My home cong in SE Oklahoma is much the same. The cong was formed in the mid 80s with about 50 pubs. We never had more than about 60 pubs. A number have moved away ( in fairness the city has been shrinking in population also, down about 16% in the last census), some have quit, a few have died, etc. I heard recently that at one Sunday meeting they had 18 in attendance, but a lot were out sick...
My Kingdom Hall is near extinction!!
by RULES & REGULATIONS 50 Replies latest watchtower bible
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avidbiblereader
When you see the consoladation of congregations and KH's going up for sale that will be the tale tale sign they know it is bad and it will come down to a matter of a business descision on whether or not to keep the KH in their name or sale. So much for the quick built program.
abr
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Alwayshere
That's the "Good News" to preach. Hope all of them go down.
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under_believer
avidbiblereader, they'll keep the quick build program going no matter what. That is an excellent investment fund for the Society--it's a back door for contributions. Remember how this works:
1) Congregation is told that they need to upgrade or build new Kingdom Hall
2) A pretense of discussion or debate about whether to do it is put on, but everyone knows what the outcome will be
3) The congregation borrows money from the Society, at interest, to pay for the renovations/construction. Borrowing money from other sources is specifically forbidden and can result in discipline for the people involved.
4) The Society makes money off the interest for its loan.
5) During all of this and after the loan is paid off, the Society holds the title to the property. They own it, not the congregation.
This would be like me financing a brand new car for you, and when you are done paying for it I still hold the title for it. If you did anything I didn't like (and there are documented cases of the Society doing this) I could sell the car from under you and you'd be riding your bike to work, even though you paid for the car. -
Kaput
I heard recently that at one Sunday meeting they had 18 in attendance, but a lot were out sick...
Don't you mean "sick and tired"?
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bigmouth
Under believer, exactly right.
My cong., when I joined, had about 45 pubs and about 7 on the servant body. Now, about 15 publishers and NO servants. An elder from the nearest cong. an hour away is rostered to travel each week. -
carla
At what point do they combine a kh that has two congregations? but then you would have an overabundance of elders right? (eww, too many cooks and all that.)
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frankiespeakin
I have a funny feeling this is happening everywhere in the US and in what ever country the internet is a common houshold item. The Society is trying hard to juggle the figures so that the average JW may think it is only happening locally, but eventually you can only pump up the numbers for so long until word gets out as too the magnitude of those leaving the Org, and the R&F can't be told over and over again the end is almost here,, eventually nobody pays much attention to:chicken little cry: "the sky is falling" or the boy who cried wolf too many times.
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SB
That one about sally struthers .LOL
ha ha ha ha ha, i just watched that southpark last night.
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JH
Where is Jehovah's blessing now?
Not only now, I never saw it, really !!!
If the numbers went up, it was due to the new millenium just about to arrive. People had faith in Jesus since thousands of years, and there were no JW's around.