the land for our hall was given to the congregation by a local brother.. the contribution box was overflowing with gifts of money from the brothers & sisters in the congregation when they knew we were going to have our 'own' hall at last.. we built it ourselves with help from brothers & sisters that donated their time & skills.
we had a small loan from the borg to help us finish the project & this was paid off very quickly.. that must be 25 years ago now.. we were told by circuit overseers we would be blessed if we had our own hall & that the fine witness would bring many people in to the 'truth'.. it didn't.. we were never a big congregation, however when attendance went down to below 30 a couple of years ago, the circuit overseers wanted to close the hall down.. the elders protested & the hall is still being used.. can the borg close down a kingdom hall they haven't built & keep the proceeds?.
why doesn't it belong to the people that paid for it?.
Thanks for that Quendi. Very interesting. So presumably if a congregation is geting good attendance, the hall is safe from the societies hands.
Are you saying any time the local cong wants to borrow any money from the society, maybe to build a bigger hall, they can as long as the societies name goes on the deeds.
Do you know approx what percent of kingdom halls would have the societies name on the deeds?
Thanks
holby city this evening, starts in 20 minutes.. .
"mo and jac are divided over a medical dilemma involving a jehovah's witness who insists on having a bloodless operation - but it soon becomes clear that is not the only problem ...".
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For those in UK that have not seen it, you can catch up with it on the I player until Monday night
an experience told at the october 2, 2010 annual meeting.. sarah: she was raised in the truth by her mom in california, but a turning point was when she was 11. she had planned on just swimming and taking it easy that summer, but her mother suggested that she should read one of the older publications, and she chose babylon the great has fallen.
after working through some heavy-duty prophecies, she recalled thinking, this really is the truth!
no one could make this up.
It's funny, that was probably what made me realize how wrong the religion was. The society decided that certain bible time lengths applied to various assembies somewhere, and also the 7 plagues on mankind where they have a go at everybody apart from JWs.
hi, i am learning about jws, and would like to know if any of their leaders, circuit overseers, district overseers, etc.
are paid.
also, who owns the kingdom hall buildings and furnishings in them?
The Watchtower leaders although only having a small money allowance, get everything paid for them. They get free accommadaion, free utility bills, free health insurance, free car and free worldwide holidays. Plus they are given 'green handshakes' fairly regularly.
Certainly not living in any poverty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2upjotkjojw.
i should add that, even though the media is under satan's control, the governing body may use it at their discretion as-and-when they wish.. .
(bearing witness, page 110).
Is interesting how the report quotes the "organizers" as claiming that the "church population" grew "by 3 to 4% this year", even though (1) the figures for this year (2012) have yet to be released, and (2) the figures for LAST year show growth in America of 3%, which was rounded up from an actual figure of 2.68% - hardly "3 to 4%". Maybe we can put this exaggeration down to "theocratic warfare".
If I remember rightly the society added and included the total publishers from Hawaii in last years USA increase. This was not an increase, as those publishers had been around for years. So the actual USA average publishers in fact worked out at 1.9%
for those who are interested, the november 2012 awake!
is now available for download online.. among items of possible interest are some of the latest examples of fear-mongering "armageddon art" on pages 12 and 14.... .
speaking of armageddon, you will be sad to hear that the criteria for surviving the great day of god's wrath just got a little more stringent.. there are a number of extra things in this month's awake!
Here in the uk where we play cricket, all pro's where a helmet. When you have a hard ball coming at you at 90 mph it really is necessary to where a helmet.
hey all,.
i saw a discussion on yahoo answers about changes in the nwt.
i watchtower apologist posted a long list of commendations made regarding the nwt.. i thought we could have some fun picking this apart.. one in particular was a comment made by rolf furuli.
OK I will kick off. Take a look at this video to see what some emminent scholers actually say about the NWT, including Dr Bruce Metzger mentioned above
http://uploadnow.org/share/340866-50001.jpeg.pg.2.
http://uploadnow.org/share/340867-60001.jpeg.pg.3.
http://uploadnow.org/share/340868-70001.jpeg.pg.4.
I love the way the society said that the answers to the school questions need to be 'In harmony with our present understanding'
In other words it could change tomorrow, but today this is the answer. lol
i guess i'll never find out what it is like to fade slowly since i chose the instant route.. just wondering which one is easier, emotionally.. .
I am sure the instant fade is better if you can deal with all your 'friends' trying to find out why you have stopped attending etc. If you can deal with that without slagging off the organisation you will get away with it. However it is very hard not to say something to someone about your true feelings.
I took the slow route as I know if I confronted the elders or others I would not be able to stop myself telling them exactly why I left and all the things I now disagree with. My son is still in and I need and want to have a normnal relationship with him.
i read the postings about 1975 and have the same feeling about the 1988 - 1989 period, the time of my baptism.
i remember the convention that year with the release of the revelation book.
with the assisi religion leaders call for peace and unity, and the events in the ussr and the release of the revelation book, i was thinking the end was very near and it would be a miracle that we could reach 1990.. so i was full of spirit, just becoming a ms and a pioneer.
Hi Gorby, I was around in 1975 so got totally caught up with the end is imminent feeling. I too was a pioneer and a mini servant. Strangly the Revelation book was really the beginning of my doubts about the org. You may remeber they have a go at everybody in the 7 bowles of God's wrath I believe. And when they started saying about certain assemblies being a fulfillment of bible prophesies regarding certain years, I new it was time to get out of this mad religion. Best thing I ever did!
