KH's Still All Closed- How Bad is WT doing Financially?

OnTheWayOut

Most churches are back to in-person worship. Not Jehovah's Witnesses. What's going on?
Is Watchtower still managing to fleece the flocks as the sheeple no longer get literature, no longer go to the KH, no longer walk past the donation box? Regardless of how they have tried to adjust the members to different styles of donations, I am sure the number one method was still dropping cash or checks in a box at Kingdom Halls and at Assembly Halls. And that is out.

Are they closing congregations now? Will they be closing congregations soon? Will so many never go back to the Kingdom Hall either because Watchtower won't open the Hall or because sheeples woke up enough during ZOOM meetings that they just cannot put on meeting clothes and sit through actual meetings anymore?

Any thoughts?

stan livedeath

Slightly off topic here--but i think--for once--the WT is right to keep the KH's closed here in the UK. We are about to go into another wave of covid--and what better way to transmit than in a packed meeting room.

Anony Mous

They are selling at record pace. Currently the majority of believers thinks they are prepping for the big A.

The problem for them is that running a KH is costly, a lot of the money donated goes towards utilities and maintenance while currently even though donations probably have decreased, the majority isn’t going to paying the lights and heat/ac and cleaning supplies anymore but going towards the WWW aka in their pockets.

Back in the day, I remember electric bills being over $2000/month (2 congregations, 6 regular meetings and a dozen field service meetings, that place was heated 12/7). Winterizing the place and leaving it sit costs maybe $100/month. That is $1900 shipped to their bank accounts (because the elders dutifully “donate” extras).

They currently “recommend” congregations donate upwards of $20/publisher/month for Zoom, if they have an agreement with Zoom, they pay $5/unique attendee/month or less, not having people attend or sharing a connection (such as family) makes up for that.

Not having to print stuff, just publish everything in a PDF, that saves them tons too, for most having a tablet in the KH is still weird, at home, not so much.

Biahi

Smurf girl did a you tube on this topic yesterday. She said that 7 of the 9 Kingdom Halls in her area say “Permanently closed” on the website. Someone inside claims they are consolidating, but we know everyone is leaving. 😈 They are bleeding members left and right.

dropoffyourkeylee

I overheard the local while wife was on zoom for the midweek meeting. They had received more donations than expenditures this past month in that report. Their utilities and other KH expenses are way down of course without meetings being held. I think they send a monthly 'stipend' to the WT, the amount of which I don't know, but it was set up to be the same as their mortgage at the time. Besides that they had sent no extra amount to the WT for the month.

mickbobcat

Without meetings and regular cult association my bet is they will lose people faster. The stings that hold the cult together will be weaker.

road to nowhere

Locals just sent a big check because the bank account had money over the recommended (mandated) amount for operations. And no, they didnt think about the needed roof replacement. I got a blank stare when I asked if the "owner" had insurance or a fund for that. I knew the answer, was trolling a bit

Anony Mous

@road and @dropoff: for the last decade or so, the Dubs haven’t been allowed to save extras anymore, instead putting it in a “savings” account with the branch. This is just a balance sheet as they aren’t allowed to withdraw, and the CO will insist on donating anything over $2000 on the balance sheet.

Thus all big expenses have to be raised by donation, so if you needed a roof repair, there would be a big ask for donations. The RBC would “drain” the little savings that hasn’t been “donated” yet and then if the congregation doesn’t raise enough money, saddle the congregation with a “loan” from the branch which then you’d browbeat the congregation into raising extra every month. However once you have satisfied the loan, the congregation will be encouraged that we have been able to pay so much extra every month, they’ll just keep that amount as a running donation.

I know this because I was on the RBC and have been involved in several renovations. Not only that, but a large amount of people, when they realize this scheme have left the JW because of it, I know of many elders and even CO’s that went this path after “their” congregation (which they had generations of family wealth donated towards and paid off in the 1970s) got sold from under them, then they built a new hall and none of the sale proceeds went towards the new building. When they saw that literally a million dollars worth of family investment over 4 generations went towards the borg in a matter of weeks, they complained and were disfellowshipped, the eldest was in his 80s and became very bitter after that.

WTWizard

I can only hope that my not getting my torture shot is holding them up from opening back up. Once they open back, it's right back to being hounded to attend and getting hounding calls. It is right back to having jokehovian witlesses going door to door, spreading a pandemic that is way worse than coronavirus could ever have got. (Even worse than the plague.) The big difference is, the next time we get a blizzard that would have cancelled the boasting session, instead of killing it they will simply use Zoom.

FFGhost

It's tough for them to figure out, I'm sure.

On the one hand, with Kingdom Hall expenses at near or absolute 0, virtually all contributions to the local congregation end up being forwarded to the WTS instead of going toward electricity, water, etc.

On the other hand, without in-person meetings, it is much harder to maintain control over the flock.

On the 3rd hand, contributing via the website makes it extraordinarily easy - you can even set up recurring payments.

On the 4th hand, old-timers, the ones who tended to contribute the most, are more likely to be technophobic and not want to "send money over that danged interweb or watchamacallit". Such folks were far more likely to drop cash in the box at the KH.

Which do they value more - money or control? I'm sure it's a question they continue to wrestle with.

KH's Still All Closed- How Bad is WT doing Financially?

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