Here's the reality of it, we know with experience that something like 70-90% of the young one leave. That was the case in the USA and probably Europe and Canada, so how can they make up for these numbers with new ones from the field?? No way not going to happen, yes great growth in Latin and maybe some African countries but really I don't believe they make up for the loss. Think about it for a minute, their numbers are showing new ones baptized and then an adjustment for ones that are no longer thier something in the tune of about 50%, according to JW facts. So for every two that get baptized one leaves dies or is DFD. But in reality for everyone that gets baptized their already counted as publishers so when they get baptized their counted twice.
Ok so I'll give them some growth because of the growth in Latin America and maybe in those lands less young ones leave but can that really not only make up for the losses in other countries and show growth? Not the kind of growth they claim. And this is why I believe one minute they were talking about all these building projects then the next their talking sell offs. They other thing that is odd is after the 1975 debacle and the 1995 change to overlapping generations you see a dip in numbers for a couple of years then it's all back to normal for the most part. I don't buy it!
I think they used the perception of growth to push the organization forward, get 60 new publishers and then build or make a new congregation or a few people get together and bam you make a new foreign language congregation. I think my point can be confirmed by the sell off of the halls. I don't think that many are leaving to do child abuse or any other reason yes more then before but not by a huge margin. Their selling the halls because they were never that full to begin with.