by ToesUp 31 Replies latest jw friends
Over the last two years, slightly lower attendances, slightly more lethargic attitude; lower baptisms this last year at circuit days. Young ones walking out the door by fading. One older lady faded. One older lady walking out by DA'ing.
Our publisher count remains static but only because about 8 publishers have moved in.
One baptism - a young lad who is now about 17 and he was baptised in the great flush of 2014 and is now not seen and on the way to inactivity!
Locally, 7 have faded aparantly in the last year!
The hall I have to go to is always half empty. I think a lot of people make an excuse and just dial in .... no new ones to see to justify the number of "studies" they are claiming. Absolutely no energy whatsoever.
From what I hear the circuit assembly does better, but I suspect a lot of people are not going to the summer "regional" convention - at least not every day. Easy to say you went (have to travel far out of town where we are) but not really go. Who would know? It's not like anyone is really talking about what they heard that was so wonderful after the fact.
And the same problem IgnoranceIsBliss mentioned earlier, most of the elders are old, the two young ones lacking speaking talent, so I don't know what will happen to this group in a few years.
I started noticing, even before waking up, that baptisms at cc had declined a great deal. We used to have 25-30 per convention now is more like 6-7, and they're mostly children of Jdubs. I'm in the Spanish speaking circuit, where we had rapid growth about 15-20 years ago, not the case anymore, there has not been a new cong in our area in the last 10 years.
One of the last stage assignments I had before walking away from it all, at the assembly day, there was ZERO baptized.
It had all of our attention backstage.
The speaker had to give the baptism prayer for NO ONE!
Never seen that before.
I've been away from the meetings since 2013 and I noticed the growth was not substantial and the attendance in Napa was around 65-75% with very few studies attending the meetings.
Four congregations merged into three around five years ago.
It gave the impression that attendance was "up", but that didn't last.
There have been many deaths in the last five years, locally.
At least ten, several being Elders or MS.
Everyone sees it, but few inside even notice.
The attendance at our Spanish congs has gone down. The young people are not into it at all; they are busy with their studies and totally aloof about Org stuff.
Waking up! Thanks Internet!
DY
Where I live, for the most part, things appear to be the same mostly, no real growth, but no real decline. Everything seems to be holding steady for the most part. Most new people that come into the congregation are really just people from other congregations moving into ours. There is no real growth happening in my congregation, and even though I might be a little biased at wanting to see a decline, I can't help but think that at least morale is declining, if not actual attendance.
But if you pushed me, I would lean more to say that it "looks" as if our attendance is declining more than rising, at least for the midweek meeting. Sundays always seem to look steady for the most part. But the midweek meeting is definitely a lonely place sometimes. I honestly think that all the new changes with the CLAM are turning off most people in our congregation, rather than actually getting people excited, other than the Uber-dubs. I think part of it stems from the fact that all of our BOE and all our MS's are technologically challenged for the most part. So when it comes to using video presentations, they always seem to botch it up. Sometimes, it takes more time to get the videos started than to actually watch the videos. I think it makes everyone feel "behind the times", and only adds to the discomfort of living in a whole "new world" that no one is really comfortable with.
To add to it, our BOE is really unorganized and always seem to be doing things at the last minute, which gives off the appearance that they are lazy, since they never seem to do anything on time. I think most of the congregation is actually quite frustrated with them. I mean, no one likes to be called at the last minute to prepare for a part in two days, just because the elder in charge of assignments had not gotten around to making the list on time. And by the time they finally put up the list of assignments, there is only two weeks left on it, and everyone knows next month will just be the same.
So, in our congregation at least, while attendance might be holding steady for the most part (if not declining a bit), morale at least is at an all time low, and it's mostly due to the incompetence of our BOE. If I had to guess, though, I would think most other congregations feel the same, especially those with older BOEs who are struggling to keep up with all the changes and "technological advances". The BOE frustrations eventually get mirrored by their respective congregations, and as sad as it is to see other people's morales decline, there is a part of me that smiles on the inside, hoping it's the catalyst to their eventual and painful waking up.
Spanish congs are still lively in the sense that we are always celebrating something. Every weekend, for real! When it gets quiet, we do gatherings at parks and dinner parties for no other reason than just eat, play games and dance.
Hell, it helps pass the time.
DY
