Did the elders suggest in what area you "should" live?

JH

I remember a time when there were new congregations and the elders told us that if some could move out in the country side about 25 miles away to that new congregation, it would encourage this new congregation that's just starting up and would need pioneers and qualified brothers.

I remember than atleast 25 in our congregation moved out there, just to show how fast a new congregation can be set up. It was as if God blessed this new congregation so rapidly.

I also remember the same period of time when the same elders made it known to us that moving into another congregation in this city wasn't well seen. Afterall, we were formed in our local congregation and they needed us. At the time, I used to move just about every year, since I always had a bad apartment. I lived in the shitty part of town and would have loved to move in the better part of town, but just like everybody else in my congregation, we knew that if we wanted a better place to live, it had to be in the limits of OUR congregation. Once I moved out of my congregation becuause I found a nice apartment in the newer section of town, I was told by a brother that I wasn't faithful to the local congregation.

So here you got it, if the elders suggest that you move to a new congregation way out of your way because they suggest it, it's good, but if you move a few blocks in your city and out of your congregation just to get a better place to live, it's bad because you won't be there anymore to serve them. Hey, and I wasnt' t even a MS.

And that was in the same period of time when the elders said not to shake the hands of sisters....lol

Our elders were like dictators at the time.

Today I can live where I want....haha

carla

I was told by a brother that I wasn't faithful to the local congregation.--Well, that says it all doesn't it?

Scully

We always had at least one elder from outside the territory boundaries assigned to work with our congregation. Nobody ever Encouraged™ them to move into the territory. We did get some people upset when we moved out of the congregation and circuit territory so I could be closer to campus when I started college. I think some suspected that we would try to fade when we moved and it meant that they wouldn't have any control over us anymore. They didn't care enough to keep in touch, so I never felt bad about having moved away.

Dansk

Visiting P.O.'s would occasionally try and encourage those living in another congregation's territory to go and move there - but it fell on deaf ears as many were elders!

Ian

Bumble Bee

I don't remember ever hearing elders ask people to move to another territory. What I did hear is that you have to live within the congs boundaries. It was very much frowned upon if you attended another cong. The territory I live in is very short on elders and MS. A family was assigned to this cong (son and father, both elders although the father is elderly and not in good health) and shortly afterwards they changed the boundaries.

When my mother needed help attending meetings because of my fathers illness, I suggested she come to my hall, we could help her, (neighbouring cong, same city) and the elders said that she could, but they would not offer her any support with my father, would not give her the KM's etc. This was what really made me stop and think about this so called loving world wide brotherhood. There was no love there, only boundaries.

BB

done4good

This was probably one of the early rules that I never abided by. My family, (mother,sister, and myself in org at the time), drove to a hall about 15 minutes away outside the territory. I stayed there, even after my mother went back to the "proper" hall. As an adult, the first home I purchased was outside of the territory of my hall, and continued going. Only during a brief 5 year peiod of my jw life did I ever actually live in my cong's. territory. I even had a book study in one of my homes outside of the territory, which was because the area in which I lived a number of jws also went to the hall I was going to.

j

aniron

Apart from times when they wanted people to move "where the need was great" , people lived where they wanted.

We shared a KH with another congregation, designated North and South. We lived in one house and went to the South cong, four doors down and the JW's there went to the North cong. We moved into what was North territory but continued to go to the South cong. Many others were the same, living in one congregations territory but going to the other congregation.

Also strangely, even though we lived in the North congs territory. We held one of the book groups for the South cong in our house.