I started out in a really wealthy cong. It was ok for a while, but some things just got to me. When I started to go to the Spanish (much much poorer cong) there was a huge difference!!! People were much warmer, not so cliqueish. I ended up in a Spanish cong that was in a fairly wealthy area as well....the elders there were what eventually did it for me. They had dinero and thought they knew it all, were a bit above the rest! The white rich people were actually better than the spanish rich people but I'll take poor any color any day!!!
Wealthy vs Poor Cong. Which ones were more real?
by hambeak 13 Replies latest forum tech-support
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JH
attended a hall where everyone was middle class or above very snooty and materialistic
When I started as a JW, the congregation here was pretty poor. People were poor and had old cars, had no houses, lived in modest apartments, and most of them were pioneers and I felt some kind of love and friendship. I was well off and helped them financially. Then a few years later as the end didn't come, some started working more, then most were working more, wives left the pioneering and began working too, and then nicer cars appeared and then 2 cars and then they bought houses and it wasn't the same anymore.
I saw BMW,s and expensive cars all of a sudden appear. At the same time that most were better off financially, I went the opposite way and became poor. No one helped out, and no gave a sh*t.
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cyd0099
I was down in California in the mid-80's and I saw the gap between the poor and wealthy congregations. I attended with the other less well-to-do brothers even though I had family in the rich territories. I felt more at ease in th older, slightly run-down but clean building used as a hall than at the shiny, manicured, and landscaped KH of my relatives.
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Country Girl
My first congregation was small and close; but in the city, and probably middle-class average. That was a long time ago, though. My second was all middle to lower-class incomes, and they were still relatively close -- but the congregations that lay to the South of us were the upper-crust congregations, and they were a bit more snobby, but we still hob-knobbed with them. The kids from those congregations, though, seemed to partake of some naughty liberties: smoking pot and drinking at parties at their houses, unchaperoned by parents who were somewhat uninvolved with their kids. The third congregation, out on the edge of the country, was further South, and was a mix of really low-income rural mountain kids, rich kids, and some just middle-income country kids. I did notice that the ones that lived in the more expensive homes were a bit cliquish, but it seemed that was because their homes were on the outer edges of development of a large city, and our homes were out in the country. So, at that congregation, the country folks from 30 or more miles away hung out, and the rich kids that lived in the mega-homes hung out.. just a matter of geographics I chalked it up to at the time.
My Grandmother, on the other hand, belonged to an absolutely wonderful congregation with about 30 members in a real small town in the Midwest, and there were all sorts of incomes.. yet every weekend, they had get-togethers at the park; eating and playing softball -- a place where you felt genuinely loved and cared for. I loved them very much, and still think of them often. The rich ones in that congregation were not snooty, but very humble and shared in the congregation get-togethers as much as anyone else. There was a sincere form of love there, and I really liked that. My G-Mother drove 30 miles to the Hall, three times a week; some drove even more. Guess it just depends upon the times, mix of people, and the leadership.
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