Lack of young people in the congregation?

by IAmJustMe 22 Replies latest jw friends

  • IAmJustMe
    IAmJustMe

    Been baptized for two years but being in the truth for longer. One thing I have always noticed is the lack of young people in the congregation. Does anyone feel the same ?

  • never a jw
    never a jw

    Welcome IamjustMe!!!

    I haven't been to a kingdom hall in years, but I hear that there are babies, toddlers, children and teenagers. But ten years from now those teenagers will be gone, 15 year from now the children will be gone, 20 years from now babies and toddlers will be gone.

    How do I know this? I see it with my own eyes. Most young ones that I met in the last 25 years are GONE for good. Unfortunately, my own nephews and nieces remain in the "truth" (they are in their 20's and early 30's). I guess my brothers give the strongest KoolAid.

  • Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho
    Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho

    Hey @IAmJustMe. It is true that the organization seems to be holding onto mainly the older generation. This is largely in part to Generations X, Y and beyond having a sharper aptitude for analytical thinking and a wealth of information at their disposal on the World Wide Web. Many of us on here have fearlessly undergone an examination of our faith and have come to the heartbreaking conclusion that the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society is not who it claims to be :(. For these conscientious reasons, we have taken a step back from meetings. This may be a contributing factor to the missing demographic of younger ones you are noticing. We're right here :).

  • sir82
    sir82

    I was at a circuit assembly recently.

    To me it was quite shocking, demographically.

    There was a huge gap in age range - very few people between the ages of 20 and 40.

    Lots of kids & teens, & their parents in their 40s & older (and of course a huge proportion of 60+), but it was very evident that most kids, upon leaving their teens, had left the org.

  • pale.emperor
    pale.emperor

    In the congregation i grew up in there were lots of families with kids. A total of 35 young ones aged 4-12yo.

    Of those 35 only 10 are JWs today. Some didnt even get baptized. Others faded or were DF'd or DA'd.

    That's a 68.5% loss of young ones. If this were a business like Coca Cola or McDonalds they'd be firing the directors and bringing in educated people.

    Unfortunately, Coca Cola and McDonalds actually care about quality and customer satisfaction... unlike Watchtower.

  • tor1500
    tor1500

    Hi,

    In my hall there are some young ones, from babies to teens...if you look at them, most of them look like the life has been sucked out of them. The Teens look so sad, it's because their growth has been stunted...they just lumber around...being a teen is rough, hormones raging, then being a witness don't help...knowing that most of the congregation is older and has had they sex fun & we are telling them...hold on, the end is here...imagine just beginning your life & then finding out you may die...the pre-teens just lumber around with their bottom lip hanging..many of the kids in my congregation have one thing or the other wrong with them...

    Young ones are not buying it...they are on the internet and know what is going on behind the scenes, but can't say nothing so they just lumber around the hall...trying to look like this is the best life, but they know it's not...they must hold on until they can leave the nest.

    The friends are actually forcing their children to come & you can see it. We have some gay ones in the hall, but nobody talks about it...in fact they both got DF'd but are now back...

    JW's young & old are suppressed..

  • redpilltwice
    redpilltwice

    Welcome!

    In general...

    People get older

    Less babies born

    Within' the congs...

    Less youngsters getting baptised

    More youngsters getting baptised at an older age, becoming less active, youngsters that want to live a normal life, buy a house, get married, have children, a good job, some are also PIMO's, won't walk the extra mile or don't give a shit at all as long as the family buys it...

    Less converts

    Etc.

  • James Mixon
    James Mixon

    1 Corinthiens 3:2 and Hebrews 5:12, 13 comes to mind. When these young folks receive solid food they haul ass right out of the truth,lol. They received milk as babies but once they started to understand the meat of the BS organization, that was it. The meat is spoil and rotten...

  • Finkelstein
    Finkelstein

    The problem with the JWS religion is that its overly oppressive in comparison to main stream Christianity.

    Your constantly being watched over with scrutiny, particularly the young who because of their growing want of independence get irritated with that personalized oppression and control of self direction.

    As a baptized JWS your basically being designed and controlled to be a supportive public servant or representative to the WTS organization. which is inherent corrupt on its own right .

    The JWS religion is framed and based upon the ancient Hebrew's social directions or moral standards which are now over 3000 years old and that one might guess is brings forth its own problems as mankind has learned a lot since that era of human history.

    Yes some of those directions can be seen to be beneficial from a human behavioral perspective but there is a lot that is just redundantly wrong and probably wrong for humanity's sake.

    One might say the power and control got out of hand by the top leaders of the JWS in their endeavor of defining what is righteous and what is unrighteous and it has done some real harm to its adherents.

  • sparrowdown
    sparrowdown

    Generally speaking I have noticed the demographic make up of congregations tend to reflect the communities they are in. And the communities tend to be a refection of real estate prices, schools, shopping etc. So if the area is one where where young families with kids gravitate there will be young families in the cong. If the area is one where people retire there will be mostly older people. Inner city congregations will have young childless pioneer couples, so forth and so on.

    Having said that I do suspect young people and interested people are becoming extinct in congregations everywhere. There's nothing to attract them or keep them. Little ones get to a certian age and drift away.

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