In this area (rural midwest US), five congregations I know of within 50 miles of here have dissolved over the past few years and the halls sold. Two have been converted into residences, I don't know what happened to the others. The JWs have been reassigned to the nearest congregation and KH to their homes. Some have to drive about 45-50 miles to the meetings. Of course there is a lot of zooming for these ones due to the cost and trouble making the drive.
dropoffyourkeylee
JoinedPosts by dropoffyourkeylee
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46
My old congregation is being shuttered
by RULES & REGULATIONS ini just found out from my jehovah's witness cousin that my old congregation is being shuttered due to lack of elders, less than 20 members attending, and that the congregation cannot meet their monthly expenses.. here is a congregation that was started in 1975 with less than 15 members.
it grew to 185 members in the 1990's.
the congregation grew so large that the elders decided to split the congregation in two.
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Who Are Your Past Circuit Overseers? It's a small world..
by mentallyfree31 inwho were your past circuit overseers?
i'm sure a lot of us actually know mutual people, as the co's relocate all over the country.. here's a few from the southeast us: (let me know if you recognize any names and post yours too please...).
ellwood johnson (new york/philadelphia area for several years also).
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dropoffyourkeylee
All the COs I knew have aged out. It seems like they are appointing mostly younger 35-45 age guys nowadays. Enthusiastic salesman type of people. -
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1290 JW Congregations have been deleted since 4th Dec 2022
by ComingOutaMyCage inhttps://i.redd.it/hd9p1g3ssr2b1.jpg.
1290 jw congregations have been deleted since 4th dec 2022. i have a full map so you can explore active/deleted congs, and also orphaned halls https://analytics.jws-library.one/viewmap.html.
many of the deletions in the usa appear to be foreign language groups.
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dropoffyourkeylee
Thanks ComingOutMyCage, that is one impressive website. A lot of work to set that up!
Fantastic!
edited to add: A lot of the deleted congregations, at least in the US, are foreign language. When they disband or discontinue, the ones attending just go back to English. I have a family member who attended a foreign language congregation in a US location and even attended a couple of the meetings myself. Didn't understand a word, but it was kind of interesting to observe. I think the purpose of the foreign language work was to give people a way to get out of the boring JW doldrums and feel like they were doing something special. It kind of worked for a while, but COVID really made it an unworkable model. The service was based on having the English language territores worked in the field, the publisher encounters someone who speaks the foreign language, say Russian, then gives the address to the Russian congregation. The Russian cong then goes out and makes a call at that address. It just didn't work under Covid, particularly with the field service going to zoom and letter writing.
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What`s the reason some of you think JW`s are in decline ?
by smiddy3 infrom what i can see no such thing is happening.i became a jw in 1960 and remained for about 30 years and the numbers of active jw`s today in the world are far greater than they were back then.. and here in australia the numbers are much higher than they were back then .. so i don`t see that their in decline or have any worries about losing support .. don`t the numbers speak for themselves ?.
is it just wishful thinking on your part ?.
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dropoffyourkeylee
In this area (midwest US, rural) I get the feeling it is stagnating. Robust enthusiasm and growth from the '70's to the '90s just isn't there. Maybe the number of reported publishers hasn't changed much (roughly flat in the US for the past several years), but the religion has changed and is changing. Consolidation of congregations and circuits, and abysmally low number of baptisms tell the tale. Across the world, I think, it is another matter. I have a family member living in a third world country and they tell of lots of growth and continuing interest there. -
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The Judge on Trial: Uncovering the Real J F Rutherford [Part 1]
by pomo6780 inenough rhetoric for now, here is my promised first part to my series.. for the benefit of lurkers, i'm using mainly wt publications as my research to show this information isn't 'apostate'.
part 1: association with russell and the bible students.
i want to ask an honest question.
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dropoffyourkeylee
I read this thread for several minutes before realizing that the OP is 5 years old, and the recent posts are related to the Maxime J. Chevalier quotes about Nazis. The OP isn't really bad, a few mis-statements or opinions, but within the realm of reasonable conjecture. The Chevalier quotes are simply BS.
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Confirmed: CO Discourages Zoom
by XBEHERE ini can confirm that the co during one of his service talks stated that zoom is a provision for elderly, infirmed, as well as people who might need it on occasion due to health reasons, otherwise you are expected to be in person at meetings and in the ministry.
this had to come down from the top.
maybe they do not want to put it in a gb update or broadcast since that would be too public i suppose.
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dropoffyourkeylee
In rural areas, they have eliminated quite a few halls and make people drive further to meetings. It is an hour drive one way for some in this area (midwest US). The added cost of travel and time is a big part of the stay-at-home on zoom phenomenon.
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Do you agree with this?
by vienne innew post to the history blog: https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2023/05/typical-nonsense.html.
i agree that in the russell and rutherford eras there was little actual scriptural refutation.
fine!
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dropoffyourkeylee
I think it is difficult to judge a person's character after so many years. One thing I would say is that his business dealings, the way the Society was set up and funded, Russell's personal donations, all these things were done very sloppily. When he died there was no clear succession plan and the resulting chaos harmed the Society and caused most of the Bible Students to leave association with the Watchtower Society. I despise Rutherford, but much of his actions (appointing elders, requiring field service time to be reported) came into being in reaction to legal pressures.
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History Puzzle
by vienne ini'm trying to solve a mystery for uncle b. he owns three antique tracts that were bound into one volume for william morris wright, for six years a society director.
two are easy to identify.
its title is: "the times of the gentiles, and the things which are.
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dropoffyourkeylee
There is a bit of a biography of Caleb Jason Baker at:
https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=article&aid=16183
I'm sure you have already seen it through a google search, but for the other viewers it might jog someone's memory.
I've never heard of him, but it sounds like he was a pretty well known independent preacher in Chicago and later in Kansas City.
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To All Those Keen To Tell Us About Their Beliefs
by Simon inwe seem to have had an influx of religiots - the people who want to tell us all about how we / the wts / whoever are wrong, wrong, wrong about everything and how right they are.
they obviously have special insight, or voices (probably voices, right?
) telling them the real truth.. as proof, there is inevitably a wall of random scripture references and quotes.. sorry, but we're not here for that.
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dropoffyourkeylee
maybe a number-of-character limit on posts would curb what appears to be cutting and pasting of book-length comments
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Curtailing zoom
by road to nowhere inco visit, so right from the horse's mouth ( or somewhere).
too many are staying on zoom, missing face to face encouragement.
look for the elders to implement changes.. also people at the door are so receptive and glad to see us.
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dropoffyourkeylee
In these parts (midwest US) the recent SAD day was not on zoom. But a generic version of the program was available on KH conference, just the one with local speakers was not on zoom.