I have not attended my former congregation in years, but when I did attend in the mid 80's, early nineties we were like a social/religious organization. The various clicks would always have something going on like concerts, plays, and weekend trips to varied places. "Friends" from around the circuit would call us the party animal congregation. The CO eventually discovered we were having too much fun and had the elders present a Local Needs Talk to put a stop to us from making too much merry. At that time our congregations had the highest number of publishers, pioneers, and averaged hours per publisher, magazine placement and meeting attendance in the circuit.
I was talking to my former brother-in-law not too long ago, his wife is still in. He told me that the Sunday meeting averages about 80-90. This is down from about 175- 200 when I was attending.
Now that I think about, the reason we excelled as a congregation was because we enjoyed a life outside of the Kingdom Hall. However, as we all know if you are enjoying life the “Slave” is thinking the elders must be doing something wrong. They much rather see you go around looking miserable.