My Mum's congregation get's involved in trips to see classical music, she goes dancing sometimes and even enjoys an official congregation organised picnic when the weather is good enough.
The DF'ing thing seems to be regarded as an optional choice for the would-be shunner. Everyone there is very sociable and friendly with one another too. Recently, when my mother was ill, she received 5 separate gifts of whisky, brandy, wine, port and something else from 5 different members of the congregation.
It just doesn't seem to be the harsh regime there that some others experience.
There are a lot of congregations like the one you just described...it is just unfortunate that it isn't the rule. I grew up in a very close congregation...I remember when my father died they made dinner for us for a week while we prepared his funeral. We did go on actual fun trips (of course, there was a one day visit to Canadian Bethel but I remember the 5 days at Niagara Falls much better) and there were brothers & sisters who were genuinely concerned about me...
When it came down to it though, it was all conditional because they only would act like this toward JWs...
There were a few odd events orgnised for kids in our old hall, back when there were real "characters" in it. As time progressed they happened less and less frequently and when anyone did try to organise anything it was put a stop to.
I remember us doing amateur plays (each group picked a scene from a play to do ... ours was 'Oliver'). We also went on hiking trips and to local parks.
It's strange - there were plenty of talks telling kids not to get involved at school etc... but then precious little else provided for them to do. And then they are surprised when they kick it into touch when they turn 16 or so.
From what I recall about location deleted is the birth place of the industrial revolution) is that there were at least 4 congregations in *****. The amount of JWs locally meant they were covering the territory every week!
Maybe JWs have become such a nuisance group that they have turned inwards. Or maybe after doing field service to death they have discovered a better way to live and minister and that is by doing good needs. Then again, maybe they have lost a lot of members and by improving the conditions they hope to retain the remaining ones. Or maybe the CO hasn't got wind of this and put his foot dwown.
PLEASE, do not advertise these congregations too much. Before you know it a van load of special bethlite elders with thier wives will come and straighten things out. Suck out every vestige of humanity and friendliness in these congo's and make them cold and judging caves of death. I have heard of these things happening in New York City when certain congo's fall under "special needs" which simply means that the members were happy and loose. Before you know it Bethel; elders were sent to these congo's to "help them out spritually" and the fun times were over.
We had a Brother in Bethel who specialized in this type of service his name was Ralph Negritti. A real asshole with dentures!
Suck out every vestige of humanity and friendliness in these congo's and make them cold and judging caves of death
LOL! Well said...
"Brother, we have reports that your congregation organizes a lot of activities that fall outside of the normal spiritual routine as outlined by the Faithful and Discreet Slave. Now certainly recreation has it's place, but we need to stay balanced and make sure that we are keeping kingdom activities in the forefront..."
I guess it all comes down to "Individuals" organizing things because the congo is not suposed to . If one is lucky or has the forsight to settle in a large town congo area, then it may be better than a small town one. A D/overseer of my acquaintance used the expression "Market Town mentality " when describing the area in which we had had problems.
