Kingdom Hall thinning out?

I was thinking about the post about Japan closing about 300 congregations in the past 3 years. I know that the hall I occasionally go to is usually less than half full compared to a few years ago. My mom says that the elders in her hall are trying to come up with ways to get more to attend as attendance is REALLY bad. I have heard that the Society is concerned in the lack of meeting attendance in the US. Has anyone else noticed a decline in their area? Has anyone heard of any congregations combing, i.e. 2 congregations downsizing to 1? BTW, I'm in Florida, just curious to know if it is going on anywhere else.

Have a great day, ya'll!!!

OB
I have noticed a slight drop in my area(Mid West), mostly the young ones. They either drop out or judicial stuff. Seems everything in the Org is getting monotonous. The big highlight last year that everybody liked was the tract work!!! Change from the normal service!!!

normie

OrangeBlossom:

In Canada, meeting attendance is hammered into the flock at every assembly, and many times at the meetings themselves.

That's because attendance is running around 60-65% of publishers for most meetings. Sunday is better, but last I knew, it was still below 100%.

The society can't seem to get it into their heads that the meetings are dull, monotonous and repetitive. As usual, the publishers are blamed for having a bad attitude.

Expatbrit.

here in the seattle area meeting attendance is a chronic problem.
last co's visit he said that we have lost 7 pub's to inactivity since last visit, and that he is seeing that in all the circuit.

The same here in Ventura, CA. It seems the ones that do attend always get the same lectures about the ones who don't attend. At least, when I was attending.

Patio

Oregon has the highest ratio of JW to the population. Many JWs over the last 10 to 15 years have moved to Oregon. Economy is good and the area is like paradise ... kind of a taste of the New System in pre-Armageddon thinking. Of any state, Oregon had about the best growth rate for JWs and meeting attendance.

Not long after I left the Big-O the attendance in my old congregation started to dwindle. Others who have left the organization in that state report similar results. I have heard some recent reports that my old congregation is about half the size it was when I left. They are mostly losing the teenagers as they become adults. I suspect that it is going to get worse. I wonder of the GB will stay with their ship as it sinks, like the good captians they are? - Amazing

Wow. Is this true? Membership going down.Kingdom Halls closing. This is news to me they are alive and kickin' in good ole New York.

Hi All!!!
I am an inactive JW. The last time that I have been to a Kingdom Hall is about 11 yrs ago but I still try to keep up with what is going on with the society. I am happy to have found this site. Once again, "Hello to all."

Last time I went there were a lot more empty chairs than there used to be. Same old stuff being said, same old tired phrases.

A friend of mine, in a congregation North of Seattle, tells me about attendance after each meeting. It is a congregation with at least 100 publisher cards. Attendance is consistently less than 50 and once was 32. As another poster said, it is the fault of the congregation, and their attitude. The meetings, of course, have "rich spiritual food."

Hi All,

I haven't been to a meeting in many years, I think I will go and see what's up. Maybe I should just ask one of the elders and save myself from the questions I would get from the oldtimers.

Ken P.

We've had a lot of families move out which has left some empty chairs. In the old days though new families seemed to move in to take there place. Not now though. We probably lost 20% in the last two years

I'm in South Carolina. The black&white (yes, we're intergrated for decades now) congregations are stagnent in growth and attendance for the most part.

However, the Spanish congregations are booming. They've just renovated a KH to allow for more growth. An elder I know (very nice) is now overseeing the Spanish cong. From what I hear - lots of Spanish congregations are growing rapidly.

Oh well.

waiting

Hi everybody,

the news we are getting in Europe are:
attendace below 25-35%;
youngs one once they reach late teens
they leave...very little motivation.
So it's the same everywhere!

Agape, J.C.MacHislopp

Seems mostly in the western countries. (Those with good internet access?)

By the way - how do you get into the chat room

Hi,

I almost forgot: many times, the missing
ones were 50% of the "supposed attendace"!
One recent news I received from a friend,
is about Italy. In these early months of
2001, they had a drop of over 2000 publ.!
Whenever I get more news, I'post them.

Agape, J.C.MacHislopp

Hippikon:

To get into the chat room, just click on the words "Live Chat:" at the top of this screen.

no joy - Do I need another pasword or logon name

All I get is

Intrusion Attempt Detected...Access Denied

Any help would be great

Earlier, I started a thread called "JW decline" where I summarized some overall statistics. You can find it by going to search at the top of the page and puting the word "decline". The JWs have showed no growth or decline in 22 major countries over the past two years. They are only growing in third world countries. Their overall growth rate is only one half of one per cent higher than population growth. You can see more detials if you go to the thread that I mentioned.

hey larc,

I agree fully with the overall decline in major countries, which I would also assume are industrialized countries.

In our area of the south (and I know the midwest usa has many also) there are many migrant workers, particularily Spanish. We also have many American Indian farm workers.

The growth is fast in these areas. As some have pointed out before - the WTBTS seems to be spearheading growth to poorer countries and it working. Major influx. Some have speculated that these persons, as a group, will not have computers, schooling, etc., that industrialized countries have for at least another generation.

Thus the assurance that the WTBTS will continue to grow - just not where they have traditionally been. But I doubt that they care where they get their members - the WTBTS just wants the growth and members.

Long live religious freedom.

waiting

Here in Australia meeting attendances are way down too. As in Canada, mid-week meeting attendance is in many places 60-65% and below 100% for Sunday meetings.

A point to add to all these percentages is this: The percentage is calculated as number of persons attending divided by the number of current Publisher Record Cards (x 100) to get %age. Now the point is that the current publisher Record cards DO NOT INCLUDE the inactive publishers. They do include both regular and irregular publishers).

Now with the gradual decline of publishers you can see that the low percentage meeting attendance figures are even worse than we might think, as it's a percentage of a gradually declining base figure.

Meeting attendance figures would show the true position if the Society would publish actual numbers attending, instaed of percentages.

Ozzie