Recent C.O. visit: Bad news re: U.S. English meeting attendance

by Open mind 84 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  sir82

  I'm quite sure a large part of it is the utter vapidity and dullness of the meetings themselves.

  1) Elders pretty much just mail in their parts any more. No enthusiasm, little preparation, little practical application to real life...plus

  2) The material itself that is presented is dull, dull, dull. The format is dull, the source material is written at a 3rd grade level, the material has been hashed over dozens of times in recent years, the same 100 or so scriptures are read and re-read and re-read and re-read...

  Gosh, why are so many kids dropping out of the truth? What a mystery!
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  00DAD
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  LostGeneration

  
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  dozy

  Remember that the 75% includes little children & interested ones (albeit there aren't likely to be too many in the second category) so you really are talking about 60% - 65% of publishers per meeting.

  I'm finding that increasingly JWs are voting with their feet. They will happily miss a Sunday meeting if they are away for the weekend , have some visitors around or are just "tired" - ditto the midweek. If this is on a Thursday night , then it is quite easy to plan a weekend trip away & miss both meetings without any hassle.

  As the CO said , JWs who habitually missed one meeting a week are still doing so. From my experience , the book study was generally the best supported as it was (1) much smaller , so you couldn't miss it without being noticed (2) shorter , so less hassle - 1 hour & then it was finished & (3) tea & cakes afterward & a much better experience overall.

  Deleting the book study was a disastrous move by the WTBTS & we still don't really know the real reasons for it. I wonder whether they regret it now? Did they really think that the R&F would enthusiastically adopt a "family study night" a la the Mormons as a replacement? The constant admonition in the WTBTS publication to have a regular study night would imply that many , perhaps most JWs don't bother.
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  wha happened?

  Well some of this makes some sense. The bookstudy was killed for likely liability issues. Now it's easy to skip the school. That just leaves the weekend.

  The result? 75% avg meeting attendance in the gringo cong. So then what to do? Well what's worked in the past? Guilt, threats, misinformation.

  Now I understand all the talk about the danger of inactive ones, those outside the congregation, etc etc. It looks like alot of JW's are in a position to speak with those outside the congregation more often. That's danger to the GB.
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  Gayle

  Yet they 'claim,' avg. publishers are up, hours, pioneers, auxs, mem. attendance are all up across the board; unless that's all from the non-English congs.
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  Gayle

  I am wondering now that they have "trouble-shooter (traveling) overseers, instead of missionaries, maybe they'll be going to English cong. to take care of the troubled congregations.
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  ex360shipper

  If you are inactive for over 6 months, you don't count as part of the congregation if I remember correctly, so that number is even lower if you think of all the baptized publishers who are assigned to congregations but have "faded away."
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  JW GoneBad

  I've noticed a similar lackadaisical attitude in our congregation among R & F and the servant body toward meeting attendance. This is a good sign of "troubled waters" ahead for the WTBTS. Yippee! Serves em' right!
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  yourmomma

  I remember hearing that if you regularly miss a meeting, you should not call yourself a Jehovah's witness. these people are getting more insane by the day.