Posts by Journeyman

16

Church buys GEICO Woodbury property for $27M

by Rattigan350 in

https://libn.com/2023/01/09/church-buys-geico-woodbury-property-for-27m/.

after a previous sale fell through, geico has sold its sprawling woodbury property for $27 million.

the buyer for the 236,365-square-foot office building on 20 acres at 750 woodbury road is the christian congregation of jehovah’s witnesses.

Journeyman

I am sure it will make a lot of JWs angry who will now have to drive longer distances to these places.. This might become tiresome for some and the religion might lose more people over time.. But, maybe they don’t care

There have been a few theories put forward by members of this forum (I can't remember exact names, otherwise I'd give them credit here), including the one I mentioned about the JWs becoming a mega-church, and another I remember reading speculating that they don't mind too much if they lose some members right now as they want to purge the 'hangers-on' and only keep the totally loyal PIMIs, and some of these seemingly extreme measures will accomplish that.

I never totally subscribed to those theories and I still have my doubts, but I'm beginning to see that they might be plausible.

Certainly, if you believe you've been chosen by God and Jesus and you're doing their work, then any decision you make is theirs and must be obeyed "even if it doesn't make sense from a human standpoint" - and anyone who doesn't want to follow is at best 'weak' or at worst an 'apostate', so if they won't eventually do as they're told, then they can go to ~~hell~~ Gehenna!

45

Anthony Morris III demoted to Great Crowd!

by Vanderhoven7 in

well, that is my prediction for 2024 anyway!

hey, if watchtower can speculate..... https://youtu.be/dn8askhhwkw.

Journeyman

It'll be interesting to see whether there are any stories of comments made at meetings about this by any publishers (not likely during the study itself, but maybe informally afterwards) as this week goes on.

In a few days time we might get some feedback on how this change has been received.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

Journeyman

he was soooooo busy doing convention work ……but had time to go on holidays

Yes, remember this retort in June to comments from people on Twitter saying he had missed posting about one of the recent breaking stories about JWs and was he going to talk about it?

Remember, he's been swamped... apart from the comedy shows, the music performances, the trips away, the shopping for Star Wars items, the time spent writing posts about Apple goggles, the latest films he's been to see, whining about Britain and Brexit, etc, etc...

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

Journeyman

You can't help but get the impression that he's been carried along by others for all of his life. Left to his own devices, he struggles with the most basic things.

Indeed. And his own stubbornness and refusal to take sound advice from those around him make it worse. He really is his own worst enemy.

Speaking of which - isn't he due a members' video or livestream by now? His last update was 29 July. I know he's been on 'holiday', but that was over a fortnight ago - the biggest gap in updates for months!

Those damned patrons - they will insist on expecting something for the money they give! 🤣

16

Church buys GEICO Woodbury property for $27M

by Rattigan350 in

https://libn.com/2023/01/09/church-buys-geico-woodbury-property-for-27m/.

after a previous sale fell through, geico has sold its sprawling woodbury property for $27 million.

the buyer for the 236,365-square-foot office building on 20 acres at 750 woodbury road is the christian congregation of jehovah’s witnesses.

Journeyman

So they're going to build a large assembly hall there?

This is probably with the intention of saving money on renting expensive corporate facilities in future (and possibly closing and selling off nearby kingdom halls). A brief look at the local area on Google maps shows lots of kingdom halls within about 30 miles radius of the Woodbury area. Plenty of opportunity to merge congregations, then close and sell off buildings.

Perhaps those who believe the org wants to move to being more like a 'mega-church' with a small number of large facilities rather than lots of smaller halls - at least in the USA - might be right after all? There would be a lot of benefits to merging into larger congregations centred in bigger hall complexes: more control, fewer elders needed per congregation, maybe even reduce the number of circuit overseers.

68

Is JW.org going Broke?

by Vanderhoven7 in

https://youtu.be/e6gh6w7v03y.

Journeyman

Plenty of large companies have over-reached themselves with mergers or acquisitions of smaller companies, property or other assets even though their long-term balance sheets are weak, and many big names have gone on to fail shortly after doing so.

So again, just because the org may make an apparently sizeable purchase here and there, doesn't mean they are on solid financial footing.

If they are sensible, what they will do with this land purchase is use some of it for rental income, perhaps by leasing it for property development. Too often they've just purchased land for their own use, which is fine as a held asset, but has no real value unless and until it is sold, at which point it only generates a one-off income anyway. The real win is in generating a regular return, and the best chance of that is with leasing of land or property for commercial or residential use.

Also, in terms of long-term finance, if this is to build an assembly hall - as it seems from the info at https://jw-longisland.org - then it's probably with the intention of saving money on renting expensive corporate facilities in future (and possibly closing and selling off nearby kingdom halls).

Perhaps those who believe the org wants to move to being more like a 'mega-church' with a small number of large facilities rather than lots of smaller halls - at least in the USA - might be right after all? All those dozens of small, ageing halls must be building up a serious repair and maintenance backlog, which depends on a dwindling number of congregants to support with their voluntary labour. Better to centralise more, sell off those burdensome properties and merge remaining congregations. A smaller number of large congregations would also be easier to control, to spread the falling number of appointed men among, and would enable the org to cut the number of circuit overseers too.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

Journeyman

As seen on his new interview video today... REAL you can see it in video at 37:27 time

He's no doubt adopted this TV evangelist trick because of the wave of criticism for his previous explicit begging video, and because as many of us observed at the time, repeating the same exercise will not get the same level of returns.

He probably figures it's a more covert way of slipping the begging message in and implanting the thought of donating to him in the minds of viewers.

Ironically, by doing that he's copying exactly the tactic he condemns from religious organisations - inserting begging appeals into their content! Again, as with the explicit begging video earlier in the year, he may see some brief growth from doing this, but it will be interesting to see how sustainable that slight increase in numbers proves to be.

Already we're in the middle of a month - so just over two weeks until he may see another drop in patrons. That cliff edge of every month-end seems to come quicker each time!

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

Journeyman

I see he has posted another pic of himself in his 'former life' as a JW.

Sadly, this just goes to show how far he has fallen (at least in terms of health and appearance) - in the old photo, he may look like your typical over-groomed nerdy JW male, but at least he seemed to be a healthy weight, clean-cut and more professional in appearance, and had generally fewer signs of stress and premature ageing.

Compare that with photos from his more recent years:

It's no wonder that many have observed he is now a poster boy for the GB to warn about 'mentally diseased' apostates!

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

Journeyman

Come on Lloyd, you can now use the I am gay card to boost your following. It has worked for all those actors and politicians who got caught out fiddling. It even worked for Kevin Spacey and Philipe Schofield who were hailed as heroes and so so brave.

Good point!

It's about the only one he hasn't played yet - he's done the "mental health", "I'm being persecuted" (by Kim and her 'cronies'), "it's not my fault, someone else did it to me" (JWs) and "my family are suffering" ones already.

And as a white, British expat he can't play the race or migrant cards so that's the only one left!

We might see that one in a few weeks or months. He'll be able to claim that since his split with Dijana he's been able to 'discover' his 'true' identity and now he can stop living a 'lie' about his sexuality and 'come out' as homosexual or bisexual. Cue lots of sympathy, understanding and support (and more chances to get money, of course) from around him. Or so he will hope!

27

Jws getting drunk

by Farmer Jim1 in

jw
friends

has anyone got any good 'jws and alcohol' stories?

i always found it amazing that so many jws got blind drunk at parties and got away with it!

i suppose alcohol was the only fun thing we were allowed to partake in....

Journeyman

I cant think of a worse idea than young men being called elders.

I always saw these fresh faced youths with their "Elder So and So" badge on, and I'd think "You're not an elder, you're a youngster!"

I agree. It doesn't matter how 'mature' you may be as a person, if you're under 30 you don't have the life experience and miles on the clock to be considered an 'elder' who ought be 'counselling' husbands and wives, parents, retired or elderly ones, etc.