My old congregation was very stuffy, cold and unfriendly. It was said that if you bought a bucket of water into the Hall, it would be rock solid frozen after the meeting.
Our nearest congregations were 8 miles away.
Yeah, we'd have visitors
Sure, we'd ahve young people from other halls
But, did your congregation ever get to know nearby congregations? Just for fun? Just for community and friendship building? More association?
If you shared a Kingdumb Hall with other congregations, did the elders ever arrange for get-togethers with the other elders in a cong? Or was it just an individual thing to go and visit another Hall.
The Society says(TM) that District Conventions and Assemblies are there to encourage us and upbuild us. The illusion is given that this is somehow a large spiritual paradise(TM) where all can get together and associate.
But when you're told not to go outside for lunch, you'd think that there would be more opportunities for you to widen out, right? Wrong. Few have been the number of people that came upto me and introduce themselves, even fewer would follow up after the convention.
Also, when you start learning the real truth about this org, you may realize that the only thing you had in common with all those thousands of witnesses was the truth - and when that is taken away, these people are complete strangers.