WT to Congregations, Grow or Go

benext

It was related to me this morning the Society has instituted either a new or unofficial policy that congregations with attendance (not publisher) averages of less than 70 will be merged into the nearest congregation. I know of one elder who will inflate his cong. average to keep his "spot."

iiz2cool

Not surprising. It's all about numbers with them.

Walter

stillajwexelder

as soon as you hear more let us know --this would be a very interesting devlopment

Sassy

I know of congregations back home that were 49 pubs and less...

wow.. they sure would not be happy closing their doors and driving 25 - 40 miles...

iiz2cool

I know one cong in northern Ontario that had 28 members including 1 elder, and the next nearest town was a 2 hour drive. Putting both together wouldn't give them 70 members.

Maybe now they'll have another excuse to encourage young people to pioneer right out of high school and "move to where the need is greater."

Walter

Ciara

I think the more congregations close the better. My Dad's congregation was closed when I brought allegations against him because there was no other elder to take charge. Most of the publishers there have stopped being active because the nearest congregation is over an hour away. It's a poor area and they just don't have the money to drive that far. Maybe if they start closing congregations with low numbers, more people will end up dropping the witnesses.

They already inflate their numbers so I don't think that a few P.O.'s fudging it a bit more will make any difference.

metatron

Think about what will happen next.

Many low attendance congregations will have the elders lie to keep up appearances. Others, will burn out and concede

defeat.

Over time, Witness congregations will grow in size - but not split as easily. In many areas, there will emerge bigger JW

congregations but fewer in number. With bigger congregations, the elders - and the Society- will lose YET MORE control

over individual Witnesses. They'll simply 'blend into the crowd'.

If you want to fade away, this is excellent news.

metatron

blondie

I think the financial issues factor in here strongly. The fewer people there are, the fewer people there are to contribute to the maintenance of the KH. I saw a 2 congregations recombine for that very reason. They could not support the utility costs of having the KH open 2 extra nights and 1/2 day every week. There also is the issue of meeting support, with a lower percentage, it means the meetings look pretty sparse and that is discouraging for JWs. Combining only works when there are several congregations in the same urban area. As was pointed out, driving 50 miles one way to the meetings is expensive and few have the time and motivation to do it.

That is a funny point about an elder wanting to protect his turf, not wanting to compete with other elders for one of the 5 spots or one of the 3 spots on the service committee (corrected typo).

Blondie

cyber-sista

I was just thinking about this recently as the old congo I was in seems to be hanging by threads--no new ones coming in--lots of publishers leaving town--very low on donations. Maybe this would be a good way for the society to start cashing out on some of their properties. Even as a strong JW I would be very depressed to drive 50 miles to a meeting and probably would have missed a lot of meetings if I had to. Will be interesting to see what happens.

Scully

If you're Inactive?, it will likely mean pressure from the elders to get you reactivated again, or at least turning in a Service Report?. That's not great news for people like me who want to 'fade', because it will mean a Shepherding Call? in the near future.

Love, Scully

WT to Congregations, Grow or Go

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