WHERE ARE ALL THESE KINGDOM HALLS THAT WERE GOING TO START BEING BUILT? The RBC arrangement was officially announced as an arrangement that was ending in the United States branch territory in a letter on January 24, 2014 (although this letter is no longer listed on jw.org). This means that 23 months have passed since the announcement of the LDC taking over and "acceleration" of Kingdom Hall builds.
What has happened in the meantime with KH construction? The short answer is not much. Many many RBC men that were serving on committees in the United States or as key department overseers have never heard a word from US Branch LDC, this despite applying for and providing paperwork and evidence they are willing to help in any way to assist. They are willing to do this in spite of the fact that they feel they were "fired". One RBC member I spoke with told me that when their RBC met with the branch representatives to officially "dissolve" the RBC, they basically handed over all their records and any remaining open items, heard a few words about their hard work over decades, then the RBC men never really heard anything again. No Kingdom Hall construction is going on in their old region of responsibility.
What does all this mean in practical terms? First and foremost, it means that 2 years have been lost in progress in building Kingdom Halls. An average RBC generally would build 1 or 2 new KHs and remodel 3 or 4 during a year. With roughly 100 RBCs in the US Branch territory, you can see that this means that 200 to 400 new KHs were not built and 300 to 400 KHs were not remodeled. So the work is even further behind with no visible progress to speak of. I understand from speaking to a few brothers in Texas that there are only two or three LDC projects for new build in progress there.
Secondly, think about the vast damage done to thousands of trained and experienced key men, overseers, and former RBC members who now have been idle for two years. Think of the decay in the broader construction volunteer group. Even up to the present, jw.org videos and other publications talk about all the oppportunities available in KH construction. Reports indicate that volunteers send all the applications and speak to all the folks they are supposed to and never hear another word from anyone.
This may explain the letter to all bodies of elders dated 07-08-2015 wherein it was announced that in some cases congregations might be merged or relocated to more fully utilize existing Kingdom Halls. This would at least delay the need for new Kingdom Halls in some of the larger metro areas.
Because so large a pool of volunteers is available but appears to be largely idle and because such a pressing need for Kingdom Halls exists, what could be the reasons for this 2 year delay in building Kingdom Halls? Logically, it could only be that the funds are not available or there has been a huge organizational failure or some combination of both. The organization is taking extraordinary measures to conserve cash. Could this have been a ploy to buy two years worth of cash flow to continue to fund Warwick? At the same time, is it possible the whole LDC organization plan was flawed in that there are so few volunteers are available that meet the criteria of being available full-time to serve anywhere and skilled that LDC was able to make very little progress in moving forward?
Really, only time will tell. As a friend of mine is fond of saying about topics like this: "All the same, wisdom is proved righteous by its works." - Mt. 11:19
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