Judging from the reports I'm hearing, there must be a lot of congregations in the US that
are falling into the dreaded 30 -40 meeting attendance syndrome. It also seems that the
deadhead, do-nothing Governing Body has no reaction to this threat other than to encourage
Circuit Overseers to berate the elders about 'not doing enough'.
So, the question is: has the Society developed any set of standards for shutting down
a congregation? or even a last ditch specific response to one that's fading away?
The really cool thing about this trend is that, if it continues nationally, you could see
a sudden massive loss of congregations as large numbers of them collectively collapse
within a short period of time. I could also imagine C.O.'s agonizing over a lot of rural
congregations dying - but feeling unable to shut them down so as to leave no 'brand
representation' in large areas - unless they can convince the remaining cultists to travel
long distances to the nearest Kingdom Hall. Good luck with those gas prices, publishers!
metatron