Why Tracts? And Why Now?

by metatron 32 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  sinis

  The WTS finances are just fine and there is nothing to worry about. There have been changes to some magazines and tracts are being used for upcoming conventions. However, the cost of renting the convention centers is very high and they are having two or three conventions in many areas.
  
  The JW's have 1 million baptized members in the US and another 1.5 million that are not baptized that attend congregations and support the WTS. They also are growing overseas and are financing legal battles in foreign countries regarding their beliefs and practices.

  If the average congregate gives $50 per month that is $125,000,000 per month and $1,500,000,000 per year.

  I thought there were 93K congs or so worldwide, right? So, 93,000 * $50 = $4,650,000 monthly or $55,800,000 yearly. Either way you sound like a sympathizer and of that figure I wonder how many got DF'd last year, or just plain faded. If you look at there "growth" statistically you will see it is stagnant at best...
• 

  AuldSoul

  If the average congregate gives $50 per month that is $125,000,000 per month and $1,500,000,000 per year.

  I take it you have never been the accounts servant or audited the congregation accounts?

  Respectfully,
  AuldSoul
• 

  ozziepost

  their overheads are at the end of the day minimal.

  I would think that the upkeep of their many buildings itself would be sizable?
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  ozziepost

  If the average congregate gives $50 per month that is $125,000,000 per month and $1,500,000,000 per year.

  I take it you have never been the accounts servant or audited the congregation accounts?

  Good one!
• 

  serendipity

  If the average congregate gives $50 per month

  In my cong in a fairly affluent area, the average works out to about $10/month.
• 

  metatron

  The estimate that was used in the French tax case in recent years was $60 per year (US dollar equiv.) per publisher.

  metatron
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  blondie

  I agree with sir82 about the cash flow problem. The WTS has many large buildings to maintain. I have had access to the accounting aspects of maintaining large government buildings and complexes similar to the WTS complex. It takes a lot of cash, a lot of cash, every year to maintain these buildings and provide the necessary utilities every day. The WTS needs a liquid flow of money to meet these expenses. In days gone past, the WTS did have investments that generated enough cash to cover a great deal of this with some support from rank and file donations. But I do believe that the WTS has been hit just like the rest of the investment world and has lost some of this flow as well as the base that this interest, etc., was generated on. The WTS has come out of several expensive building projects, Patterson is a good example. We are talking about millions that went into this and millions to maintain and provide utilities for. Other buildings of the WTS are getting older and more expensive to maintain. Selling them and building new might seem strange to do, but initially these new buildings will be less expensive.

  I anticipate that the WTS will have to continue to sell off older buildings and property to add cash to the trickling flow.

  Blondie
• 

  Scully

  I was thinking that they might be trying to cash in on the "nostalgia factor" of JWs who remembered the Good News N­° (whatever) tract campaigns in the early 70s.

  I was only a kid when we were out there pushing our allotment of 100 tracts per Publisher™ over each 10-day period of the campaigns, but I remember there was a zeal and fervor (albeit misplaced) that had been stirred up, the sense of urgency permeated the atmosphere at the Kingdom Hall and in the car groups and at the Book Study Groups talking about how many tracts everyone had distributed, and how it was a "life saving" work. Anyone who went through that time period of JW history will remember what it was like, and true to WT form, they aren't going to focus on what a complete waste of time it was, but they are going to whip up the sentimental feelings and speak in tones reserved for only the fondest memories, lest they discourage the uninitiated JWs who have never had the opportunity to do a tract distribution campaign before.

  You see, at the time that I was part of the tract distribution campaigns, there were Brothers™ and Sisters™ who had in years long before, done another tract distribution campaign. They only talked about it in glowing, nostalgic - almost poetic - terms, and they succeeded in whipping up excitement and urgency for the campaigns that we had in the 70s.

  This seems to be part of the cycle of things in WT land.
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  Little Bo Peep

  My mother-in-law told my husband excitedly today that there would be a new tract work, and everyone in the territory will be invited to the convention, and that it surely must mean something is going to happen soon. My husband ask her if she really thought we'd die at Armageddon, why didn't she try to talk to us? She said he was to "forceful", whatever that means. He told her why did that matter? She had no answer. She doesn't shun us, but we seldom bring anything scriptural up because she becomes very nervous and the wall goes up. We want to keep some communication open, so we shut our mouths, most of the time.

  Little Bo Peep
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  MidwichCuckoo

  And here's me thinking that distributing tracts is just a cheap way of justifying their existence. The R&F just 'go through the motions' of distributing literature in order for the Org to maintain a 'Charity' status.