You look at most churches around, they average one pastor or priest for every 150 people (roughly). The control factor isn't there though. IT'S ALL ABOUT KEEPING CONTROL!!!
Kwin
Why aren't congregations much bigger in size?
by JH 36 Replies latest jw friends
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Finally-Free
Imagine the same poor brothers always reading at the book study.
That happened to me so many times! A lot of times there were only a few of us at the book study - me, my ex, the BS conductor and his wife were the only "regular ones". The MS in our group hardly ever showed up because he was often working overtime. (but I'm the one who got counselled for being "materialistic".) Sometimes I'd read every week for several months straight.
Whenever I needed a break I'd pretend I was sick and stay in the next room on the computer. Then my ex had to put something on her head and she would read. She'd be so pissed at me!
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kid-A
WHen I was a kid, I remember an average of about 175 people in my KH at any given time. A decade later, it was dwindling to 40-50 and has stayed around there for about 5 years. In Toronto, many of the halls were built in the early to mid 60s and designed for congregations much larger in the pre-75 era. Its hard to imagine what they are going to do with all these empty buildings now that the older generation is dying off, the young are deserting in droves and the new recruits are fewer and fewer. They will make a fortune selling off that old real estate....
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kwintestal
Kid-A ... Last I heard, one of the KH in the town I grew up in was for sale, and the hall is merging with another because of the aging population and dwindling numbers. I say RIGHT ON!
Kwin
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willyloman
I'll join the chorus and vote for control. That really is the issue. Dubs will tell you it's so folks will get more personal attention, but personal attention in dubspeak means full control over what you do with your time... as opposed to taking a personal interest in the individual's welfare.Once I complained to a PO about plans to split a very healthy, vibrant congregation of about 160 pubs. He justified it by saying that with 160 or more people showing up on Sunday, there was just no way the elders could keep track of everyone. "Somebody could miss meetings three weeks in a row and you'd never even know it," he said.
The WTS encourages congos to split so they can point to this as evidence of "growth." In the past decade or so, this growth has slowed considerably, at least where I live. There've been at least three "splits" in nearby halls in that time period, but there aren't significantly more publishers than there were before -- despite a huge increase in population. What this does is distract the "friends" from worrying about the lack of growth. They just simply shift their story from "we've grown from X publishers to 2X publishers!" to "we've added three more congregations just in the short time I've been here!" It's all about appearances.
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Finally-Free
The WTS encourages congos to split so they can point to this as evidence of "growth." In the past decade or so, this growth has slowed considerably, at least where I live. There've been at least three "splits" in nearby halls in that time period, but there aren't significantly more publishers than there were before -- despite a huge increase in population. What this does is distract the "friends" from worrying about the lack of growth. They just simply shift their story from "we've grown from X publishers to 2X publishers!" to "we've added three more congregations just in the short time I've been here!" It's all about appearances.
That's it. Splitting congregations gives the illusion of growth. They can announce that there are all these new congregations, so "Jehovah must be speeding up the work." But they won't tell you there are fewer members. They do the same with circuits too. I lost track of how many times the circuits and districts were reorganized here, and everyone attributed it to "growth". But the number of publishers™ has decreased, conventions and assemblies are smaller, and fewer people are getting baptized.
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Country_Woman
I guess that it's because they want maximum control, and that's why they make the groups as small as they can....
my guess too.
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kid-A
But they seem quite good at large crowd control as well.....remember the dim-wits they have walking around the DC stadiums with their little "Please Sit Down" "Please Keep Moving" "Please be Quiet" "Please Turn off your Brain" signs?
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JAVA
Yeah, I'm sure "control" is a reason for smaller groups. Another factor could money. Congregations look to the Tower for money to build, and the Tower makes a lot of money on those loans.
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mrsjones5
yeah why arent they bigger? and why dont they have a children's wing? and a kitchen? and a basketball court (no lie a few churches in my town have them and one even has a skateboard arena), and what about the lack of windows?