Gary is right! There is no way they had to sell! Something rotten in Norway!
carmel
Selling of a Kingdom Hall....Opinions?
by CountryBoyJim77 15 Replies latest jw friends
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diamondblue1974
Here in South Dakota, USA a real estate listing can be cancelled any time before a sale and a buyer can change their mind about selling and say no to ANY offer, even an offer over asking price. Are you sure the real estate agent wasn't a Witness out to get a nice fat comission?
Gary you can sniff a conspiracy a mile off cant you?
I like your style...!!!
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CountryBoyJim77
I have actually communicated via email to the Unitarian Church asking questions because after my experience with the JW religion, I'm very careful and I really do not trust any organized religion anymore, and before I start going, I have to check out beleifs and quesiton certain things before I can attend.
As far as if the real estate agent was a Witness or not, I cannot confirm that, however I know the congregation did try to sell the building without the aide of a realeter so they woulnd't have to pay commission, but the building sat on the market for almost two years before they finally decided to get a realeter. I did hear recently the land next door to the old hall which was never developed was sold to a Witness. The congregation actually voted on it. They had a choice of keeping the land to try to sell for a profit (the draw back being that area is considered a flood zone by the city and if they keep it for a higher price, they risk not even being able to sell it for what they bought it for) or sell it to the Witness from the neighboring congregation for the same price they originally bought it. The majority ruled selling it to the Witness.
I agree that the new halls are boring. They are very boring. Just boxes with roofs and no windows. No architecture to them at all.
http://image24.webshots.com/24/3/88/24/300538824EWZQoG_ph.jpg This is the outside of the old hall. I remember my mom and I would visit Kingdom Halls when I was growing up in neighboring cities to see the different styles. Now its like...Oh... the standard plan? I know what that looks like. Later!
Another question... the quick builds. I remember when the old hall was built, the foundation and parking lot was ready, and they started building on a Thursday, and by Sunday afternoon, all that remained was painting the auditorium, installing carpet and seats. The new Hall built this weekend, was started on Thursday, but today, the roof is completed, but the brick facade has not been put up and I know the interior is not near complete. I'm not sure if that's because this Circuit's assemply is this weekend and there's no meetings this week so therefore there's no need to be in a hurry or what. The congregation was having their meetings at the neighboring hall until two weeks ago, when the meetings were canceled and the members were told they could attend aother congregations for meetings if they wished. For the last two months of having to "borrow" a hall, they did not have a Public Talk. Intstead, the first part of the Sunday meeting was the Book Study and the second half was the Watchtower Study. Talk about study overload!
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EvilForce
On quick builds they can choose to do a two weekend dealio as well. It's a bit much to get everything done so quickly...and 2 weekends allow for unanticipated problems.
I was super sceptical of any church given my JW upbringing. I had done some of my own searching and knew I would never want to attend a "church" as such. My first time to a Unitarian Church was to a "gay wedding". When the minister (she was female) asked what I thought of the service I told her it was nice..blah, blah. She asked if I ever had been to a Unitarian Church, I said no, I'm a strong believer that I don't need a church to mediate between me and God. She said "Amen to that". I proceeded to tell her about my Christian / Buddhist / Taoist hybrid belief structure, and she said she believed a lot of the same truths of those religions. She invited me to a "study" that was happening every other Tuesday night about Buddhism. I reluctently went thinking to myself...."They can't really be this inviting and open".
I show up to the first meeting ( a friend of mine that attends that church went with me) and listen to a discourse on Buddhism. This preceeded the Q&A part of the meeting. Various members of the church related how they thought Buddhism related to their everyday life, etc, etc. People would comment on what a certain passage meant to them, and others would comment saying...Wow, I never thought of it that way...I was thinking of it as such. The members there SOUGHT OUT THE GOOD IN BUDDHISM. Wow, what a change. I figured it would be a "Look how crazy these Buddhist bastards are", since that's what JW's do.
This started my association w/ the Unitarians. It's a SUPER open church. Maybe too open for some people as you can be a non-deitist and get along just fine. Everyone is there to share what God/Buddha/? means to them. It's a cafeteria style approach to religion. But they are big enough as a church to say "You're smart enough to choose your own belief structure. We are here to provide as many aspects on it as possible." The discussions are NEVER EVER you're wrong we are right. It's a "if it works for you we accept it" style. And I have found myself TRULY learning from people there. Scripture passages I had always thought of one way...another member will regale us with his/her views. It might TOTALLY be 100% different from what I thought. BUT, it get's ME thinking.
Any books / evidence / quotes are allowed from any religion. Maybe Unitarians are too liberal and progressive for some....but to me it just makes sense. As in my medical training...there are guidelines for certain treatments but based on the patient and your gut feel tell you what you should do...not an A then B, then C, then D dogma.
Am I making any sense whatsoever? -
CountryBoyJim77
I just attended the first PFLAG meeting for this area, and guess where it was at? At the old Kingdom Hall that I mentioned in my previous posts. Majority of the people that attended were Unitarians, but they all were open. It felt weird having open discussions concerning PFLAG in that building and not worrying about someone judging me.
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EvilForce
Well at least the building is being put to good use now. Imagine that....being gay and having friends around not judging you. Free to talk about what God means to you....hmmm. Refreshing eh?
