Question Box

● What can be done when meeting attendance exceeds the seating capacity of the Kingdom Hall but the congregation is not yet in position to divide?

Many congregations have experienced a rapid influx of new ones with the result that seating accommodations have become inadequate, especially at Sunday meetings. Formation of another congregation may not be necessary in every case to remedy the problem. Experience has shown that prematurely dividing of a congregation can have a discouraging effect. The following are some guidelines that the elders can consider:

Where a large congregation is to be divided, it is recommended that the new congregation have 75 or 80 regular publishers available before being formed. Also, sufficient qualified brothers should be available to care for responsibilities of oversight. If only the Sunday meetings are overcrowded, the congregation could consider having two public meetings and two Watchtower studies. The congregation could be divided up by book study groups to attend the different meetings. The same brother could give both public talks, with a different Watchtower study conductor for each group. This would alleviate crowding in the Kingdom Hall and still allow the congregation to have good experience to draw on for service meeting parts and Ministry School assignments. Later, when the congregation grows larger, consideration could be given to forming a new one.

Where a large number of publishers live in another town and considerable travel is involved in getting to the meetings, or other local extenuating circumstances exist, the forming of a new congregation may be advisable even though its size may not be what is recommended above. In such cases, the body of elders can write requesting a Congregation Information Letter, which provides further details.