Jw's----No visible decrease.

integ

Unfortunately I am seeing no visual decrease in the meeting attendance at Kingdom Halls, Assemblies, etc. Why do you think this is? I am hearing stories of packed District assemblies, and am seeing bigger attendance at the Kingdom Hall, not LESS as I might expect due to all the scandals and exposing of false prophecies etc. What is going on? It's very depressing. I don't know if there are less people going out in service or whatever, but what I am seeing is certainly not spelling out the imminent demise of the Watchtower Society. Maybe it's just where I am at here in the midwest U.S., but it's not a good sign. I'm sure the GB is ecstatic over the "increases" if they do in fact exist. They appear to in fact exist from what I am seeing and hearing. WHY?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Somebody please give me something......ANYTHING ................... To encourage me that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Respectfully Yours,

Integ.

onacruse

integ, I can't help but wonder how much it might be "local conditions." I know of several areas where there is a palpably decreased enthusiasm and lack of "enrollment" in the WTS; not to speak of the statistically demonstrable difference between the virtual non-growth in "developed" countries and the increases in "third-world" countries.

Craig

Euphemism

The Disctrict Assemblies are packed because the Society holds them in small facilities now.

Most congregations in the US have well-below-100% meeting attendance for the weekday meetings; and since those figures count kids and others who aren't publishers, you have to discount it even further.

The national average for hours in the US is on a slow decline... I think it's down to about 9 or so, after being around 10 for the longest time.

I was at a DC a couple of weeks ago; the attendance was 5,000, and there were only about 20 baptized. If you assume the same rate at CAs and SADs, that's still barely enough to keep up with the death rate.

Here's the kicker... the US had negligible growth last year. Now 20% of US congregations are Spanish, and those are growing by leaps and bounds. So if the overall growth is almost nonexistent, that tells you that the other 80% of English-speaking congregations have got to be bleeding members.

There was a brief activity spike after 9/11. But that will subside.

logansrun

Integ,

The Witnesses "growth" doesn't surprise me at all.

The Mormon Church is growing by leaps and bounds -- why? We've seen a dramatic rise in the number of pseudoscientific beliefs like astrology and UFOs in the last 20 years -- why? One of the hottest series of books at any bookstore are the apocalyptic "Christian fiction" works by Tim LaHaye called "Left Behind" -- why? Because, to be blunt, people are all too eager to believe silly things.

If you want a really good book to read that will help explain the mass delusions like the JW phenomenon, take a look at Eric Hoffer's The True Believer. You will find that when a group faces persecution, dissappointment or scandel often they just get stronger and grow tighter.

Oh....think of the Catholic Church and all the *$&% they have had in their Church history. Yet, people still believe in them! Crazy, stupid and ridiculous.

Bradley

nobody told me

The Kingdom hall I attended went from 4 Theocratic schools to 1 in the main hall.

Euphemism

I'll add... I used to attend a KH in NY that was shared by three English congregations... they're being merged into two, because they were just getting too small.

logansrun

Oh, I'll say a few more things...

Three years ago one of the Spanish congo's that met in my hall was deleted. That's right -- deleted! They just merged with the other Spanish congo. Everyone was stumped. What was up with that? Still don't know.

In Illinois Circuit 13 (where I was from) the Logan Square congregation (and English one) was deleted about a year ago and they simply merged with the Northwest congregation. Logan Square congo had been around FOREVER...and now they are no more.

Also, keep in mind that the DC's in the Chicagoland area were not held at their normal location (Hawthorne Race Course) but at Northern Illinois University. They scaled back on the number of DC's and just had bigger ones. All the same, don't be fooled by numbers. The quality is way down -- even from when I was a teenager just ten years ago, I notice a difference.

Bradley

pettygrudger

This was mentioned right after 9/11 as well....whenever our country is in "crisis" mode, all churches see huge upswells of people running to them for answers and comfort. Its not suprise that with us at war w/Iraq, that even those inactive ones are thinking "this is it" (as they did during 9/11, as they did during the 1st Gulf war etc. etc.)

Give it a few months, the removal of our George Bush and a calming in the hot bed of the middle east - everything will go back to normal.

logansrun

Give it a few months, the removal of our George Bush and a calming in the hot bed of the middle east - everything will go back to normal.

Hell, I'd go back to meetings if it would get rid of George Bush!

Bradley

metatron

The Society - and local brothers- will often quietly "compress" seating and

attendance at meetings - removing chairs and juggling circuit congregations.

Take note of how pathetic stage experiences are compared with the past -

and how meagre the baptisms at assemblies are. Attendance often drops

noticeably Sunday afternoon ( for the mythical "Public Talk" that the public usually

knows nothing about).

metatron

Jw's----No visible decrease.

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