7 Congregations in My Area, VT, MA, NH, Have Been Cut to 3!!!

by Seeker4 33 Replies latest jw friends

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  OnTheWayOut

  Ten years ago, the area I lived in was splitting congregations and each one had a full capacity. Property was expensive and no new plans for additional Kingdom Halls in the entire circuit were planned. There were new halls in nearby circuits, but property was out of reach in our area. The elders from several halls were looking for a new place to build a double hall and were getting close to figuring the finances. But squabbling between the different BOE's kept it from becoming reality. Everyone just stayed in their crowded halls.

  The English cong. I left years ago had 3 English congregations, and 2 foreign-language congs. The foreign Lang. congs. moved out closer to their own populations to allow the remaining ones room at the hall.

  My old congregation had been splitting over the last several decades, feeding many other new congregations with members. It seems to have turned around a few years ago. One of the congregations was so small, the C.O. kept recommending they dissolve and go into the other two. Their BOE was stubborn and didn't listen. The C.O. never recommended it strongly enough and didn't send the recommendation to WTS, figuring that shrinkage looked bad. As long as they could struggle on their own, he left them alone. Finally, the other larger congregation decided they didn't have enough elders, and the stubborn elders liked their positions in the smaller cong. so the larger cong. dissolved and incorporated into the other two, but largely into the smaller one. That way, the title-loving elders could keep their positions and be in charge, and the other cong. could just join them.

  Anyway, the point is that the new double hall never happened. It certainly is not needed now. All the halls are still there, and making the monthly bills, but they are close to the point of selling off more property. It seems that each hall is down to 2, some 3 congregations, but there are a few with only 1 congregation. They are ripe for WTS's need for money. Too bad (for them) they missed the real estate boom- the money will be much less if they don't wait for several years now.
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  JimmyPage

  Where I live now the # of JWs is increasing. But where I grew up it is pitiful. The congregations have shrunk to the tiny diehards and are constantly talking about merging.
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  Bodhisattva1320

  YAY! i love this news seeker!! less power to them =D
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  tresdecu

  Sir82 said: What's funny is that even though 99% of the "growth" here is due to people moving in from out of state, comments at the WT study & elsewhere give the impression that there is so much "growth" in the organization, that people are still "streaming in", "look at all the new congregations that are forming! Jehovah is surely blessing the work

  I had to laugh when I read this, we have had the same thing happen: tons of people moving in. So our congo seems huge now and oh so "very encouraging" (puke) A sister commented a week ago, how Jehovah is blessing the work because "look at how the congregations are growing" HELLOO. THEY ARE ALL MOVE INS!! Think for a second! jeesshh. morons.
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  willyloman

  My own experience, here in the western U.S., is that dub growth is largely non-existent and has been for at least a decade or more. Particularly in relation to the steady population growth.

  I am famiiar with two geographic locations in neighboring states. In the first, a new KH was built and subsequently the congo split into two. That was more than 15 years ago and the size of the two congos a couple of years after the split was roughly 130 pubs in one, 160 in the other. Today, there are still two congos in that one KH; no other has been built, and the attendance is about the same in each one. However... the population of the community "served" by these two congos has more than doubled! To me, that spells negative growth.

  In the area where I live now, the number of English congos and the attendance in each is virtually unchanged in the past decade. In fact, they've 'shuffled' the publisher cards to bump the numbers in one of the congos where attendance had dropped to about 60 on Sundays. If it weren't for the flood of immigration from Mexico, the JWs would have no growth in this area of Southern California. The Spanish dubs have added two congos in the past 10-12 years. They have 5 congos meeting in two buildings now. It's interesting to note that this area is one of the fastest-growing communities in the state. Population here has tripled (!) in the past 15 years. Yet, the number of dubs is essentially the same. That, too, spells negative growth.

  When I read that the dubs are reporting an X percent increase over a the previous year, I know they must mean somewhere else; it's not happening here.
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  still_in74

  The core problem that will lead to congregation closings in the future are that the bright elders, thinkers and leaders are backing away, stepping aside or wearing down. This leaves a group of leaders who possess no leadership qualities. The remaining individuals are neither thought leaders nor problem solvers. This most certainly will affect attendance at meetings, contributions and field activity overtime

  I have several friends (albeit conditional) that are elders. I like them, they are good people & I enjoy spending time with them. But I dont necessarily consider them "thinkers". Not that their stupid, but they just parrot the WT week after week.
  
  The "old School" elders used to be told to think for themselves, Freddie wrote that on several occasions, but that led to elders realizing the WTS was based on lies and the apostasy of 1980. After that the WTS clamped down on independant thought, you were not even allowed to think about questioning the BOrg (Albert Schroeder).

  The young elders today have never known a time when they were allowed to think for themselves, they dont know how because they never have. They dont even know how to think about questioning it, they just parrot - week after week - in mind-numbing apathy.

  The benefit of this is that many "next generation" elders dont take "the truth" all too seriously and like to party - hence my friends!

  any elders that are "thinkers" would learn all too quickly to BOrg is Bullshit............
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  Alpaca

  Still_in...

  How do you stomach hanging out with those guys???

  If they found you out, they would cut your heart out and hand it to you before you could pass out.
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  OUTLAW

  If they found you out, they would cut your heart out and hand it to you before you could pass out

  .....

  ...OUTLAW
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  steve2

  The only time I've heard of new congregations being formed in New Zealand in recent years was to cater for the increased immigrant populations.

  In our biggest city, Auckland, there was a lot of JW-excitement when - for the first time in years - a new congregation was established for one of the Asian immigrant groups. It was heralded as evidence of new growth and Jehovah's blessing. The dreary fact that this had been preceded by years of stagnant and even declining average numbers of publishers throughout the country was blithely ignored.
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  quietlyleaving

  over here its the foreign language/immigrant congregations that are growing. immigrants tend to cause much needed changes because of having experienced huge changes themselves and are therefore more likely to be inherently resistant to conformity and more inclined towards bringing much needed diversity (the diaspora effect, i call it). Maybe the WTS will be forced to change in that case. I have noticed subtle differences in countries that have been resistant to anglo-american ways of thinking.