Sale of Walkill and Patterson properties?
So What Drastic Money Change is Next?
by OnTheWayOut 78 Replies latest jw friends
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no-zombie
The age of free labor to build kingdom and assembly halls in the western world is over. With the demographics the way it is, any work sites are going to hazard with all the zimmer frames.
Joking aside, the mass of younger volunteers is just not there anymore.
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truth_b_known
I think having a monthly Assembly. Each Assembly probably averages $10,000.00 to $20,000.00 a pop. There's no way it costs that much to run a one day Assembly.
If the average congregation has 100 publishers and the WTBS charges $10.00 a head, that's $12,000.00 per congregation per year.
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Doubting Bro
Their "business" model has always been to maximize revenue from publishers. When the borg was growing at a fast clip, their revenues increased year over year. Plus they had converts who were more materially successful than an average born-in. Now that the convert rate has dropped to almost nothing in the 1st world, the growth is coming mostly from births and 3rd world converts with little cash.
Because they were not very good at business, they over built ignoring the steady drop of new converts which translated to increased revenues. All the cuts were probably necessary just to right size the organization. At some point, the cuts will either stop because they will end up cutting muscle as it were.
They could do a bunch of things to create a new revenue stream but I think they believe their own BS that Armageddon is coming soon and all they need to do is hang on. They aren't going to dump CA or RCs because they make a ton of cash off of those. I could see them moving the RCs to 2 days and save a little cash that way. Also, change the CO to a part-time local CO position and reestablish the DOs to oversee those folks.
Definitely, they will come up with some way to charge for the website or create a tithing system. That will at least provide a regular source of revenue. The congregation per publisher "contribution" is already tithing light and I think provides them with a pretty stable revenue stream. What we don't know if really how much money they need. The downsizing along with the congregational monthly contributions + the worldwide cash grab may have been enough to allow them to stabilize. Since they aren't transparent with their finances, we have no way of knowing. Their behavior is amateurish is it's difficult to read too much into it. They simply are bad at business.
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Doubting Bro
I would overhaul the entire thing, create special programs for youths and other special interests, fundamentally change service to include community service that inspires members instead of being a dread, change Patterson to be a small private university (get it accredited) similar to what the LDS does with BYU, encourage careers to help members increase their net worth and institute tithing to take advantage of that new found wealth.
The average JW is apathetic and going through the motions and not donating much. They could shake that up but their end times belief get in the way.
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4thgen
They've been preparing for years for tithing..... Malachi 3:10 (2013 edition) changed the wording from 'tenth parts" to "tithing". They may bring it out as new light and some idiots will say "Gee, I never remembered that being there!" (because it wasn't) Grrrrrrrrrrrr.
10 Bring the entire tithe* into the storehouse,+ so that there may be food in my house;+ and test me out, please, in this regard,β Jehovah of armies says, βto see whether I will not open to you the floodgates of the heavens+ and pour out* on you a blessing until there is nothing lacking.β+
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Phizzy
Of course if they use O.T scriptures to justify some " Noo Lite" that justifies a Tithe, they are ignoring the fact that those promises of Big J that if the Israelites gave willingly he would look after them...... ALL FAILED !
Big J couldn't stop the Assyrians, the Babylonians, or the Romans, giving of their " Firstfruits" or their "Tenth Parts" was a waste of effort, as will be throwing good money JW Org's way in the future.
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GrreatTeacher
Pancake breakfasts? Bull and oyster roasts?
Kingdom Catering could be a whole new direction to go in!
No ladies auxilliary for them! Charge a per person fee and cater congregation picnics! Imagine how quickly they would come back in style!
If that works, branch out into wedding receptions. If you want to get married in the Kingdom Hall, you have to use Kingdom Catering for your reception!
Instead of selling some halls, turn them into catering venues.
Come on folks, surely we can mine the Bible for some appropriate cherry-picked verses to support this!
Jesus, the First Caterer, turned water into wine at the wedding feast of Cana. Enter Kingdom Winery! He turned loaves into fishes to feed his followers! Kingdom fishing charters on the lake in Warwick!
Go with gluttony! It seems to be the one sin that WT has never been concerned with!
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freddo
I think that they (Slim will hate this ...) will stay self sufficient.
They will just sell off KH's in a reactionary way depending how the lawsuits stack up. More lawsuits will bring "NEW LIGHT" of one meeting a week at one triplex KH per city or area - each then be shared by 15-20 congregations.
Let me explain by example.
Plymouth in the UK - now 8 congregation sharing 3 halls.
1 hall is a modern 3 hall complex where 5 congs and a Polish group meet - the other three are slightly outlying with one cong per hall.
By moving those three (selling their KH's of course!) into the 3 hall complex you could have 9 congs and one group. THAT is with two meetings a week!
NEXT STAGE
Drop to one per week with a 30 mile radius and this complex could house 20 and have congregations from as far afield as Bodmin, Launceston and Totnes.
Another super triple hall each in Truro, Torquay and Exeter would mean that Devon and Cornwall would have only 4 jw.borg buildings for 60 odd congregations with journeys largely on 70 mph dual carriageways/motorways.
In the "west" the borg is so property rich and with so much opportunity to go on line it is unlikely to have big financial woes for a long time to come.
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mikeflood
Oh, oh .... I got it! Just make only one extended weekly meeting ... and voila...you could 'consolidate' and sell a lot of KH!