by DaCheech 11 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Last night my mother has confided in me that her best's friends brother was a Circuit Overseer.
She told my mom that the society instructs all C.O. to keep congregation sizes small for the
pure reason that: If so everybody can be closely watched, monitored, and known!
I guess we all know we have no provacy under the WT, but the cunningness leaves little to the imagination!
I have long suspected this... not a bit surprising.
When I asked about that I was always told that it was so that the elders could give each person more attention and so that people could get to know each other better.... basically the same thing only with a more "nice" spin to it.
My own father has said the same thing. The same thing had also been said during a Service Meeting one time regarding sizes of Bookstudy's
"We want to keep them to 10-15 maximum in order to make sure everyone gets a chance to answer, and be noticed at meeting.
So the question is what is considered "small"? The first congregation I was in had 350 publishers. Most congregations in the inner citiees are in the hundreds. The last hall I was in, in da bronx, NYC had 6 congregations, two were meeting on Saturdays, each congregation had over 200 publishers. You'd have to build more kingdom halls! Create more congregations, elect more elders and servants.
Perhaps this is a way to create the illusion that the organization is growing by boasting of an increase in congregations.
RR
during my days growing up, during my family time and at the time of my exit it has always been around 150 max then the hall would split...this is too keep the feeling of family and close unity...which in turn make observation of attendence and participation very evident, especially to elders. Promotions of any kind is always attendence, service and participation..During my days of m.s i kept service hours records...the mole
They want to keep it like a cozy little family.
I guess that is another way of saying that is so that the flock is manageable and elders can shepher effectively.
so everybody can be closely watched, monitored,
they are not doing it very well, are they. You can just fade away and no one gives a damn. You could be dead before you got a visit
**Create more congregations, elect more elders and servants.
Perhaps this is a way to create the illusion that the organization is growing by boasting of an increase in congregations.
>>This is what I thought for years. The more the rise in the numbers, the more "prosperous" the rich blessings of Jehovah (blech-did I SAY that?) would appear to be. I think when I left in '99 the count was 73,000 back then. Appearances R the WTS, LOL!
The last congo we were in had a fundamental lack of brothers/MS. There were elders but many did not want to do much. The book studies were supposed to stay around 15 but always edged up to 25 or 30.
But the fact is that whether an elder had 10 "sheep" to "care for" or 30; not much shepherding happened. Few conductors went in field service with the rank and file; many not even with their own families. Your only contact would be his asking for your time.
It looks better on the stats to have 10 congregations of 50 than 5 congregations of 100. But I anticipate with the lack of elders and MS and the difficulty of finding land and money to building new KHs; that many congos will get larger in the urban areas and the rural ones will get smaller and smaller.
Blondie
Actually I hear the largest problem to division is stistical lack of men, and even the larger lack of men "free of accusation" and "of one wife". Now that they are making multi congregational background checks for elders there will be even fewer. I have heard of sisters doing the ms job of taking the groups out on week days except they never get credit for it.
