Asked By: Nina, BaC - 6/5/2008

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

They just report hours, what literature the "placed", how many bible studies they have.

It's just stats.

They do record names, addresses and such of interested persons but they are not required to turn that in. Fortunately the Watchtower has no large sinister data base of everyone who has ever talked to a Witness.

You get feedback if your not doing much. The Elders and Ministerial Servants and Pioneers have a required amount of hours that they must spend in the door to door work.

Funny story. When I was about 16, after the Sunday morning meeting, there was a meeting for door to door work. My father, Elder Hitler would always drag me along. At some point the fathers went together and a group of us teenagers would go in a seperate car. They would give us a few streets to work in the assigned territory and once we left the Kingdom Hall parking lot and were out of their sight, we would
go the local amusement park, go swimming, usually meet up with some girls.

It was a regular thing for us, to the point where we would put a change of clothes in the kids car we were going to use the night before, bathing suit , whatever.

I remember one time, I got falling down drunk and was able to convince my parents I was sick and went to bed about 5 PM.

Some of the other guys reported the time but I didn't. It wasn't a conscience matter. I really didn't care.

In the same vein, we had this pioneer brother, who at the time was required to put in 100 hours a month. It turned out he was lying about his time. He had a full time job and there are ways to fake everyone out about how much time you spend. He did this for 3 years.

It's on the honor system and most of the Witness kids I grew up with as teenagers, always lied on the report, making it innacurate and useless. I am sure the same goes on today. There is no way to prove any of the numbers the Watchtower Society puts out.

Worker, the "do not calls" are when the householder requests that the Witnesses do not call. The funny part is every 6 months or so, the Elders call on the "do not calls" to verify that they still do not want Witnesses to call.

Another funny thing is that the Elders are supposed to call on each disfellowshipped person in their territory once a year. It's over six years for me and no call. I'm not complaining, but one answer above mentioned that her daughter accepted the literture and the Witnesses said they would call back and they didn't.

Just be glad they forgot about you.

EDIT HOOPER: You said "We had almost 7 million Bible studies last year and nearly 18 million were at the Memorial of Christ death. I'd say that's pretty good feedback."

With all those bible studies and memorial attendants, why is it you still only have 6 mil total members and approx 300,000 baptized in 2007? Your conversion rate sucks.

Every JW and Ex JW knows that the overwhelming number of bible studies don't convert and the memorial attenders are a lot of innactive JW's and other "intersted"people.

Also, there is also no way to verify the numbers as they come from the Society.

If you dig into the published statistics you'll see that JW membership is growing by approx the rate of world population growth. Wow, the big increase
.
Go to www.jwfacts.com or go to the Watchtower website. The jw facts site has some interesting facts,
Big guy 360: If, on any given Satuday, you place 10 magazines in 2 hours, which is lot, you ask for donations and you get $1.00 from each householder, the $5.00, because they palce the mags in pairs. That may no longer be true. Also that individual Witness gets his/her lit for free. They are supposed to contrbute for it. Not required but implied

EDIT VOT: you said "See, for 2007, JWs worldwide spent a total of 1,431,761,554 hours preaching and teaching others about God's Kingdom in more than 230 lands. That is about 447 YEARS of preaching all in ONE year!!!"

So, if 300,000 were baptized, JW's spent 4,773 hours to get one convert. And most Witnesses know that at least half of the number baptized were kids that grew up in Witnesses households.

You guys have to work on your conversion rate.

Where's the great ingathering?

The Watchtower, 1/15/01 page 12

"Is there evidence that this prophecy is undergoing fulfillment today? Yes, indeed! During the 1870’s, one congregation of Jehovah’s people was formed in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. From such a small beginning, tens of thousands of congregations have sprung up and are flourishing worldwide. Millions of Kingdom proclaimers—a mighty nation—are now associating with more than 91,000 congregations in 235 lands around the earth. Unquestionably, this confirms that Jehovah is speeding up the ingathering of true worshipers before the outbreak of the “great tribulation,” now so near at hand.—Matthew 24:21; Revelation 7:9-14."

For the past 15 years or so, JW's have grown by roughly the ?f growth of the worlds population, with a large ?f that being kids raised in Witness households.

The Mormons have more members, about 12 mil.

Answered By: isnrblogdotcalm - 6/6/2008