by asp59 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
There are more using phones too. Old people cant sit in economy chairs, drive in the dark, get up and around in morning, or need their nap in the afternoon. Not that i cant nap at meeting. LOL
We were instructed locally to count every newborn, and used to cross off and change the number if a straggler came in for the last 3 minutes of the talk.
Waton when a local hall is sold, that had a decent easy walk - to attendance , when the longer travel for the drivel to the new, distant hall becomes onerous, attendance will really decline,
That's what I think!
Particularly when it's generally older folks attending. They are going to be the first ones to cut down attendence during bad weather or winter months that get dark early.
Not to mention it's easier for PiMOs to disappear and fade from the new, larger merged congs where no one knows them. I think it's a mistake for Watchtower to do this.
Agreed with the fake counts. BITD we were instructed to count ONLY those who were actually paying attention. Newborns...not counted, sleeping during the meeting...not counted and so on. Now days the attendance figures are artificially inflated by counting every breathing soul.
And still in the area where I was at one time PIMI the attendance has dropped from the high eighties and low nineties at every meeting to normally high twenties to low thirties, and the occasional mid forties, if there are some visitors. I am just waiting for someone that still attends to let me know that this congregation has been merged. Some already have been in the immediate area. From nine congregations in a fifty mile (US) radius less than ten years ago to a current five, along with buildings sold off.
Even as a non-JW, I've noticed a drop in attendance. I drop my JW wife off at meetings and have seen the number of cars in the lot go down over time. I would estimate the number is about 2/3 of what it used to be. The KH now houses four congregations. A nearby KH was closed this year and the single congregation was relocated here. The relocated congregation has their Sunday meeting on Saturday morning. Meeting times for 2020 will rotate next week. My wife's goes to 3:30 pm. Ugh.
To be fair, it's happening in other denominations as well. At my Christmas evening service, there were plenty of seats available. It used to be packed and overflow seating was needed.
Somebody used to always park in the stall furthest from the KH building even though they could have parked much closer. Being a wise guy, I asked my wife if that was disfellowshipped parking.
What I see here where I am, the local congregations (two congos, different languages) have been shrinking, so an attendance of 60 at the meeting would be 100% if that's all the publishers you have. (Do they still calculate it that way?)
After combining congregations the attendance is still only at 80-85, so I'm thinking a few people took the opportunity to fade. (Smart!) Several just call in, and their numbers are included in those figures.
Fifteen years ago, meeting attendance here would almost always be over 100% - say 120 plus people at the Sunday meeting, and that's just for the English speaking congregation, which had around 95 publishers.
