Did you know that it was 1920 (and possibly as early as 1918) when the WTB&TS, Inc. initially began to track and keep extensive field service activity records?
That’s what’s noted in the footnote found on page 312 in their “history” book, Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Divine Purpose.
On pages 312-313 they even included several charts – including one that took up two pages titled “Yearly Reports of International Preaching Activity” that started with 1928 as the first official service year reported. (see below)
Apparently there must have been other ways the Watch Tower Society kept records even before 1928. For example, the January 1, 1950 Watchtower magazine reported on page 11:
“In 1918 there were only 3,869 persons announcing the King and the Kingdom in all the world.”
- Watchtower Service Reports from 1928-1958 [click to view]
I was wondering… do you have any statistics (e.g. the number of memorial partakers) for the earlier period? I read on jwfacts.com that there was a major drop after 1925. And I read about multiple schisms before 1925; do you know if there are numbers anywhere to see the magnitude of these schisms? Thanks in advance!
but… in a court in the state of Victoria, Australia the lawyer for the wt denied that the wts or elders keep tabs on anyone’s ‘hours’. This could be found under the cases by Mr Unthank. The lawyer also said the f&ds is not a body of people just a convenient theocratic arrangement. the jw in the gallewry as one gasped out loud.!