I've been in a couple of embarrassing situations where I've had to insist I couldn't take someone's well-intended money because of this rule, despite their desire to actually contribute something!

As a result, I presume the Org gets pretty much nothing from "the public" anymore, hence all the nagging about donating directed at members of the congregations these days.

100

The August 2024 Watchtower controversy and potential further changes

by ukpimo in

as an educated guess, the august 2024 watchtower may be delayed because 2 complicated subjects need to be discussed in this issue which haven't yet been approved to be included in the revised shepherding textbook.

perhaps the revised shepherding textbook must be finalised before this watchtower is released publicly.. the 2 subjects may be as follows:.

how to shepherd and appoint brothers based on the removal of the hour requirements, getting to know the brothers instead (does this mean prioritising appointing men who have auxiliary pioneered during the co visit and campaigns or men who are regular pioneers?).

Journeyman

Putting the evidence together, I would tend to agree with those on here that suspect this delay is due to the GB waiting to see the outcome of some legal case(s) or other.

If it were in their own hands, they would not be waiting like this to print their articles, and certainly not suggesting that they don't even know when the August edition will appear. They've always been pretty rigorous - even rather "anal" - about release dates and output of literature.

The only other possibility I can think of is that there may be a major disagreement within the GB about changes to doctrine or the line to take in one or more study articles they want to feature in that issue. But I would've thought if that were the case, they would simply delay printing them and go with other topics until they resolved the argument, so as not to show publicly that there was a problem. But then again, this current GB is a different breed, and times are very different now to when I (and most of us) first became JWs and got to know what the GB of our times would do.

but this case w August 2024 seems one of a kind.

I agree. Whatever the cause of this delay, this is pretty unprecedented. Think about it - not that long ago, they were printing a new magazine a WEEK - two WTs a month - with no interruption or delays, for decades. Now, they can't plan and print just ONE of twelve study issues in a year?

This new GB and Org really is coming apart at the seams.

9

UK BETHEL INAGUARATION 2024

by raymond frantz in

jw
friends

https://youtu.be/oayukvpgoxw?si=g2020ba-xd2kytxi.

this is the 20 min review audio of the 3 hour inaguaration of the british bethel that took place few days ago....

Journeyman

They make so much fuss about mere buildings.

It's fascinating - they talk often about valuing their "spiritual heritage", yet when it suits them, they drop huge areas of their history without a second thought.

After decades of hype about Brooklyn and Mill Hill, at a stroke those locations are sold off and consigned to history. "Dedicated" facilities are dumped from Jehovah's service and sold off to the highest bidder, even if it's a "worldy" corporation or "false" religious organisation. Yet now, we are expected to rave about Walkill, Warwick, Chelmsford, the coming development at Ramapo, etc.

Past "Kingdom Songs" - after years of exorting the R&F to learn them by heart, practice them in their spare time and listen to them at home - are silenced forever, never even played as an occasional "nostalgia" playlist or in private "gatherings"

Previous study publications, while exalted for the numbers of disciples they produce while in use, are removed completely from print and rarely ever spoken of or featured again, except in the occasional "history of the Org" flashback video.

And of course, when praising faithful pioneers, etc, from past decades, including those still "serving" as elderly ones today, nothing is admitted of the fact that for all those years of preaching and teaching, they were effectively teaching many doctrines that are now considered "false" or "old light".

17

How has 3 years of inflation affected WTC?

by ThomasMore in

the current u.s. administration and the fed says inflation is hard to tame.

it was over 9% at it's peak.

one of the greatest increases is price of food, something that everyone feels to some extent.

Journeyman

I have been thinking for some time that the trend of the Org away from having their own self-sufficient resources to using "worldy" organisations seems to run counter to their supposed preparation for the end of "this system", and the idea of being separate from "the world" as much as possible.

In recent years, they've largely given up their own farms, their own vehicle fleets, and so on, in favour of using worldly companies and suppliers. As a result, they are now much more at the mercy of inflation and changes in markets and world trade or politics.

We know, of course, that it was driven by their own short-term financial view, shedding "costs" as much as possible now, but without thinking of the future - especially if you really do believe "the system" is going to go into collapse.

Just like those nutty survivalists who stockpile food, fuel, guns and so on for some anticipated "showdown" with the authorities in the future, while the expectation may seen crazy, there is at least some logic to the principle of stockpiling necessities for self-sufficiency. Then, when times get hard, you have more to share and live off.

As a result, are they becoming like the "foolish virgins" of the parable who, when the time came for them to be ready to meet the Groom, had no oil for their lamps and so got caught out? Their concern over saving money and trying to shed assets so that courts and governments can't strip them, is likely to leave them "naked" both spiritually and materially in future.

31

First video from the convention is all about FEAR

by raymond frantz in

https://youtu.be/cdzydtuoblw?si=tyr8hgdgaiyn7c4h.

this was leaked only few days ago and it's a small segment of the video from the 2024 convention that has already started.

the video shows a jw logo down while worried jws are watching it as a news item on their tv screens, others are seen hiding from the police, others driving is the countryside to escape the authorities.

Journeyman

I asked her where she planned on going and she said Chelmsford. We will all hire congregation buses to get there. I asked her if she thought they would have facilities for 130,000+ permanent visitors. She thought they would have!

Not only is that silly from the point of view of how scaled back the Chelmsford development is, it's also ludicrous to think a mass movement like that could be done without being noticed by "the authorities", assuming said "authorities" were bent on hunting down JWs.

The Org has hardly been secretive about Chelmsford, so of course the local council, police, etc, know perfectly well where the site is, what is located there, what its capacity is, what roads and public transport lead there, and so on. And as the video shows, Witnesses are supposed to be travelling there with their mobile phones and tablets on, thus acting as perfect homing beacons for the authorities, should they wish to track these "outlaw" religionists!

The whole idea is absurd, and not at all supported by Scripture, except as a flight of fancy extrapolated from the verse that speaks of going "into your interior rooms" to avoid the "denunciation".

At one time this was interpreted to mean each Witness or family hiding in their own homes, then it was thought to mean the Kingdom Halls, but now they're closing many of those, it's back to some strange hybrid interpretation of groups in homes or other JW buildings.

6

77 years ago today, Watchtower admits 'they were truly supporting the war effort' in Australia

by was a new boy in

other commercial enterprises were opened up under the.

direction of those at the branch office, and the brethren.

were asked to operate sawmills, bakeries, numerous farms.

Journeyman

From my own understanding in the land Downunder, my take is that it was not a mea culpa by the GB

Ah, that makes more sense - that it was more like a bollocking given to the leadership of a branch office. Still, it's unusual to give publicity to such a high-level roasting. Unless of course, they knew they couldn't cover it up or explain it away, so they decided the best option was to blame the "errors" of local branch officials.

16

Do you recognize the Truth? Watchtower July, 2024

by Listener in

the stated focus of this study article is.

focustraining ourselves to discern the difference between the truth we have learned from jehovah and the falsehoods promoted by satan and our opposers.. of course, the article goes on to claim that the truth is not only in the bible, but also from the watchtower organization.

the first of two qualities needed to discern truth is -.

Journeyman

Blondie highlights the change of emphasis in the way the Org has used Acts 17:11 since the early 1980s.

However, the fact is that the verse still indicates that the Beroeans were evaluating what they were told, in the context of what the Scriptures actually say.

The 'explanation' quoted in the WT article from 1981 still doesn't wash. It's not really relevant whether you are reading 'critically' or with a desire to believe and trust. Even if you want to believe what you are told and you are intending to give the speaker "the benefit of the doubt", you should still be evaluating what you are told in light of what the scriptures actually say. For example, if a friend tells me something is a fact, I may really want to believe them, but if I check what they say in an encyclopaedia and it's wrong, it's still wrong.

But that's not what the GB want. They want the reader to evaluate the scriptures in light of what they say - so that their explanation should come before, and be the filter through which, the reader interprets or understands the Bible. That's the exact opposite of what Acts says the Beroeans were doing when hearing Paul's words, and it commends them for doing so!

I suspect that's why in recent years, even in the time since I became a JW, the WT use of this scripture has dwindled away because they've realised that it is awkward for them.

When I was studying, and later when I first was teaching others, Acts 17:11 was a vital scripture. In the past 10 years or so, however, it feels like it's rarely used.

To test this out, I had a look in the latest WT index on how often Acts 17:11 has been referred to since 1989. Here we see:

Seven references from 1989-98, but only six more in the 20+ years since, with a big gap between 1998 and 2007, and hardly anything since 2011!

The two most recent references to that verse (bt 137-138 and lff lesson 2) are self-contained around believing what the Bible itself says, not what someone else says in comparison. The 2011 WT reference also skims over the aspect of the Beroeans analysing what Paul said. You have to go right back to the March 2008 Awake reference to find Acts 17:11 used in the context of evaluating what someone else tells you to believe.

Acts 17:11 has clearly become an embarrassment to the GB of today, as it contradicts their ramped up message that tells the R&F to accept whatever they say without question or hesitation.