Minimus, change his mind, he’s your friend!
ExElder Friend Had To Go To His Former Kingdom Hall and this what he told me!
by minimus 39 Replies latest jw friends
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Funky
That makes zero sense. Why would the congregation not take their own congregation files when they moved to a new Kingdom Hall?
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stan livedeath
Funky...my father kept a large box full of cong records when the hall got sold and the cong merged with another. I found the box when i cleared his house out.
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Funky
Hmm, yeah, I guess maybe I could see it if they were old records, stuff that probably could have been tossed but they held onto it due to laziness or fear that they might need it someday.
Still, you'd think that somebody would think to go into the KH to retrieve the records before turning the keys over.
My bad, I assumed the elders would have a responsible or rational course of action.
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minimus
Maybe ..... some elders aren’t very bright???
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LV101
Bet the attorney Zalkin would pay for those files and nice chunk change for the new church.
Elders yrs. ago knew the cult won the cases and the poor vics lost against thug Watchtower plus the old statute of limitations didn't help.
WT has billions. It's all about real estate but would be nice if they were in financial crisis mode.
Minimus - you could take up a collection and we all buy it from the church and give the ole WT something to talk about -- good apostate gossip.
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Juan Viejo2
Attenition readers and GrreatTeacher ...7 days ago
You write above ... "Wealth of information if you type Menlo Park into the search function on this site. Just re-reading some of it.
"Multimillion dollar property owned by the local congregation and the CO wanted it sold. Elders would not agree since the congregation held the title. CO had them all removed and disfellowshipped and the congregation was disbanded."
UPDATE:
I am sure that this is covered on other pages of this forum, but the Menlo Park Kingdom Hall was abandoned, gutted of all furniture (according to some contacts that were members), and eventually sold to a Hispanic / Mexican Protestant Church. There was a YouTube video of that church and one of its meetings (and it may still be on YouTube), but I could not find it when I recently looked.
Other sources connected to that location contacted me at various times and tried to give me more information or updates. While some left me cryptic messages and clues, I never was able to put the whole story together. But the fact is that the events surrounding the sale of that particular property lit the match that set off the Watchtower's eventual sell off of most of its US Kingdom Halls and many in other countries as well since that event.
What was funny about that whole situation was that the Watchtower's local big shots moved a congregation located just north of Menlo Park into Menlo Park's hall, and then kicked out the local elders and put in the elders from the other congregation. I do not know the status of all those elders, but I was informed that one of them (the eldest among them, I believe) recently passed away. He never stopped believing "the Truth." I had a very brief chance to meet him personally and he was very cordial, but was uncomfortable because I was "an apostate."
The whole Menlo Park situation was created by the Watchtower's local leaders. The existing congregation and its elders were not doing anything at all that cast a bad image on Jehovah, the existing membership, or even the Watchtower itself. If the Watchtower had been above board and honest about what it was trying to do, I am positive that local relocation and modifications could have been made over a short time and to the benefit of most of the members. But instead, the Watchtower used a heavy hand, damaged the reputation of the existing elders, and then bullied the members of the congregation. I've been working on a book about that incident for a couple of years, but due to other obligations and health issues, it will probably be spring of 2021 before I'll be ready to publish on Amazon. If and when I do, I will let everyone know.
My main point is that Menlo Park was the warning to all Jehovah's Witnesses that sometime in the near future all of their Kingdom Halls would be stolen and sold off - with all of the assets and money going directly to the Watchtower Society. And now we are watching (as regularly reported on YouTube by "Mike and Kim") the Watchtower Society selling off all of their assets in the USA, Canada, and much of Europe, as fast as they can. Rumors are that they will move the main headquarters to South America and run everything worldwide from there. Time will tell.
JV
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nowwhat?
Hmmm they are building big extravagant branch down there
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pistolpete
Juan Viejo2
I was informed that one of them (the eldest among them, I believe) recently passed away. He never stopped believing "the Truth."
This just proves that in order to disconnect from the WT religion, a person"MUST' do personal research outside the Watchtower and not allow (bias) to interfere with critical analysis of the religion. A person has to spend lots of time deconstructing the doctrines, the origins of the religion, and the wheels that run the Organization--(Hint-it's not Jehovah)
Only then can a person break free.
Being mistreated by the Organization or the members will only push a person away from meetings and service, but the person will continue to carry the guilt and fear till death.
He will still be a slave.
The only way to be truly free is to totally disconnect. The person has to see that the bible has been used by many--even before the Watchtower was born----to control--manipulate---and steal people's lives.
An omnipotent, omniscient, omni-benevolent God would have no need to be worship by lowly creatures or beings. (just as we humans have no need for ants to worship us) Neither would such a God use a book to direct any person in the ways of life, considering that such a book as the bible has been the instrument that has been used by devious men and women to inflict sooo much damage-emotionally, mentally, and physically to so many innocent persons
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GrreatTeacher
Juan Viejo2, thank you for your excellent information.
You say it was WTs heavy hand that caused the problem and I tend to agree.
People respond better to honest communication than they do to authoritarian tactics.