WTS closes/dissolves 435 congregations in 29 countries

by Gayle 52 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Gayle

  As listed in 2013 Yearbook.

  Yes, most countries have increases in congregations.

  Most of the countries that have less congregations than last year, show 1 or 2 less. However, Poland shows a dramatic 327 congregations less, from 1,814 (2011) to 1,487. Netherlands, 25 less congregations. Japan 23 less. Cameroon, 7 less; Denmark, 7 less; Guadeloupe, 5 less; Italy, 5 less; Sweden, 5 less; Korea, 6 less.

  Those 2 less: Jamaica, Luxemburg, Portugal, Slovakia, Switzerland.

  Those with 1 less: Albania, Austria, Bosnia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech, Estonia, Iceland, Ireland, Lebanon, Madeira, Martinique, Mynamar, Turkey, and Uruguay.
• 

  wasblind

  marked
• 

  MrFreeze

  Remember when they were so excited about the growth in Japan? Yeah, what happened to that? I can't wait for the day we see negative growth of JW's worldwide.
• 

  ILTSF

  Interesting
• 

  cognac

  The country's that have less congregations, is there also a decrease in publishers? If there isn't, could they just be combing congregations?
• 

  jgnat

  I checked those countries in your first paragraph against my own analysis, Gayle, and all but Cameroon are wealthy internet savvy.
• 

  cedars

  Interesting stuff. What the hell happened in Poland??

  Cedars
• 

  truthlover

  Since branches are decreasing, kingdom halls and assembly halls being sold off and congregations combining due to declining pubs at the

  meetings, older, sicker elders and ms servants who are not being replaced as there are no younger brothers wanting the responsibility (hence

  the call at the assemblies for them to step up), financially strapped pubs are not contributing as they once did, older ones dying off and no support

  monetarily from them anymore, no younger ones want to help with hall renos anymore, those that are on the RBC are tired out and pay for all their own expenses to "git er done"...

  No wonder the women cant do a D to D call on a male - the males are to take over the call -- they will try to draw men in from the world to cover off the elder/ms shortages being experienced, like that will happen... they let males in the congregations walk out the door because they dont follow up spiritually to find out what the problem is and dont listen to the problems when they hear them , so males walk out and mostly with their families and there goes all those thousands of hours it takes to bring ONE person into the truth!!!

  So the "prudent" thing to do is keep the pub numbers static but combine the congregations to have more elders and ms to take over from those who can't do it anymore.. plus of course, sell of their halls and keep the money at head office...

  remember the Book study reasoning - gas is so high this is a blessing not to have to go out that one night - well when congregations combine, who travels more and from what distance??

  I am in but can you tell how happy I am?
• 

  dazed but not confused

  How do you suppose the WTBTS will spin this to say: "Jehovah is blessing us!" ??.... You know they will...
• 

  whathappened

  Japan suffered that horrific earthquake and tsunami, but the rest is just evidence that they are losing all credibility with the rank and file.