CONGREGATION SPLITS

hamptonite21

How many times were you in a congregation split? I was in 1 in about my 10 yrs active as a jdub.

eyeslice

Never in 25 years. We have had some move in and some move out.

Overall, we are decreasing, so not likely to split.

freedom96

I think mine split when I was a young child, and then there were 3 congregations. Never happened after that.

obiwan

I had been, four times in three different congregations.

I've experienced two. Just before a split they have to evaluate the stock of Elders and Ministerial Servants so that there is enough to support two congregations. They push the "reaching out" thing heavily when congregations get too big for the hall they're in. Dividing the territory is a difficult one and is usually laden with bias! It has been known for Elders to deliberately draw the line so that they don't end up in the same congregation as someone they don't get on with! And after the split has been made, getting the brothers and sisters to respect the decision about where they are meant to go is difficult too, people don't like being separated from their friends!

Scully

Several times. Four times to my recollection in about 25 years.

I think they liked to keep the numbers at around 75-100 publishers in a congregation. It's easier to manage that way, plus it gives brothers who have been "reaching out" more opportunities for advancement. The pioneers apparently liked it because the territory isn't as vast, and they could get more service done without as much long-distance driving.

It was particularly useful if there were elders who didn't get along with the rest of the body - split the congregation, and make sure the territory boundaries were such that Brother Troublemaker got sent to the other congregation, while the old alliances became stronger.

Love, Scully

SheilaM

I think a couple of times I know the last one was weird because they had MORE than enough room there was much more to the split than that but I was past caring LOL

JH

I was in a fairly large congregation of about 130 publishers and they split up in 2 and then 3, with the formation of 2 new congregations. Finally, the large congregation of 130 publishers became so small (about 60), and even came down to about 35-40 per meeting. Finally that congregation ceased to exist because of too few people. They made a bad calculation in dividing like that. That was their way of forcing responsibilities upon people. When a congregation is too large, you can get away without doing much, but when a congregation is small, they need elders, ministerial servants, pioneers, brothers with privileges. So they prefer small congregations to make everybody work their ass off, and also to keep a close eye on you.

Edited by - jh on 30 December 2002 13:50:49

dmouse

Once, about 30 years ago. We never had sufficiant increase to split again, and I doubt we ever will.

The congregations still share the same hall, swapping Sunday meeting times annually. This year we had the morning slot - a 10am start. Next week we revert to an afternoon slot for the rest of the year - 2pm

yrs2long

I was in 2 congregations that were dissolved within a 3 year period. The first time, everyone was assigned to and absorbed by neighboring congregations and I'm not quite sure the reason. The second time was due to dissension among a corrupt elder body and every one was told to go wherever they wished.