How big is/was your congregation?

by DeeDubs 26 Replies latest jw experiences

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  Mary

  Several years ago, the congregation average was about 120+. Memorial attendance at one point was getting close to the 200 mark with many having to stand as there were no seats left. It was decided that because Jehovah was 'speeding it up', the congregations had to be split in two in preparation for all the newbies that were going to be coming in. Didn't quite work out that way. Within 3 years, so many had either quit going or had moved, that there were no more than 40 or 50 in each congregation, so they put the congregations back together. Last year at the Memorial, I was shocked to see that the Hall was only 3/4 full. I think there was about 125 there.

  What I think they find really embarassing is the fact that all the churches in this area are filled to capacity on Sundays. Doesn't seem quite fair to JWs that they spend tens of thousands of hours in Field Serve-Us every year, and they have fewer attendees than what Babylon the Great does.
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  DeeDubs

  I guess I should have asked what part of the country or what country your from. NewYork here , English congregation. But its growing..I guess it depends on where you are.
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  Juan Viejo2

  Mary is absolutely correct. Up until 1990, Kingdom Halls were built to serve a community once the existing KH was getting too crowded. As cities and towns expanded and grew, new Kingdom Halls were built to serve the suburbs and growing nearby cities. But it seemed that the best size for a KH was a population of 80-130 total publishers and their family members.

  In the late 1950s, as dedicated publishers left their home congregations "to go where the need was greater," KHs were built with smaller populations in mind. The goal was to put a Kingdom Hall in as many towns as possible so that non-JWs would be more inclined to come to public talks and the Memorial meeting.

  Now Kingdom Halls are being built as little assembly halls, some actually having two or more congregations meeting with simultaneous or overlapping times. Some areas have multiple congregations meeting in the same KH, but on different week nights and staggered Sunday meetings. I understand that a few even have the traditional Sunday meetings on Saturdays.

  One interesting development is the introduction of Sunday morning meetings. Growing up, Sunday AMs were field service hours, as were Saturday AMs. I really doubt that they have moved service hours to Sunday afternoons after the WT study in those areas.

  One last development: Many KHs won their zoning variances based on past history of one evening meeting per week and a 2-3 hour meeting on Sunday afternoons or evenings. Now they are merging Kingdom Halls, so that there are meetings almost every night, plus ALL DAY Sundays and some Saturdays. I'm sure the neighbors did not expect all that additional traffic and street parking in their quiet residential areas.

  Way to go, WT! Piss off the neighbors, why don't you?

  JV
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  transhuman68

  My home congo started with 12 people, most of them special pioneers, in a rented hall in the 1970's. They bought a wooden hall, and had roughly 70 people attending, with only a few spare seats, so they funded a quick-build brick KH.

  Now there are only 55 left- but they have a smart new KH!

  Laughable...
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  Iamallcool

  The biggest number of publishers in my congregation in my lifetime was 194 publishers before they split the congregation.
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  wobble

  Ours got to just a few over 160 publishers before they split in two.

  Meeting attendance was always close to that. a little above sometimes. but we did an exercise and found that at any one meeting 25% of the publishers were missing, an Elder remarked to me that was "because the meetings are so damned boring" , there was a realist !

  Most of the "growth" over the years came from people moving in from other Congos, ours was a very liberal congregation with a great social side, many would start to come to our K.H and then move in to the "territory", many remained outside , until the boundaries were extended to include them, some still travel in.

  After the split in to two in Sept 2007 I know that a number have moved in, it is still happening, but what the aggregate total of publishers now is, and the meeting attendance I cannot say, it would be difficult to ask too, my family would know I had some ulterior motive in asking.

  I would imagine that overall they have hardly increased their numbers, despite new blood, and certainly little if any of the increase is as a result of all the thousands of hours of F.S
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  WTWizard

  We consistently had between 85 and 90 publishers between the late 1980s and the mid 1990s. We had plenty of cavities during the boasting sessions during the early and mid 1990s, where evening boasting session attendances were sometimes struggling to reach the 50s. This after they had been triple digits during Sundays on a consistent basis during the late 1980s.

  After around 2001, we started getting back many of the witlesses. Quite a few of those were move-ins. Then I quit going to the boasting sessions--I was pxxxed one day when, on a regular Sunday afternoon session (no hounder-hounders), there was more than 140 in attendance. Meanwhile, the other congregation that was attending that Kingdumb Hell was in decline--their boasting sessions were averaging in the 50s.
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  Found Sheep

  I'm in WV USA most of the congregation is move to where the need is greaters.... a hall near us closed down a few years ago.
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  Cthulhu

  Outlaw, that man could never be a brother...look at all that facial hair. Wicked heathen bastard!
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  DeeDubs

  gayle, thanks for the stats