for the first time in years today.
to say that it took me five minutes to read the whole thing would be to flatter the rag.
it doesn't even seem to contain actual articles any more, just headings and bullet points and pictures.
I actually think that the magazine is fairly well done, technically. Consistent, clear design throughout. Nice typography, good amount of whitespace, well balanced use of colour. Modern but not too glossy. Fits into the whole new "jw.org" corporate design.
The problem is that they've nothing to say. It's an empty shell.
for the first time in years today.
to say that it took me five minutes to read the whole thing would be to flatter the rag.
it doesn't even seem to contain actual articles any more, just headings and bullet points and pictures.
Someone on a German ex JW forum did the math:
http://forum.sektenausstieg.net/showthread.php?14796-Erwachet!-Immer-weniger-zu-lesen
The first diagram shows the number of characters published in Awake! per month: a drop of more than 80% in the last 10 years.
The Watchtower has also seen a decrease, but not quite as drastic:
one of the most persistent myths on this website is that jws are already in decline, the rot has set in, and the descent of the watchtower is inevitable from here on in.
unfortunately the facts do not bear this out.
jws are still increasing even in most developing countries, and they are still growing worldwide at a faster rate than the general population.
But they are still growing faster than the general population and are doing better than many mainstream churches. Whether that amounts to success I don't know, but it certainly isn't decline.
Agreed, but one problem with the comparison here is that it's apples and oranges. "Mainstream churches" count active and passive members in one figure, and there's usually not a great commitment necessary to call yourself a Catholic (or stop doing so), for instance. So it's rather obvious that this number will be more volatile. The number of JW "publishers" on the other hand can be expected to be a lot more stable: it's harder to get in and harder to get out of that group.
Not yet anyway. Maybe decline will come one day, but its been a long time coming. Mariu, if you look at Russia what I find interesting is that JWs are still increasing while the population of Russia itself goes down. So the ratios in Eastern Europe can improve for JWs without necessarily increasing, just because the population is going down.
Well. As of yb 2012, Russia had 1 publisher in 848 people and a whopping growth of one percent. If Russia's population were halved, they would get in the market share range of Western Europe, but that's not all too likely unless a few rusty nuclear warheads go off at the same time. If, on the other hand, the JWs keep growing at their current pace of 1% p.a., it will take them about 70 years to double their number.
I don't argue with your general point: that there's not a world-wide decline as hoped by many. But I do think it's a quite significant development that there are many places in the world that would seem like excellent territory for fast growth, and yet almost nothing happens there. A great example is the former Yugoslavia: they had a war going on there not long ago, there's still economic trouble and more or less pronounced ethnic tensions, most citizens are at least nominally Christian (that tends to be a good preparation for JW preaching), JWs are free to operate everywhere in the area, they're far from the usual market share saturation points - and still, there's no growth overall. For quite a few years now.
So even where they should be able to march in and lure thousands into the baptism pools like back in the 1970s, they utterly fail to do so. My point is that the JWs are no longer seen as a better alternative to other churches or "the world" in general. They're not even controversial any more. Nobody cares very much about them these days, as Terry put it so nicely " the fire in the belly" is cooling off.
(Since you mentioned Britain, do you think the increase there might be drawn from immigrants mostly? Because that seems to be the case for Norway, for instance.)
one of the most persistent myths on this website is that jws are already in decline, the rot has set in, and the descent of the watchtower is inevitable from here on in.
unfortunately the facts do not bear this out.
jws are still increasing even in most developing countries, and they are still growing worldwide at a faster rate than the general population.
I agree that lots of Ex-JWs tend to be caught up in wishful thinking. "They must see what I see" - just like a newly converted JW doesn't understand why the rest of the world won't convert on the spot because it's obviously the truth, isn't it? I don't expect a collapse of the WTS any time soon.
However:
They do have a problem, and not just a temporary one. But it's a big organisation, people don't change their lives en masse quickly, so of course there's still a lot of momentum that keeps the train rolling.
In summary, if you're an ex-JW hoping for some kind of big exodus so that your family finally drops out, don't hold your breath. But one cannot deny that today's JWs are nowhere near the explosively growing, aggressively expanding, highly visible "new religion" they used to be just some decades ago.
atheist blogger visits kingdom hall.. .
http://doubtingmark.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/jehovahs-witness-kingdom-hall-ballard/.
bangalore.
Nice blog, Mark.
When I first came to visit a Kingdom Hall, my perceptions were quite similar. A single visit usually isn't enough to really get everything that goes on, but the Witness-style love bombing of newcomers and the unspeakably dull and repetitive bible-dissection talks also struck me at first. Of course, they always boil down to "obey us", it's just that the language is veiled so that outsiders don't get it so quickly.
The thing that really got me thinking was when I understood that everything is centrally controlled there. Now, in pretty much all other churches the local congregation and/or priest has some degree of freedom to decide how to run the services, what to talk about in sermons, how long, if they run childrens' groups, etc.
In the Witnesses, no such thing. The leaders tell everyone in the world exactly what to read when, how many minutes for this and that part of the meetings, the topics and structure of talks, even the questions and answers for these so-called "study" parts are already prepared. Individuality is only allowed in trace amounts. Do it differently and you get in trouble. Show the weakest signs of dissent, and you'll be invited into the back room for a little friendly shepherding.
Once you realise this, the whole thing gets really creepy.
(Frankly, as an atheist myself who once went through a similar phase of looking at all kinds of religions, I would probably go to the Catholics or an Orthodox Church if I was forced to choose a religion. I like all the fancy rituals, the singing, the impressive architecture of old churches, the mysticism. It's fantasy, but at least visually and mentally appealing fantasy. Going to a JW meeting OTOH is like going to office work. In a particularly dull job with zero creativity and a boss that's constantly watching you. Who would want that?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvcvnhohno4.
naaaahh.
we're not a business.
I'm 99.9% certain this was created by the branch (or even HQ)
Certainly. And a mid-sized French city isn't such a strange choice for doing an experiment like this. It wouldn't upset anyone too much if the whole idea is called off after half a year, it's fairly close the the French Bethel, France has been difficult territory for them in the past years, and as said before I guess it doesn't cost them much. So why not Rouen, if they can make it there, they can make it everywhere This would also explain why they haven't announced it on JW.org yet - better check first if it works out.
This looks like the type of thing Scientologists do .
Exactly! I was wondering where I'd seen this before, and indeed Scientology has offices/stores like this. Plus of course Christian Science as mentioned, and even the Catholic Church has a kind of "information office" in my home town, quite similar to this. Which of course doesn't keep JWs from claiming that this is certainly a world premiere and proof of divine inspiration...
BTW, the Rouen KH doesn't look quite as Apple-Storeish as this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvcvnhohno4.
naaaahh.
we're not a business.
Who is going to even know what "JW.org" is, aside from the 0.1% of the population that are already JWs?
But that's exactly the point. "Jehovah's Witnesses" triggers assocations like "cult", "crazy sect" in pretty much anyone's mind. That JW.ORG logo on the other hand could as well be a cosmetics or clothing brand.
It's certainly a good idea from a marketing perspective to get rid of the dusty old presentation they had, but of course it goes only skin deep. Same old ideology as before, just a bit of sugar coating. I'm pretty sure that back in Rutherford's day, the JWs must have appeared very progressive and modern as well, and in fact they've modernised their appearance every couple of decades.
It's funny to read the JW comments on this. Some go totally crazy over this, admitting that they never meet anyone in door to door service. Why? Well, obviously they must be shopping on high street and looking for groceries, shoes, and eternal life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvcvnhohno4.
naaaahh.
we're not a business.
Just as the high street sees less foot fall because of internet shopping etc
Well, that's probably what makes the whole idea feasible - it's probably dirt cheap to rent stores these days, with most people going to shopping malls / hypermarchés and the Internet these days. And still better to have a JW magazine dump than a fake storefront: http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/06/05/northern-ireland-fakes-it-for-g8-summit/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvcvnhohno4.
naaaahh.
we're not a business.
Can you imagine had the catholic church done this 5 years ago
Well, they've had "stores" like this right in the centers of many towns all over the world. A little longer than 5 years actually, and generally with a higher seating capacity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvcvnhohno4.
naaaahh.
we're not a business.
I love the comments here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.492223124184616.1073741828.142019915871607&type=1
JWs getting worked up because there hasn't been an official announcement, so this might be fake/apostate/whatever. Paranoia strikes deep! Others, however, are totally stunned by this unexpected idea: " it is amasing how jehova use holy spirit to give this wonderful ideas to his witnesses".
In any case, it's interesting that they're trying something new (well, not that new, but at least a little different from what they've been doing for decades). Now they'll have to spin it so that it still fits the "house to house" doctrine.
Would also be interesting if these computers have full web access. Can you bring up jwfacts.com on a few screens there? ;-)
