Church buys GEICO Woodbury property for $27M

by Rattigan350 16 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  EasyPrompt

  There is a video on the link where Robert Hendriks is doing a talk for some people explaining how they're going to use the land, a little history about the org, etc. It sounds like they're going to sell part of the property but the other part will be used as an assembly hall.
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  Fisherman

  the new owner of the property would be tax exempt

  There is more than one way to skin a cat.
  
  
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  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.
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  TonusOH

  It looks like they will use it for circuit assemblies. There are a lot of JWs in the NYC/Tri-State area and any place that can be reached via mass transit can make things a bit easier for the WTS. If they plan to sell part of it, it will be interesting to see who they sell it to.
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  HappyDad

  The JW.org is getting just as bad as the Scientologists. Buying real estate, building structures. Just about all Scientology buildings are kept in pristine condition, but are empty and devoid of any type of activity.
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  LongHairGal

  JOURNEYMAN:

  With regard to the Witness religion’s recent large purchase on Long Island: ..it would not surprise me if you and others might be correct about the religion possibly wanting fewer large facilities because they want to sell off more of the halls that are around that are half empty anyway!.. It’s all about business and saving money.

  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.. I know I don’t because I’m long gone from their useless treadmill.
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  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!