by dudeson 15 Replies latest jw friends
According to the Annual Meeting there were two new peaks in the USA during the last service year, so why are congregations being merged?
The peaks might have been in foreign language or in some "aspect" of the ministry like bible studies counted. I think a lot of these cong dissolutions are in English, where things have been stagnating for a l o n g time.
From what I've seen, most congregations are getting much smaller, often as JW children grow up and leave with no new recruits coming in.
And if you examine any of the current congregations that actually are large you'll find that most of the families within it are related either by blood or by marriage.
In our area, there are four "English" congos occupying two halls - in addition to several "Spanish" congos in two other halls.
The Spanish side has grown a lot in the past 10 years, splitting twice and filling up seats at the hall.
On the English side, there's been a serious contraction, despite heavy population growth in the area.
Recently, the CO "moved" several families from three of the English congos to a fourth which was experiencing anemic meeting attendance, something on the order of 50 at the Sunday meeting, even less at the mid-week evening gathering.
Based on my past experience, I can imagine this reshuffling was not very popular with the families who were asked to move.
I am certain I could find a dub here who would tell us, with a straight face, that the fourth congo has "experienced quite a bit of growth recently." They are that programmed.
I am certain I could find a dub here who would tell us, with a straight face, that the fourth congo has "experienced quite a bit of growth recently." They are that programmed.
Roger that.
Here where I live, in the past few years (at the top of the real estate bubble) about a bazillion JWs moved in here, selling their hyper-inflated homes in NY, NJ, California, etc. for a dandy profit.
In this area, due to large swaths of land still available for development & construction, real estate prices did not climb nearly as high as in other locales - the result being, those "emigres" could afford a large house, with cash, and still have several $10's or even $100's of thousands left over.
As a result, congregation size exploded. Kingdom Halls, as a matter of course, hosted 4 or even 5 congregations each.
I hear JWs talking all the time about how much "growth" is going on - "just look at how full the Kingdom Halls are!"
Umm, hello! McFly! 99% of that "growth" is due to people moving in from somewhere else. Pointing that out just gets you a bewildered stare.
Is there a set level that a Congo has to fall to before it is dis-banded and amalgamated ?
I ask out of personal interest, as my Congo split into two about six months before I walked away, and I ain't the only one who has gone, I just wonder how long they go before joining them back up again ?
Just before the split they had a mass appointment at the instigation of the C.O so that both Congos had enough Elders and Mincers, loads of guys were "made up " who would not have been in the old Congo coz of the quality of guys in office (or so they thought)
Eleven became Elders or Mincers in one announcement ! What a joke !
I would love to see them have to eat humble pie and join back up again !
Love
Wobble
I wonder if this is not one of the reasons for the maxi-kingdom halls and mergers that came into style in the later 80s and 90s?
Did they sort of have a premonition that the traditional local 90-110 person KH was going the way of the Dodo Bird?
I think my old congregation - Oak Glen on 16st. in Oklahoma City is now merged. At least the KH has been sold.
