Former Longtime Elder : Contributions

by James Jackson 40 Replies latest jw friends

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  James Jackson

  For a year now, I have been handling the Accounts. We have 6 Elders and 7 MS, and none of them ( I am not Serving), want to do the Accounts, so they asked me to do it. Here is what I have noticed.

  4 elderly sisters cover the whole congregation in donations monthly! We have 74 pubs. We take in $800-1000 a month (3 congregations share the expenses). Nobody uses cash, just checks, so I know.

  Only 1 Elder is faithfully giving each month. 2 of them I have only seen give twice in a year. The other 3, NOTHING!!! Only 1 MS have I seen give a check, and it was a one time deal. The other 6, NOTHING!!! Is this just weird or what?
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  Newly Enlightened

  Interesting. I wonder if the child abuse court cases and settlements is what is affecting this? I know we stopped donating years ago when the PO/COBE used cong. funds to buy a new lawn tractor BEFORE he asked the cong.
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  Comatose

  Never any cash? You should notify the CO confidentially. :)
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  sspo

  Not at all, JW have always been very cheap in giving. Maybe they justify it by the fact they spend time in service,using their cars and gas.

  How different from many other religion( which i have no use for) where they give 10% or more of their income.

  I know many needy Mormons where the church is paying their rent or mortgage.Witnesses would never do that for their members.
• 

  Narcissistic Supply

  Nothing?

  Wow. That's too bad.

  Next!
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  Mum

  We're living in difficult economic times. I know I don't have as much money as I used to.
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  pronomono

  When I handled accounts, it seemed much the same way. A few people carried the load of the many. A major portion of our donations came from an individual who was not a member, but was someone on one of our brother's magazine routes. I watched our accounts slowly decline to the point where I was forecasting to our coordinator that we'd be without funds in the next two years and it might be a good idea to have a local needs about contributions as well as figure out ways to cut costs.
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  Kool Jo

  It has been my experience also that just a couple of persons actually make any donations at all...just a couple that are working, but since some that use to contribute have had to cutback, they give just a little. Although some of the elders I know feel guilted in "making up" for the shortfall esp when the bills come.

  What I hated the most is that they expected those who have jobs (thanks to university degrees) to donate more and purchase items used for the hall...one evening, a couple years back, we had the old microphones with cords...since other congregations were changing over to "cordless" microphones, a brother approached me and asked if i could foot the bill....I almost told him to **** ***....these are the same people who criticized me for going to college.

  But I really think that some just don't have it to give, even if they wanted to.

  Peace

  Kool Jo
• 

  James Jackson

  I know times are tuff, but in our area the Economy is not that bad. All of them are driving new cars, going out to eat a lot and still 2 or 3 vacations a year!
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  Comatose

  Report them!