The real story: Is your congregation stagnant, dwindling or thriving? (page 2)

bigmouth

My cong. in south of NZ had about 50 publishers 10 years ago. Now it's got 14 and 1 MS.

The area is booming economically.

Y'all are gonna be so jealous... my congregation is doing well. Yes, we have several 'drifters' and many pubs miss meetings, and average hours are on the low side, but many of our numbers are up up up. Here's why...

The congregation to the west was disbanded, so we gained publishers. The congregation to the east had problems several years ago, so we gained publishers, 6 of which still live outside our territory, with children which boost our meeting attendance. The congregation to the north is currently having serious problems and we are in the process of gaining another 10+ publishers there. Many have moved away, but then actually moved back because of a better spirit here. Yeah, there are some problems, but not as many or as bad as previous congregations I attended... while in Bethel.

I wouldn't call our congregation 'thriving'. Zeal doesn't come from anything with the organization, the CO isn't well liked, service is superficial. Zeal comes from local friendships, local activities. As with most congregations, young brothers aren't progressing to take any responsibility. We have only 2 ministerial servants, none of the younger brothers qualify for recommendation. Other congregations have no ministerial servants. That leaves the existing servants and elders to do more, many are at the breaking point that there are so many demands from the bOrg, and problems in the congregation, that after serving for decades, they're ready to quit.

Frequent_Fader_Miles

My congregation - the JWD ApostaCongregation couldn't be doing better!

Numbers are up every day, attendance is excellent, and the majority of our publishers put in 'pioneer hours'. There's no problem with commenting, and everyone prepares for the meetings as well. New ones are warmly welcomed.

LtCmd.Lore

5 years ago there were 20 members and 20 attenders. Now there are 65 members and 45 attenders. only 2 of them where baptized into it from the door-to-door work, the others are all just evacuees from other halls.

The other halls in my area are losing members. (They're all moving to MY hall or getting DA'd/DF'd or dying.)

For example the hall I left when I moved here USED to have over 100 members. Last I was there, about a year ago, they only had about 40 people attending.

Lore - What.Would.Satan.Do?

WTWizard

The congregation I used to go to had some attendance issues in the mid 1990s. For a while, the area was averaging in the 110s for the Sunday meetings when I first started. Typically the Theocraptic Misery "School(??)" and Circus Meeting had in the 80s during that period. Then, by 1995 it was averaging in the mid 60s and lower 70s for the Sunday meeting and 55-65 for a regular midweek meeting. It held there, with very few new ones coming in and everyone moving out. Unfortunately, there has been somewhat of a revival just before I left. They are now averaging (as of 2003) approximately 100 per Sunday boasting session and high 70s for the midweek sessions.

The other congregation in the Hell was having the opposite situation. Their numbers were in the 120-130 range for the Sunday talks. That congregation started tanking around 2001, and the last I saw they were averaging in the 50s and 60s. Yes, that congregation was a bit more affluent. Where I used to go, it was once lower-middle class, but they have become poor and ghetto area. Possibly that explains the growth spurt they got in the 2002-03 time (for sure, they do not create enough value to warrant any more than zero). I have no idea of what they are doing as of 2007, and I am not going to risk getting recaptured and moved in with some dodo family that wants control of me once again just to find out.

My current congregation is exploding. This forum seems to be having no problems in gaining newbies every day, and quite a few are rapidly approaching the Jedi ranks and beyond. And I have no problem making my time--in under a year, I have put in more than 2,000 posts (which is more than I ever did in field circus).

Mulan

When we attended there were about 120 cards in the file. (husband was an elder) Meeting attendance was about 75-85.

Now, according to my buddy, who attends regularly, meeting attendance is horrible, about 40-45. Don't know how many cards there are now.

A congregation North of us was recently disbanded because there just weren't enough publishers and elders to continue operating. They were absorbed into one other congregation. That was shocking. Maybe it's just this area of the U.S. but it's a bit stagnant except the Spanish and Korean congregations, which seem to be thriving.

jayhawk1

Until about a year ago, the local congregation had a half empty parking lot. Then in just the last couple of months, I've noticed the parking lot has been full each Sunday. There must have been a deleted congregation and merged with the local one. There is no way that old congegation grew that fast. As far as knowing for sure, I have not been inside the building in about 7 years.

Tristram

No joke, I thought my congregations stagnancy was due to my bad behavior that I hadn't confessed and that Jehovah had removed his spirit from the congregation. I'm so relieved.

wha happened?

I purposely moved to a new hall to fade out so stats on that congregation are unknown. I previously lived in the san fernando valley. It's so large that it is split into two circuits, aside fro the rest of LA. In the english congs there were several mergers in the last 10 years. Another is pending.

logic

Just a side note. A couple of years ago I thought the announced meeting attendance always seemed high compare to who I seen there, so I started counting myself, several times, to get as accurate count as possible, including those on the phone and those getting up and down, the count was always about 20 people off. I told my wife that either I can't count, the attendants can't count, or somebody is lying.

The real story: Is your congregation stagnant, dwindling or thriving?