they can't get it all done anymore

by truman 15 Replies latest jw friends

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  truman

  I had a door-to-door visit from two JWs yesterday morning. The first in a long time (with the exception of the obligatory Memorial invite). I live in a fairly small town, but these two, I did not recognize. They began with the usual, "We wanted to share a scripture" routine, but I stopped them quickly by asking which KH they were from. "Have you been to the KH?" the older one asked me. Yes, I told her, I have been to a few meetings (27 years worth). Then she told me that they were from a neighboring congregation and were there 'helping out' the local cong. It seems that they are having trouble getting their territory covered, so had to call for assistance.

  As I said, this is a smallish town, less than 20,000 pop., with 2 congregations. It has seen a large housing development built in the last couple of years though.

  The numbers at the KH were dropping when I left five years ago. It must be even thinner now. Looks like my town is about to become territory "where the need is greater". I almost never see JWs on the streets anymore.

  There was a time about ten or twelve years ago, when the local group was standing room only, if you didn't get there early. Sunday attendance was oftern pushing 200. When I left five years ago, the average attendance was around 75, and they were all on antidepressants. I wonder what it is down to now.
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  Cellist

  We drove past the KH this morning and marvelled at the small number of cars there. There used to be two congregations in this area. A country one and a town one. About 15 years ago they merged the two and built a new hall. It looks like they have about the same attendance right now as the little KH in the country used to have.

  Cellist
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  Athanasius

  The city I used to live in had 8 congregations. Yet during the 11 years I lived there the JWs only called at my door 2 times. I've lived in my current home for almost 4 years and there are 2 congregations in this city. Yet I've never seen the JWs in our neighborhood. Guess the need must be great everywhere now. Maybe the JWs should start a TV ministry, they could reach more people that way.
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  jeanniebeanz

  One can only hope that this is due to the availability of information. Kids are now expected to know how to get on the Internet and use it for research at school. I wonder how much of an impact that has had.

  J
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  Wasanelder Once

  The trend is downward. In the congregation in our little town, (6,000 at most) we had 245 at the memorial in 86. This year they did well to have 180. Armagedoody took too long for most. They died off or just gave up. Many marriages broke up and the whole place is a ghost town.

  W.Once
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  apfergus

  When I was still living in the university housing there would be JWs who would set up tables in the lobby to preach at the students. At one point I actually went to talk to them. I didn't bother to let them know that I used to be a witnessling and they wouldn't have known any of my witness friends or family anyway, since I'm on the other side of the state from them. It was actually a pretty good experience for me, since at the time I was still struggling with a few things from my years in the ranks.
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  5thGeneration

  Narrow is the road...

  Declining numbers prove it's the truth!
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  BizzyBee

  In twelve years, I have had maybe three JW visits at my door, and none in the past 5 years.
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  Axelspeed

  Not sure how accurate this really is, but this is what I in one area.

  I noticed a wide disparity in size among most congs. in comparison to a few years previous. Most cong. growth now is due to jws moving from cong. to cong. -- rarely is it growth rom new people. So some cong. were very small and almost ghost towns, whereas other cong. were busting at the seams from new move-ins.

  What I think is interesting is that the congs. that were busting at the seams were those considered more liberal -- where a jw could go and lay low, or and ex-elder could go and just throw up his heels. Those that were almost empty were those with a history of being hardline or had an older demographic where all the young were non-existant or had moved to a trendier hall.

  Like I said, I'm not sure this is accurate or the case in most areas.

  Axel
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  rassillon

  The love of the greater number will cool off. It must be the truth. He will speed it up in its own time. Speed up the cool off!!!