What really ended the book study in private homes?

by Alfred 82 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Balaamsass

  Actually I enjoyed Bookstudy when we had it at our home or a "cool" publishers home. Everyweek was goodie night. Sometimes a theme dinner or wine and cheese tasting. Somes just popcorn and TV after with whoever wanted to stay.

  When gas got expensive or we had a rural spread-out congregation we arranged to have it Saturday morning for 45 minutes over coffee, followed by a 10 minutes meeting for field service, less dressing up, driving etc.

  Depending on where and who was in the group, it was either the best or worse meeting of the week.
• 

  man oh man

  I believe they dropped bs in order to concentrate on "Family Worship" because this is the only place they will get new converts in the future, from the faimily.
• 

  Pams girl

  I think they dropped it because Independent Thinking got out of hand....
• 

  diamondiiz

  I also think that it was due to money. Pedo problem may have contributed to it but I think the money was the bigger issue for them. The meetings are suffering. If you don't attend you feel less guilty for not contributing to the money box but if they eliminate one meeting which has no financial benefit to the wts then maybe they assumed bigger attendence at the two(4) meetings which would make dubs contribute more. If you go to all the meetings it's easier to feel guilty you're not paying your share of the expenses.

  But as a business I'm sure they had several points that they used to support their idea of eliminating the BS.

  So now, KH have be viewed like Noah's Ark, if GT arrives you won't know when Big A is comming from your BS conductor, you will have to get your ass to the KH and maybe throw more money into the life saving vessel.
• 

  Doubting Bro

  I think shepherd summed it up perfectly. A combination of very poor stats and not enough elders to lead the small groups. I recall after I "stepped aside", I had to conduct about everyother week because the elder assigned wouldn't show up and there was no MS assigned to the group.

  I also think they may have believed that cutting down to one midweek meeting would increase the TMS/SM attendence. In the congregation I go to, I don't think the numbers have moved. At first, it did increase but after a few months, attendence reverted to the mean.
• 

  Alfred

  Looks like this thread has run its course… So this is probably a good time to list your comments in order of most-to-least mentioned…

  In summary, posters on this thread felt that the Book Study in private homes was discontinued …

  1. To isolate JWs and weaken relationship, thereby reducing independent thinking and apostasy = 11
  2. Because of “slip-and-fall” liability concerns = 6
  3. Because of the requirement at some locations to obtain special use permits = 4
  4. To retain membership by lessening the burden of attending frequent meetings = 4
  5. To reduce the possibility of child molestation and abuse = 3
  6. To reduce the possibility of sexual abuse in general = 3
  7. Because US-based JWs started to complain about high gasoline prices = 3
  8. To make overall KH attendance look better = 3
  9. Because Book Study attendance was usually very low anyway= 3
  10. To strengthen the family unit since NEW recruits would come from within families = 2
  11. Because it wasn’t generating enough revenue from contributions = 2
  12. Because it was becoming more difficult to get JWs to offer their homes = 1
  13. To get one step closer towards eliminating field service = 1
  14. Because Jehovah told the Governing Body to end it = 1

  Wow! Very interesting (and long) list of reasons… I’m really glad I asked the question since some of the reasons given in this thread didn’t even occur to me when I listed the choices in my opening post… Although some of the reasons listed may not be valid ones, this thread certainly sheds a lot of light on why the GB made this drastic decision.

  Thanks everyone for your sharing your perspective!

  Alfred
• 

  Hoffnung

  - Less books for studying have to be written. As the writing dept. is lacking inspiration, it helps if you have to write less.

  - Many elders felt their lives overburdened and resigned. This is one of the major reasons.

  - Bookstudy's were often a reason for people to complain. Quite a few people were not happy about the place or the group they had to go to. a major headache for quite a few congregations.

  - the lack of social contact that was a result of removing the bookstudy, was known beforehand. So I would think it was on purpose that they removed that one. Otherwise they could have removed the other weekly meeting night in the KH. This also takes away the "Gas price reason". If they really were concerned about transportation costs, they'd keep the bookstudy, as it usually was closer to everybody's home. The KH is further away for most.

  The removal of the bookstudy together with the introduction of a separate study watchtower, are the 2 top recent most negative developments in the organization. It is great for faders though. If you want to drop of the radar, way easier to do that in a group of 80 than in a group of 15. And because of the colder climate since then, more people lack the personal connection and leave.

  Hoffnung
• 

  wha happened?

  I think Doubting bro nailed it. Lack of elders and servants to conduct the meeting. Let's face it, it's getting harder and harder to serve with all the contrdictory info coming from the WT. I know in the last cong I attended, the elders just looked burnt out. With all they have to do a cong with 4 elders gets way stretched thin. Family repsonsibilities are set aside. Honestly if they hadn't cancled this arrangement, they probably would have lost more elders to burn out
• 

  dropoffyourkeylee

  Is there any truth to the rumor that the Society hired consultants to improve the educational aspect of meetings, and this is what led to the shorter public talk and the symposiums at conventions?

  I have heard that several times, though don't really believe it. I think the shortening of meetings and elimination of the bookstudy night had more to do with having 3-4 congregations using the same hall and needing to juggle the meeting schedules
• 

  wha happened?

  again, dollars and cents. That seems to make all the decisions nowadays