I always thought around 125 or so. I just asked my brother how many are in his hall and he said about 80. I thought that sounded very low. Anyone have any info? PC
How many are in the average hall now?
by pc 15 Replies latest jw friends
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Pork Chop
Just depends on where you are. In my area they typically run in the 150 - 170 range.
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somebodylovesme
Only 45 in the one my hubby went to, and I think the number is going down.
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Octavia
There were probably about 80 or 90 in ours
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dustyb
on a sunday we have about 120-130. thursdays we have maybe 50...maybe
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blondie
Usually when they reach the 150 to 170 range they try to split, if there are enough elders and MS. But since the WTS is losing about 25% of them a year due to death, stepping down, removal, DFing/DAing, that may not happen.
Attending on Sunday
100 (30 visiting from other congegations, 20 unbaptized children not publishers)
100 publisher cards
30 irregular (reporting for at least 1 month in 6)
20 inactive (not reporting for 6 consecutive months)
One brother acting as attendant counted 90 in attendance one Sunday, 40 from other congregations, 15 children not publishers, meaning only 35 people attending were publishers assigned to that congregation.
That doesn't even count those who are there physically but their minds are far away (the category I fell into).
Blondie
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Agent Smith
You know whats funny....
At my old Cong. when the attendance was under 80, they wouldn't announce the attendance from the platform. The elders where embarrased! One time when the overseer came to visit, he started talking about how our attencedance was excellent. When he got into the specifics of the attendance, everybody was like WTF?? The attendance he mentioned was something 150 for Sunday meetings. We had never seen anything over 100 at the meeting Not even for the memorial ! It was funny. The elders where all like "Damn, how are we going to get out of this one?" They knew that they where not fooling us.
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stillajwexelder
60 maximum in our hall
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Loris
I left a year ago so my figures are old
95 publisher cards
less than 100 on Sunday
less than 65 on Tuesday
and that count includes infants and non-publisher children
The Watchtower meeting is so pathetic it is embarrasing. The same five people raise their hands to answer. The rest are just there in body only.
Loris
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willyloman
Don't wish to float a turd in the punchbowl, but this could start to sound like the longtime JW rant about how the churches are losing members at a staggering rate and then citing a church that closed somewhere as proof. The problem with that logic is, there's always another church somewhere that has grown from 0 to 5,000 members in 10 years!
The truth is, congregations come in all sizes. Much depends on the area and the rate of population growth (or decline). I went to one not long ago that had 195 in attendance, and it wasn't even the CO visit. Another congo in a very small hall had standing room only when I went to give a talk. Turned out I was not the attraction, after all, but rather the KH was in a small resort area and at that time of year there were dozens of JW "snowbirds" staying in nearby campgrounds and trailer parks and they packed out the hall for a couple of months every winter.
On the other hand, another meeting we attended had 54 people one Sunday, a poor but typical showing even for a small congo of some 85 pubs. Two years earlier, that congo had over 130 pubs, so a trend is under way at that location.
Overall, there does appear to be an emerging trend in favor of shrinking attendance. All of us "old timers" can remember when missing a meeting was a big deal; today, it's much more common.