Another Thing to Do with a Kingdom Hall
Regular readers remember this: http://walkitout.livejournal.com/796060.html
http://www.laconiadailysun.com/node/119865/18661
A funeral home operator in Laconia, NH had already bought a property in hopes of turning it into a rentable facility for gatherings -- they knew there was a local need, because their clients asked for a place to serve food and socialize and there were limited places to suggest for them. Then a Kingdom Hall went up for sale nearby, and they realized it was what they were intending to build. Add a few TVs and voila: the Beane Conference Center is born.
The town I used to live in in New Hampshire (not Laconia) bought a retired Catholic Church. It's available for rent from the town and a bunch of JPs and an old catholic church advertise it as a place where they'd be happy to perform ceremonies.
We track number of housing units added/removed, commercial space added/removed, hotel, blah, blah, bleeping, blah. Do we track number of religious facilities added/removed? Hmmm...
ETA: This isn't about facilities, but rather parishes.
http://ncronline.org/blogs/essays-theology/state-us-parishes-today
And this is about mergers of churches that are shrinking vs. mergers of megas that lead to multi-site churches (I'd be tempted to think of it as a new denomination).
http://www.laconiadailysun.com/node/119865/18661
A funeral home operator in Laconia, NH had already bought a property in hopes of turning it into a rentable facility for gatherings -- they knew there was a local need, because their clients asked for a place to serve food and socialize and there were limited places to suggest for them. Then a Kingdom Hall went up for sale nearby, and they realized it was what they were intending to build. Add a few TVs and voila: the Beane Conference Center is born.
The town I used to live in in New Hampshire (not Laconia) bought a retired Catholic Church. It's available for rent from the town and a bunch of JPs and an old catholic church advertise it as a place where they'd be happy to perform ceremonies.
We track number of housing units added/removed, commercial space added/removed, hotel, blah, blah, bleeping, blah. Do we track number of religious facilities added/removed? Hmmm...
ETA: This isn't about facilities, but rather parishes.
http://ncronline.org/blogs/essays-theology/state-us-parishes-today
And this is about mergers of churches that are shrinking vs. mergers of megas that lead to multi-site churches (I'd be tempted to think of it as a new denomination).