Are all congregations equal? (page 2)

Alexia

I only attended mostly African American congregations and though we had a lot of characters, the same crap of shunning, the way the DF are treated, and closed minded elders, PO who thought he was the be all end all, and gossiping hens is universal.

Congregation profile: The members in my congregation mostly had new cars well paying jobs (I think their incomes are higher than the average in their communities/neighborhoods), homeowners, took vacations every year and there was a mixture between dual income families and single income families. Wives got their hair done every week and were very well dressed. Weddings were elaborate and expensive, and offspring were spanked liberally.

If you were poor, a single parent, husband who his not in the Borg, had more then two children or all over the above, you were left-out, didn’t get invited to “gatherings” (that very often included a lot of wine and beer) and the only gathering they were able to attend was the annual congregation picnic.

digderidoo

Congregations over here are varied. At the end of the day it depends on the make up of the people in the locality that the cong attracts.

I used to live in a town that is very multicultural, within this town there are extremely rich areas and extremely poor. The cong whose area covered the rich, mainly white area, reflected that in the cong. The cong that covers the black and indian areas reflect that in the cong. And the cong that covers the working class white area reflect that in the cong. There is a punjabi cong, that only attracts indians. There is a portagese cong that attracts the portagese. There are 8 congs in the town, all are diverse, the people reflect the area, so naturally the make up and character of each cong is different.

Each cong just reflects society in that a different character is to be expected. This doesn't mean that one is better or worse than the other. You may feel comfortable in one and not in another.

Personally i don't feel comfortable in any of them, but that's another issue.

Paul

metaspy

Congregations are not equal. I will compare the 3 I have attended:

	#1	#2	#3
# of elders:	6	8	9
# of Ministerial Servants:	3	8	2
# of Pioneers:	1	14	2
Punctuality:	90% of hall shows up at 5 min. before meeting	75% of hall shows up 10 min before meeting	50% of hall shows up after first song
Service:	No brothers during the week, good showing on weekends	2+ car groups no matter what day or time (even Saturday afternoon)	No one during the week, mild Saturday morning support (unless its the last saturday of the month)
Gatherings:	HUGE! Everyone (including elders) loves a party... er... "get-together"	Almost everyone except elders would come.	Lots of parties, most were exclusive for the "in crowd" (elders and family).
Overview:	Fun congregation, very loving.	Golden Congregation always getting praise from CO.	Sucky Congregation, no love, no support, not friendly

razorMind

The cong I grew up in (rural South, U.S.A.) was predominately African-American with only a handful of whites (who always sat together at the Hall, and no they weren't related). Just about everybody was older, as in almost elderly. Very anti-social. Hardly ANY 'get-togethers'---they were quite rare. You met at the meetings, out in field service, at funerals, or maybe dropping by when somebody was ill. That was basically it. Or at a (extremely rare) JW wedding.

Wait, there was a white sister who'd hold tea-party-like social gatherings, and only invite the white JWs and white Bible Studies. I believe she was 'counseled' about it at some time or other.

Things apparently were a little less staid in the 70s, when there were a lot more young people in the cong. Our particular cong seemed to have something against food--I remember we all met once for a softball game at a local school......out in the full blazing sun of summer, not much shade AT ALL--the school was more or less in a bare field. Of course the school was locked, so none of us non-players could enjoy any A/C. There were no coolers, no food, no drinks, no ice, no water, not even any chairs brought as I recall.

On the rare occasion we went to another cong member's house--not a 'get together' but just a personal visit--no food was ever offered.

I think it speaks volumes when I still hear cong members (including my mom) speak of social events that happened in the 70's, as if they happened only a little time ago. The same ones, over and over.

My dad still goes hunting and fishing with different men in the cong, or someone will help him build a shed, or do some sort of household construction/repair.

You never saw anybody in our cong going out to dinner with each other--not even at the conventions--or sisters going out shopping, or anything of the sort. No Tupperware parties or cookouts. It was--and apparently still is-- rare for anybody to socialize outside of meetings.

ssrriotsquad

Are all congregations equal?

The real question is;

Are all brothers equal?