The genius of the new donation arrangement (page 3)

ProfCNJ

Posting this link from jw.org.

http://m.wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2000806?q=worldwide&p=par

JWs official website states that as early as 2000 there was an increasing need to put up places of worship, e.g. kingdom halls. Excertps from the link are as follows:

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"An outstanding need that has become evident with the increase in the number of Jehovah’s Witnesses is that for Kingdom Halls. Surveys conducted early in the year 2000 revealed the need for more than 11,000 Kingdom Halls in developing nations, where finances are limited."

Ways in Which Some Choose to Give

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE WORLDWIDE WORK

Many set aside, or budget, an amount that they place in the contribution boxes labeled “Contributions for the Society’s Worldwide Work—Matthew 24:14.” Each month congregations forward these amounts either to the world headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, or to the local branch office.

Voluntary donations of money may also be sent directly to the Treasurer’s Office, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 25 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, New York 11201-2483, or to the Society’s office that serves your country. Jewelry or other valuables may be donated as well. A brief letter stating that such is an outright gift should accompany these contributions.

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Hence, I thought (and probably many others too) that the contributions to worldwide work (CWW) are taking care of kingdom Hall expansions also.

QUESTIONS: Why the need to direct congregations to impose a mandatory resolution for JW members to subscribe?

Is this set-up consistent with the principle of voluntary donations as practiced during our Lord Jesus Christ's time? (Mark 12:41-43).

Would this new arrangement mean the CWW would no longer cover expenses in building Kingdom Halls and Assembly Halls?

Hope these questions would reach the WT headquarters for enlightenment.

Listener

The org makes money out of congregations selling their current hall and building a new one because of the free labour. I can't see them wanting to reduce the number of congregations doing this. It wouldn't be surprising to see a huge reduction in renovations and refurbishements as these prove to be costly to the society with little return.

They will be only too happy to build halls in third world countries for a variety of reasons. Building solid buildings will make them look rich and attract new members who will enjoy the comfort of these halls It provides the JWs with a shelter in times of disasters, unfortunately the society uses these situations to boast. A lot of our third world countries are actually improving in wealth, land is becoming more expensive and likely to only go up in price.

At least with this new arrangement the brother are going to feel poorer and with nothing to show for it and no goals to work towards, such as a nice new hall.

wallsofjericho

All new halls will not be "bought" with local congregation loans. Rather they will be built and owned by headquarters. All money donated for the hall is simply a donation, not a payment. Now local congragations have no legal grounds of ownership in the hall

BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AND the KH's are fully an assett of the Org. they decide when and what gets renovated, built, etc. This is really criminal. No group that actually questioned their leaders would ever stand for this. But the BOrg knows no one will dare question their motives.... even though EVERY ELDER on the planet will see the underlying financial gain to the BOrg and loss to the local brothers

William Penwell

Sounds like it is all to do with control of the finances and the average rank and file dub has no say in where the money goes. Actually even if they did they would all agree like a bunch of mindless sheep. I swear these guys will never get another cent of mine.

Vidiot

wallsofjericho - "...the BOrg knows no one will dare question their motives.... even though EVERY ELDER on the planet will see the underlying financial gain to the BOrg and loss to the local brothers."

It'll be a good way to further weed out any elders with private rebellious tendencies, too.

The WT heirarchy will have a pretext to remove BOEs who see it and object, and replace them with ones who will support it (and perhaps even benefit from it).

hoser

They can close Kingdom Halls make people drive and share Kingdom Halls with other congregations and there is nothing that the local brothers can do about it.

Splash

And it's not just Candace Conti who's got them excited.

As far as I'm aware, the Australian Branch were recently summoned to the Australian Royal Commission investigation that is taking place there, to tell their side of the story.

If this goes bad for them in Australia, there's going to be a pretty hefty compensation bill at the end of it. Better to fill the coffers now, before the congregations wake up to the fact that WT are no different to all the other religions and quit donating altogether.

Splash

SyntaxError1974

Besides the "Menlo Park" issue of who owns the KH, another issue just came to mind.

The Candice Conti case. Remember they wanted to put up Watchtower property as collateral instead of a bond? But the courts said no because the property was out of state...

Now THEY will own tons of properties (Kingdom Halls) in every state. They now will have physical assets that can be leveraged. If this happened a year or two ago, they might have been able to offer all California Kingdom Halls as collateral instead.

Vidiot

SyntaxError1974 - "Now THEY will own tons of properties (Kingdom Halls) in every state. They now will have physical assets that can be leveraged. If this happened a year or two ago, they might have been able to offer all California Kingdom Halls as collateral instead."

Damn; hadn't thought of that.

Good catch.

designs

Very Mormon of them

The genius of the new donation arrangement

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