What Type Of Congregation Were You In ??? (page 3)

greendawn

There were many women whose husbands were not JWs and overall it was cold and inhospitable with people forming cliques or circles that were impossible to penetrate. But there were a few nice people among them.

Robdar

There were cliques but not too many. For the most part, I grew up in a very good congregation. I especially feel that way since I've read about some of the experiences members of this forum have had.

Sometimes I miss the members of my cong. I still love them all and wish them well.

SirNose586

For ten years (age: born-10) I was in a very Dragnet sort of congregation (aka congregation 1). "Just the facts, ma'am." It was cold, conservative, and authoritarian--just the sort of congregation that the Org. would like. It's still the same, ten years after I left it. A favorite brother of mine gave a public talk there and had plenty of harsh things to say about congregation 1. It has shrunk in recent years, from 80 publishers to 50.
The congregation I'm in right now (congregation 2) is warmer than the other one. When I came this congregation 10 years ago, I was aghast that people went over on their talks, and was afraid of all the people my age, due to the heavy conditioning from congregation 1. For many years there were petty family bickerings (mainly amongst the children of the big families) and it was sort of anything-goes, but still warm enough. Then they installed a Bethelite P.O. and he went to work on cleaning out the young people. For a few months, it seemed there wasn't a school meeting that went by without "This is to inform the congregation that ________ has been disfellowshipped." Almost all the kids who caused drama are out now. Congregation 2 seems warmer than other congregations I've read about here, but it could be a skewed perspective, because I am given preferential treatment due to family connections.

restrangled

You could tell my congregation from where anyone chose to sit.

Elders, elders wives, self important, those going for positions, pioneers......way up front to first rows.

Those who were just average in the middle.....In the middle!

Back rows, the looked down upon, (marked, df'd, not regular, looking to get in or out) in the absolute back.

It was funny through the years now that I think back, My family started out in front, usually in the second row, and gradually made our way to the back when kids were in trouble or being watched and my dad resigned.

Our congregation held about 150 to 200 on any given Sunday (depending on the time of year and if a holiday was involved)!

Run by tough old germans, and new bethel releases. (OH THE JOY)

Many cliques, self righteous, and gossips.

IN OTHER WORDS THERE WAS THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY.

r.

blondie

restrangled, that was so funny, I went to a congregation that was just the opposite.

1) first 5 rows, no man's (or woman) zone; the visiting speakers got the feeling they had bad breath.

2) the back rows had to be roped off to "save" them for the latecomers or people with small children, but 2 elder's wives always sat there anyway and what attendant was brave enough to tell them they couldn't. One sat on the right and one on the left. Once the visiting speaker's wife made the mistake of sitting there and came back to find her books had been moved 3 rows up.

3) as to the middle the farther back in the middle, the more likely the elders, MS, pioneers, and family. The elders spent most of the time standing up in the back talking to each other during the meeting.

Blondie

misanthropic

::The elders spent most of the time standing up in the back talking to each other during the meeting.
I remember that well. My dad was one of them and I always thought it was so unfair he got to walk around and goof off and I had to sit in my seat the entire time. Heaven forbid anyone needed to get up to use the restroom :(

serendipity

Well, this congregation is turning out to be pretty cheap. It's in an affluent area, and despite having 120 publishers, they can only cough up $850 a month in contributions.

Soledad

Some Halls were known for the "natural" things like holistic medicine, iridology, and homepathy. They'd have "eye readings" and tell you if ou had cancer or not.

That was my congregation!

In my hall people were cliqueish, materialistic and sick. Every month had it's own share of "sister so and so" or "brother so and so" has "cancer/diabetes/blood clots/fibroids/depression/lupus/eating disorder".....you name it, someone had it.

There were far more single women than single men. Many of the single women would get DF'd, only to return a year or two later with a child and sometimes a worldly husband, and then sit all the way in the back row, come in late, leave early each meeting. These women would NEVER get invited to any of the congregation's few social functions.....

There were also many "divided" households, and naturally it was usually the mother (like mine) who would drag the poor kids along to meetings. These families were the outcasts, the red-headed step children who could never live up to the WTS's and the congregation's standards of "spiritual worthiness." These families were also NEVER invited to any of the congregation's few social functions.

I remember one time when I happened to walk by the home of an elder......there was a huge gathering; lots of food, drink and dancing, even non witnesses were present. The elder's wife looked out her front door, saw me walking by, when our eyes met, she shut her front door really quickly. That's true christian love for you!

dustrabbit

Well, the congregation I grew up in split into two when I was about 12 because the average turnout for a Sunday was about 200 and the KH's main sitting area was about 100. A lot of folks had to sit downstairs and listen through the PA system or sit in the nursing room. And that pissed off a lot of nursing mothers and parents who used the nursing room for discpilining the kids (i.e.. bouncing the kids off the plexiglass window -- I shit you not). Most of the congregation was split between poor, white trash familes with five or six kids who drove in from the rural areas like Bennett and Watkins while the rest us lived in Montbello, at the time -- 1980s --used to be a black-majority neighborhood riddled with gangs here in Denver. Now it's becoming a mexican-immigrant neighborhood, but I have no idea about the makeup of the congregations that serve that neighborhood.

A lot of the older, more established families and the really cool elders stayed in the old congregation while my parents, a lot of the families who did not let their kids go to school (especially the rural white trash families), and some really authoritarian/creepy elders formed the new congregation. Oh well, at least there was Brother R---'s daughter to keep things interesting when she and I and some of the JW boys around my age hit puberty. She turned into a bad seed later on according to wagging tongues of the older women at the KH, but even when she was 14 she was wearing tight, black dresses. A great butt, silky blonde hair, and perfect breasts -- yeah, I ended up with my first hard-on at the Sunday meeting (I didn't realize at first what was happening) and I got the crap kicked out of me by my mother. Some Sister told my mom to "cool it" because I wasn't the only who getting a "little perky", so was her son. She compared the girl to Eve saying she was tempting us boys. Yeah, nothing like a woman blaming another woman (teenage girl) for men's (teenage boy's) behaviour. Bother R--- later on had to step down as an Elder because he couldn't "control" his daughter. The last I heard, she had a kid out of wedlock with this non-Witness kid who was black (that raised the eyebrows of many of the white members of the congregation -- so much for "colorblindess" within the JWs), got fat, dropped out of high school, and some other scandalous stuff.

To give an example of how much the creepy elders were screwed up: My parents has some issues with the body of elders when I was 18...one of the minsterial servants, he was one of those on the fast track to being an Elder, was really upset with the way I was being abused by my mother. At least, this brother had a good set of ethics. But the Elders, except for one who was a nice guy, were more interested in the fact my mother wasn't going ot the meetings as much as she used to -- she had over 20 cats that she did animal rescue work for. Unfortunately, my younger sister saw that the elders were on a witch hunt and she decided to lie about a bunch of things that were supposedly going on with her and my dad. The cool minsterial servant and the cool elder were left out of the decision-making process and the other elders decided to call social services -- a real hornet's nest -- even though they admitted to me later they doubted my sister's story. Apparently, they weren't worried about me, my bruises, and 84-pound body. Oh, well. The events that unfolded from the witch hunt helped me get away from the KH, but I always wondered what happened to the ministerial servant.

What Type Of Congregation Were You In ???

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