Posts by joe134cd

6

Governing Body: The growth we have is a sign of Jehovah’s blessing.

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

this looks like your typical watchtower study meeting.

lots of empty seats.. twenty-five years ago my old congregation had around 180 congregation members.

the elders decided to split the congregation in two.

joe134cd

I have cut and pasted this from another thread that I commented on…

I saw a similar thing in my local area, with regard to the aging population of JWs. I have been physically gone from the JW religion, for just over a decade. Prior to this I spent about 18-24 months as a PIMO. During this time I was assigned the task of counting the meeting attendance. 4 things really stood out to me.
(1) at any given meeting there was an average of 20-25% of publishers who weren’t there.
(2)If you had the Sunday afternoon meeting there were virtually no under 25 year olds present. Guess they had better things to do.
(3)I too noticed a similar thing to the previous poster. At least 2/3 of the congregation were 50 years or older. I also noticed particularly at conventions the absence of those in the 18-30 year old bracket.
(4)The were no elders in my congregation who didn’t have a full head of grey hair.
Generally speaking I found it an aging religion. Where by a quarter of that membership was absent. Bearing in mind that this is ten years ago. I’d hate to think what it looks like now. I’m just so glad I got out when I did.

169

Are the statistics out yet?

by slimboyfat in

isn’t it about time they released the report for the service year?

or have they stopped publishing it?

did they released selected figures at the annual meeting as they usually do, such as the memorial attendance or record number of pioneers?

I was going to say another good example of redistribution is that of the Iglasea ni Christ (church of Christ). I was attending their services for a couple of months after leaving the JW. This is a religion that relies heavily on the migration out of the Philippines into western style countries. When I was going they were talking about purchasing property to build a church because of the phenomenal growth taking place, and it was to. The rented facilities was at capacity. Yet I was the only one there who wasn’t born in the Philippines. They even highlighted an jw assembly hall that had purchased by the InC in Spain. To highlight the growth and god blessing. Needless to say I had to chuckle to myself.

Yet really had the InC grown in real terms internationally. Had it attracted members who weren’t Philippines. Or was it a result of existing members been redistributed. You decide

169

Are the statistics out yet?

by slimboyfat in

isn’t it about time they released the report for the service year?

or have they stopped publishing it?

did they released selected figures at the annual meeting as they usually do, such as the memorial attendance or record number of pioneers?

joe134cd

I guess what Slim is saying “ it more a reshuffle, rather than actual growth.”

169

Are the statistics out yet?

by slimboyfat in

isn’t it about time they released the report for the service year?

or have they stopped publishing it?

did they released selected figures at the annual meeting as they usually do, such as the memorial attendance or record number of pioneers?

joe134cd

I enjoyed the analogy of the sand sand castle, with the waves of the internet destroying it.

I saw a similar thing in my local area, with regard to the aging population of JWs. I have been physically gone from the JW religion, for just over a decade. Prior to this I spent about 18-24 months as a PIMO. During this time I was assigned the task of counting the meeting attendance. 4 things really stood out to me.

(1) at any given meeting there was an average of 20-25% of publishers who weren’t there.

(2)If you had the Sunday afternoon meeting there were virtually no under 25 year olds present. Guess they had better things to do.

(3)I too noticed a similar thing to the previous poster. At least 2/3 of the congregation were 50 years or older. I also noticed particularly at conventions the absence of those in the 18-30 year old bracket.

(4)The were no elders in my congregation who didn’t have a full head of grey hair.

Generally speaking I found it an aging religion. Where by a quarter of that membership was absent. Bearing in mind that this is ten years ago. I’d hate to think what it looks like now. I’m just so glad I got out when I did.

169

Are the statistics out yet?

by slimboyfat in

isn’t it about time they released the report for the service year?

or have they stopped publishing it?

did they released selected figures at the annual meeting as they usually do, such as the memorial attendance or record number of pioneers?

joe134cd

Jeffro - They just can’t be directly compared with datasets that count membership differently.

This is simply not true:

I've broken the video into time slots to give a more definitive and direct answer. The video is fascinating, and may force us to rethink our position on JW statistics. I would hope that MR JWFACTS will read this as well. The real discusion on statistics is from the 21min - 1:45 mark.
21-31min A similar observation is made, to Slim, with regard to church attendance. The exception is that he was a Mormon Bishop covering two Australian states.
i have argued many times that number of congregations is the best statistic for comparison for number reasons.
50min - 1hour They support slims argument on counting congregations.
1:33 - 1:44 Activity rates in the UK at around 14.7% of the 188,000 members claimed by the LDS. Interestingly he makes the statement that there could be 30,000 active members in Australia. Considering that the Australian JW figure is 67,000, could reflect JW membership is considerably higher at an international level.
1:03 - 1:07 If it wasn't for Africa the LDS would of been in decline 4-5 years ago. In recent times the LDS has only just managed to grow by 1%. I think the JWs have grown by just over 1%. Lets just say their growth is comparable.
1:30 - 1:32 Units opening and closing around the world. Europe in decline. Growth in Africa. Mixed bag in north America perhaps indicating inaccurate counting by the church. South America not looking good. Asia in decline.
00:42 - 00:47 Phantom LDS members in Polynesia. Tonga could end up having more LDS than what live on the island due to inaccurate counting methods.
00:36 - 00:39 unnecessary buildings been built that cant be supported by the local members.
1:45 - 1:50 Its wealth. It has annual income of $US400 billion that it generates off its assets. WT is nothing compared to wealth of the LDS.

https://youtu.be/422btQC4VEE
Link

169

Are the statistics out yet?

by slimboyfat in

isn’t it about time they released the report for the service year?

or have they stopped publishing it?

did they released selected figures at the annual meeting as they usually do, such as the memorial attendance or record number of pioneers?

joe134cd

I’ve always believed that the church to watch will be the Seventh Day Adventist's. I have had a little bit of involvement with them, since leaving the JWs. They have certainly got the mix right, despite having a very similar doctrine to the JWs. I believe that this religion will surpass its two relatives (LDS/JW), if it hasn’t done so already.

15

burning another bridge

by enoughisenough in

i feel like i am burning another "friend" bridge.

i just can't seem to keep the lies the wt prints to myself!

i don't know how the pimo do it!

joe134cd

I left almost 10 years ago. I give care to my elderly JW father, and still have contact with PIMI relatives. Primarily because it makes caring for my father a much more easier process. I firmly believe when dealing with JWs “THE LESS SAID THE BETTER OFF YOULL BE.” Over the years I’ve learnt to become more inward in things JWs. I’m out, that’s all I care about. I love my father, who is happy with his position in life. The JW relatives and friends are a side line of this. I’ve found the point of balance. I suggest you do the same.

169

Are the statistics out yet?

by slimboyfat in

isn’t it about time they released the report for the service year?

or have they stopped publishing it?

did they released selected figures at the annual meeting as they usually do, such as the memorial attendance or record number of pioneers?

joe134cd

Yeah and without the DF arrangements JWs would probably have half its members.

Even if the JWs done away with disfellowshipping and lost 50% of it members. It would still have a higher activity rate than that of the Mormon church of only 3 million members. Temple recommend holders could be as low as 1.5million.

14

Andrew Tate on the news

by slimboyfat in

i hadn’t heard of this guy, andrew tate, until a few days ago, when he was mentioned on novara media (which is practically the only news i watch).

then i saw a clip with him where he explained why he moved to romania: he said he ‘likes romania because the police are corrupt and you can pay them off’.

(practically a direct quote) i thought to myself at the time that sounded a bit complacent!

joe134cd

He was on the 6pm news in this country. Yip I never heard of the guy either.

42

Just courius, some questions about the past

by Gorb in

jw
friends

curious.

time goes by so fast.

who remembers 1975, the ray franz incident, the generation change in 1995, the blood fractions, alternative service, participation in ochr, aid afrique, the historical research by james pellechia, jolene chu and johannes stephan wrobel?

joe134cd

I guess I should be greatful that I was total unaware of what the overlapping generation implied. It wasn’t until I got on apostate web sites the the reality settled in. I guess that reflected how asleep I was.