I'm wondering if there really is as many publishers in the world as they say, since so many halls are losing population. Maybe thier membership count is also a Lie.
Maybe every window they wash counts as a baptism
Nosferatu
JoinedPosts by Nosferatu
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11
40 Publishers
by Nosferatu inheh, publishers..... was talking with my mother the other day.
in the 17 years i've been out, my old congregation's publishers have drastically dropped.
when i was going , we were in the high 80s for publishers.
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Nosferatu
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Nosferatu
I've been away from the forums for a bit until recently. In the time that I was away, I really didn't do much to keep up with the latest from Jehovah's corporation. So within the time I was away, Sparlock came along and got thrown into the garbage.
I found that little clip to be bizarre. REALLY REALLY bizarre. So I went and found the "Become Jehovah's Friend" clips on Youtube and watchted them. Again, the whole thing is really bizarre to me.
When I was going to the Kingdom Hall in the 1980s and 1990s, we didn't have this kind of stuff from the Watchtower. We just had books such as "My Book of Bible Stories", "Your Youth- Getting The Best Out of It", "Listen to the Great Teacher" and the "Young People Ask" articles in the Awake! that eventually morphed into a full blown book to replace the "Youth" book.
A JW cartoon was unthinkable. The other religions do stuff like that. We were not other religions! We are no part of the world! We must read books! Books! Books! Books!
I remember sitting in the Kingdom Hall with a pen and paper. On my notepad, I drew a space man on the moon. The person sitting beside me took my pen and wrote "Jehovah" on my picture. She ruined my piece of artwork. I took it as being wrong to draw things while in the Kingdom Hall. And now they're using fictional characters drawn on computers to convey a message to children. The magazines and books never had fictional characters. They were real! (Or at least that's how they were portrayed.)
While the core of the JW religion hasn't changed, their skin has changed. One of the new releases at the convention is highly aimed at young children. You can download coloring pages from JW.org. Is this the same religion that I grew up in? The same one that sucked all the fun out of everything? Why are they trying to make it fun now? Are they losing all of their youngest members while the old ones die off?
...and since when is it called "Family Worship"? It was always "Family Study"!
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40 Publishers
by Nosferatu inheh, publishers..... was talking with my mother the other day.
in the 17 years i've been out, my old congregation's publishers have drastically dropped.
when i was going , we were in the high 80s for publishers.
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Nosferatu
Heh, publishers....
Was talking with my mother the other day. In the 17 years I've been out, my old congregation's publishers have drastically dropped. When I was going , we were in the high 80s for publishers. Now they're hovering around 40. My mother is attributing this to one asshole elder in the congregation. I was in when this elder arrived, and everyone was excited for him to come because he held a lot of fun get togethers, and in the beginning he did. I guess the fun has run out of steam and the power has gone to his head. Apparently everyone hates him.
Anyone else have drops like this in their congregations? I'm also wondering how few publishers it takes before a congregation is disbanded?
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Going to Kingdom Hall for first time
by InChristAlone insince my family is out of town, and i am alone this weekend, i have decided to attend this once to see these things for myself.
have no fear, i have absolutely no interest in joining.
my goal is simply to better understand how to reach those who are on the inside, and i feel i could better do that by observing it.
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Nosferatu
If you need a nap, you'll easily be able to have one in the two hours you'll be there
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I dreaded marrying "in the truth"
by Nosferatu ini remember going to the conventions and seeing all the good looking women with their cute butts sticking out of their modest dresses.
the problem was the aftermath of looking at them.
i thought to myself "what would happen if i married her?
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Nosferatu
I remember going to the conventions and seeing all the good looking women with their cute butts sticking out of their modest dresses. The problem was the aftermath of looking at them. I thought to myself "what would happen if I married her? I would have someone else other than my parents "encouraging" me to attend meetings or field service when I didn't want to, not to mention whatever JW relatives she has." It really made me miserable thinking about having a JW wife.
When you were looking for a JW mate (if at all) what were the thoughts running through your head?
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Really enjoyed the CONvention....why?
by punkofnice ini remember when i was a mind cleansed(tm) jw i would listen to the talks when i wasn't napping.. on the long tiring drive home i'd say how i ''enjoyed(tm)'' the sessions and felt ''encouraged(tm)''.. .....and yet i couldn't recall a single ''point(tm)'' made.
i couldn't remember what it was that actually made me feel good.. on one occasion i asked the family what they found ''encouraging(tm)'' or interesting.. tumble weed.
no examples.
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Nosferatu
Things to enjoy at the convention:
1) the hot sisters in floral pattern dresses
I think that's it...
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Crazy Stuff Jesus Said and Did
by Oubliette inwhen we believe that the bible really is the inspired word of god, we approach it with a certain mindset that does weird things to our thinking abilities, namely shutting them off.
due to this cognitive bias, we blindly accept that whatever we read in the bible--no matter how bizarre, outrageous or non-sensical--must be there for a good reason, even if we don't or can't understand it.
the fault of course is ours, not the bible's, and most certainly not god's!
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Nosferatu
Jesus cursed the fig tree because it wouldn't grow fruit after he told it to. Someone pissed in his corn flakes that morning.
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Being pressured and getting increasingly stressed.
by NBird inhello, i'm a 17 year old born in and i'm done with this religion.
one hundred percent.
i came to the conclusion a year ago that i wanted to leave.
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Nosferatu
Your situation is a LOT like mine was. I was never baptized and I wanted to get out when I was your age. Of course, it's easier said than done. I used to pretend I had LOTS of homework on meeting nights, and I'd get out of going to them.
When I turned 18, I believed that it should be my choice and wanted out. Again, easier said than done. My mother arranged for a brother a couple years older than me to study the Watchtower with me on Fridays. I immediately hated the guy. He tried to build rapport by talking about video games with me. I didn't play video games much and I told him that.
So anyway, he starts studying the Watchtower with me. Easy stuff, read, underline, move on. I did it unenthusiastically and never made eye contact with him. But that wasn't enough for him. He wanted me to sit beside him at the meetings. When I told him I was fine where I was, he went, got my books, and moved them beside him. I was pretty pissed off about that.
He wanted me to start commenting at the Watchtower study, so he would commit me to a specific answer and would tell the conductor to look for my hand on that paragraph. When it came time for me to comment at the Kingdom Hall, the conductor would stare me down, waiting for my hand to go up. The guy studying with me would nudge me, whispering at me to put my hand up. I just froze, stared at my Watchtower, and didn't budge.
The guy studying with me told me that I should throw out all my Led Zeppelin and Guns n' Roses CDs. Of course I didn't do that. When he came over for a study and my parents were doing stuff downstairs, we had to go do it in my room. I purposely didn't vacuum because he was allergic to cats. I had a giant Led Zeppelin flag hanging on my wall in my bedroom, and all four members watched us study the Watchtower. The guy studying with me was very noticeably uncomfortable in my bedroom.
He once made arrangements to pick me up for the meeting. Instead of going with him, I took my own car and left him waiting for me in his car.
Eventually, everyone just gave up on me. I wasn't progressing, so everyone just decided to quit encouraging me. It was the best thing that ever happened to me.
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Forum Policy: Off Topic Comments and Nonsense
by Simon insome people didn't seem to get the message so i'll repeat it to make clear:.
posting off topics comments and general gibberish / nonsense is something i class as spam and will not be tolerated.. any posts found will be removed and if it's repeatedly by the same poster then they will be deleted as well.. thank you for everyone else who uses the forum for proper discussion..
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Nosferatu
But I like it when my threads get derailed! It makes it more interesting!
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Former Unbaptized Publisher, New Here
by GloomySunday informer unbaptized publisher, here.. i'm new to the forums and have hesitated for months to join this forum.
i was raised in a jw family, and was never baptized, because one of my parents didn't think i should be baptized early.. my mother became inactive, but i eventually went back for social contact, eventually starting a study.
i raised a few questions, only to find that the conductor would get irritated and defensive when my questions would get deeper into the topic.
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Nosferatu
Welcome to JWN!
I was the same status that you were when I left - unbaptized publisher. They were really pushing me to get baptzied. I knew that if I got baptized, I would have problems leaving. The whole disfellowshipping thing scared the hell out of me and caused me to never go through with it. There was also the requirement of going door-to-door the rest of my life which I absolutely hated.
A few months after I quit going, I got the required shepherding call so they could get verification to announce from the stage that I was no longer an unbaptized publisher. Now that I look back on it, I think it's really odd to do this. They're essentially slapping a "spiritually inactive" label on people so the rest of the congregation can withdraw their "love".
After that shepherding call, I was just glad to have it done and over with.