A recent 2 day convention I heard about had an attendance of 500 on the Saturday. The person attending commented about how empty the assembly hall looked. When I was attending it was around the 1000 mark. To be fair, it was at the worst time ever. On a one long weekend. Guess people preferred to be at the lake.
joe134cd
JoinedPosts by joe134cd
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48
Even with recent changes it’s a struggle to get people to attend
by hoser inthe kingdom hall is still empty.
even with amalgamation of 2 congregations.
the elders are handling the microphones and there was only one comment from zoom at the watchtower.
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Governing Body shuts down Hong Kong Branch
by Newly Enlightened inhttps://youtu.be/4g5yx133h_y?si=4lhljyrnyk05k2bh.
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joe134cd
I believe a lot of the witnesses in HK are Philippine migrant workers. It’s very much the same story in oil rich eastern countries where they are also under ban.
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Governing Body shuts down Hong Kong Branch
by Newly Enlightened inhttps://youtu.be/4g5yx133h_y?si=4lhljyrnyk05k2bh.
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joe134cd
What happened to putting your trust in Jehovah.
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Joe134cd attends a Jewish Synagogue
by joe134cd inok just reviewing my sabbath attendance at a jewish synagogue.
the service was 95% in hebrew.
i think the observation that jesus made about them been more concerned about the traditions of man than the word of god, still stands true to this day.
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joe134cd
Yes it was pleasant. I think this one was Orthodox.
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Joe134cd attends a Jewish Synagogue
by joe134cd inok just reviewing my sabbath attendance at a jewish synagogue.
the service was 95% in hebrew.
i think the observation that jesus made about them been more concerned about the traditions of man than the word of god, still stands true to this day.
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joe134cd
Ok just reviewing my Sabbath attendance at a Jewish Synagogue.
The service was 95% in Hebrew. I think the observation that Jesus made about them been more concerned about the traditions of man than the word of God, still stands true to this day. It was documented even the steps forward and backwards to take. There were certainly commonalities with Christianity, which could be expected. Christian’s, particularly Catholics, kiss and touch the cross, Jews touch and kiss the Torah, when it is brought out of the ark of the covenant and brought around members of the congregation. Jews will have 2 names, a secular one, and a Hebrew one which is used in the Synagogue. Catholics have a baptismal name on your acceptance into the church.
From my observation I fear that the Jewish faith may be fearing worse than the JWs. The service was very poorly attended. This synagogue was in a major metropolitan area. That been said there would have been 40 in attendance. Average age of 60. There was only one person there under the age of 30. I fear that unless something is done very quickly this community may die out. This concern was also raised with me by one of the parishioners. So that’s the main things that stood out to me.
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My grandmother called my mother
by Anony Mous inso, i’m just posting this as a warning to lurking jws.
if you’re still on the fence, here is a story.. my grandmother, now in her 80s hasn’t talked to anyone in the family for over 20 years ever since my mother was the last one of her children that left ‘the truth’, she had sent my mother a card to never talk to her again.
so here we are 21 years later, she gets a call out of the blue that she needed help, she hadn’t been able to get into her kitchen.
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joe134cd
What amazes me is an organisation that spends billions, of so called, hours recruiting people, with little to no results. Yet dose so little to retain and maintain its existing membership. Often times this membership is a captive one.
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Why disfellowship must be eliminated for the survival of the WT itself
by TheScientist inthis topic i digress about why the watchtower relaxing the rules of disfellowship is essential for its survival.
many things i'm going to say are not my ideas, some are, the point is, i'm condensing everything in a logical and concise way.. the first thing we have to keep in mind is that the wt's main objective in instituting disfellowship has always been not to lose members because of the damage that a dissident could do, or to avoid gaining new members because of the bad reputation of a confessed sinner in the his/her region.
in the end, the more active members, the more money to the coffers.. in this case of disfellowship due to apostasy, to avoid any spark, texts were sought out of context that even prohibited saying "hi".
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joe134cd
MeanMrMustard: I have a feeling the actual number of true, long term funders and believers is a lot lower.
This could be true as well. What ever the case. In my country these people are not choosing to identify as such, when given the freedom to do so, in the census.
I do believe that the LDS and JWs problems are quite different. The LDS will probably run out of members before it runs out of money. However, the JWs will probably run out of money before it runs out of members. By what of seen in the ExMo community, I do believe the JWs could have a higher activity rate, and a bigger membership than the LDS. I don’t think there would be much in it, maybe a couple of million or so.
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109
Why disfellowship must be eliminated for the survival of the WT itself
by TheScientist inthis topic i digress about why the watchtower relaxing the rules of disfellowship is essential for its survival.
many things i'm going to say are not my ideas, some are, the point is, i'm condensing everything in a logical and concise way.. the first thing we have to keep in mind is that the wt's main objective in instituting disfellowship has always been not to lose members because of the damage that a dissident could do, or to avoid gaining new members because of the bad reputation of a confessed sinner in the his/her region.
in the end, the more active members, the more money to the coffers.. in this case of disfellowship due to apostasy, to avoid any spark, texts were sought out of context that even prohibited saying "hi".
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joe134cd
A JW that doesn't go to the KH and don't give money to WT, is the same than nothing for the WT.
TheScientist: That comment could be true as well. But what I am trying to say. If there is a growing population of PIMOs in the org. They are certainly not identifying as such, when given the opportunity to do so, in the census. For example, say in the next census there was a sudden 50% disparity between the 2 figures. This could suggest a PIMO presence. This just hasn’t happened. In my local area I can think of 15 ex-JWs who wouldn't write JW in the religious identification section, and that includes me. Yet the census figures still hovers a bit below the x2 figure reported by Wt. Have you watched that link I posted. I think you could benefit from it.
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109
Why disfellowship must be eliminated for the survival of the WT itself
by TheScientist inthis topic i digress about why the watchtower relaxing the rules of disfellowship is essential for its survival.
many things i'm going to say are not my ideas, some are, the point is, i'm condensing everything in a logical and concise way.. the first thing we have to keep in mind is that the wt's main objective in instituting disfellowship has always been not to lose members because of the damage that a dissident could do, or to avoid gaining new members because of the bad reputation of a confessed sinner in the his/her region.
in the end, the more active members, the more money to the coffers.. in this case of disfellowship due to apostasy, to avoid any spark, texts were sought out of context that even prohibited saying "hi".
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joe134cd
I’m really in two minds about the state of Wt at the moment. True, the demographic is elderly people, and KH are empty. I do believe they are flat lining at the moment and decline is on the horizon. But, like slim suggested, this doesn’t seem to be the case with census figures, where wt has little to no control concerning religious affiliation. Both in my country and link that I previously posted the census figures compared to Wt would blow any religion out the door concerning truthfulness. Over the years, for the country that I live in, the number of people identifying as JWs in the census has dropped, where as Wt reporting has stayed constant. This to me suggests a change in dynamic to the people leaving. Leaving because they have got better things to do on a Sunday morning, but still identify as a JW. Verses those who leave because of indifference to the religion, hence not identifying. This statistical change, however is somewhat marginal. My argument here is, if there is this growing population of PIMOs in the org, they are certainly not identify as such, when given the freedom to do so in the census.
Over the years the census has always been twice that reported by Wt. Although there has been a slight shift between the two figures in recent years. Not enough, in my opinion, for wt to be concerned.
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My grandmother called my mother
by Anony Mous inso, i’m just posting this as a warning to lurking jws.
if you’re still on the fence, here is a story.. my grandmother, now in her 80s hasn’t talked to anyone in the family for over 20 years ever since my mother was the last one of her children that left ‘the truth’, she had sent my mother a card to never talk to her again.
so here we are 21 years later, she gets a call out of the blue that she needed help, she hadn’t been able to get into her kitchen.
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joe134cd
I had a very similar situation concerning a Great Aunt. Lived and breathed JWisim. I remember asking the care nurse at the rest home, when visiting my Aunt, about the visitors. The comment the nurse gave me will stay with me forever, “once dementia sets in they are largely forgotten about.”