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The church is always looking for deals when it aquires property. Sometimes it even asks for members to donate land for space for meetinghouses. However, when it needs to build something it would go through great lengths and money to aquire the right real estate. Take the conference building. The land alone was like $35 million. the church has around $25 million in buildings in my county in washington state. Their accounting practices keep their real estate at face value. That means they keep the value of the property and building at the same value from the moment they build the church. Even when the market increases it's value the church keeps it at that origional price.

ok, so you need to have the priesthood to get into the celestrial kingdom?

can someone just speak english to me? is it a saving ordinance or not? I'm assuming it is not. it makes sense that its not a saving ordinance.

this is actually the first time i ever did not know a question or couldn't remember what we taught. Of course the priesthood is vital and important for just about everything but isn't it theoretically possible people can make it into the celestrial kingdom without the priesthood. I'm sure Christ would just be like, go get the priesthood or i can't use you.

and I'm telling them its not a saving ordinance. It's just an ordinance performed. There is a big difference between a saving ordinance and just an ordinance. I always thought it was just an ordinance, otherwise the church will have major issues by denying the priesthood to blacks if its considered a saving ordinance.

Do we ordain ancestors in the melchezidick priesthood in the temple. I can't remember if we do that or not. In which part would we ordain people to the priesthood and i wanted to clarify its not a saving ordinance or a requirement for heaven to actually hold the priesthood.

hopefully the temple is far enough away from brush or combustables as to not get caught on fire. What do you think? Construction Photos

The only way it will go national is if it is naturally successful. The Capitalistic market will make it national. This is based on your skill and audience. If you do a good job, you'll have a larger audience. Good luck. but i doubt many people would actually be able to help build your radio career.

Hey, i grew up in that ward. I'm Phil Stanek and my dad still goes to that ward. Did we know you? Glad your doing well and Since your in the Elders Quorum, i know exactly how the program works. I wanted to explain it somehow over the internet and was trying to figure out the best way to teach this lesson. I find it the most important lesson in the world.

i would be more interested in church history if i had the right resources. For now, i just read what everyone else has posted on the internet and i just take their word for it. Since there is no way to verify anything.

I'm a novice when it comes to history, especially church history. My assumption that church history has the most inaccuracies out of any topic. Or there is so much misinformation with church history. Don't you find that ironic? Isn't history supposed to have one history to it and not a million different quotes and versions of the same story. My question is how do we find primary information and not just secondary or third references to understand basic church history? Is primary information on the internet. Like i said, i have no clue about any of it.

ok, thanks for the info

Stacie, i did want to know your style of worship, which i'm sure, i'll just have to see to get an idea of what it's like because its so hard to explain. how long is the worship services? What do you do in the service?

oh man, more rules? i'll have to create my own forum someday. How about teaching principles? can that be included in the rules?

i don't know. A lack of common sense?

your comments amaze me so much. Don't you think there is a reason why your church is all confused and trying to figure things out? i thought religion was supposed to fix that for you and the doctrines and principles were all ready in existance, including the kingdom of god. Your church is what it is. A fallen gospel, without principle and subject to change with the wims of the people. Are you going to look into global warming in religion next? its a great policy maker. Your congregation can hand out gas raffles at church. That way they'll have insentives to attend church. It works wonders. I'm more curious with statistics though. You say most of the members are outside of the country. I noticed they have a congregation in one of the cities in my mission in the Philippines. I wish i knew about it so i could have checked it out. Do you have a large missionary force like the LDS church does. It'll be interesting to see how the church does in the next 20 years.

I find that amazing. I thought the name change was to differenciate you from the LDS church and not about finances. It's just a rumor. I'm amazed how liberal your church is. Accept everything and everyone. Don't you know those kind of churches are all losing members like the ELCA and the Episcopal church? Religious people are pretty aware all you have to do is move to San Francisco to accept liberal viewpoints. It has nothing to do with religion. Another point i would like to make is the RLDS is not a breakaway like other religions were in the past. RLDS doesn't consider itself once a part of the LDS and they do everything to reject that concept, which is fine. Its not like when the Lutherans broke away from the Catholic church. Lutherans have a huge history and aspect with the Catholic church, including the source of the priesthood. It seems the other groups in the LDS family never turned out well. Most of them are extinct or crazy polygomous sects and the only other church that survived (RLDS) has no ties with the LDS church. I would say the LDS church is extremely independant in it's history.

Stacie, I have so many questions. So the RLDS really have nothing in common with the LDS church. The doctrinces are hugely different like the nature of god. How has the church handled all of your controversies you had in the past? Is the church growing or shrinking because of this? Like having women in the priesthood. Ordaining active homosexuals in the priesthood and having your leader not be a relative of the Smith family. The only rumer i ever heard was that RLDS was in financial trouble, that's part of the reason they changed their name. Is that even true?

I read a ton about the Community of Christ through their website. I found out they have a building in my town and i'll be moving close to it soon. I wanted to visit it because i'm curious to see how they are doing? I know their style of worship is way different. What are your thoughts. Would they be intimidated if a mormon visits their congregation?

I just read this report from ELCA. They have 4.7 million members in the US and their income is 2.8 billion. so roughly $700 per member. ELCA Congregations Report 4.7 Million Members in 2007 Where would that place the LDS church?

Sorry about that. The topic changed to the law of consecration which i didn't want to talk about. I kept checking on the thread to see if the topic would change and it has. Its not contriversal at all. I'm an active member and i have like a million comments with what people said. First, members are already living the law of sacrifice, which is very close to the law of consecration. The law of sacrifice is a major portion of the gospel. Christ lived it when he sacrificed his will to the will of the father. The law of sacrifice was in the law of moses and its in our baptismal covenants. I think if members realised how well they lived the law of sacrifice, they would appreciate just how close to the gospel they really are. To literally give all your possessions to the church is not part of the gospel. But to sacrifice your time, talents and resources just like what members are doing now is part of the gospel. Thats all christ ever talked about, was the law of sacrifice. God wants all of us to be self reliant, not give everything they have and then have to rely on the church. I have lots of comments for konna, like isn't it a good thing the church doesn't spend millions each year just on financial reports and accounting? That in and of it's self is a good indicator it's using its finances as wisely as possible. Sure, we would know the statements of the church but that doesn't do anything for anybody, except for someone like me who actually reads that stuff. I was reading last week about tithing in the new testament. i had no idea there were so many scriptures about tithing. Paul was actually setting laws on those principles that moses followed. Hebrews 7 I was a missionary in the philippines. The church there is different.

I've been researching churches finances for like a year now (i know i have no life). The LDS church publishes its finances in 2 countries, the UK and Canada. In both countries they only spent 10%. everything else is reverted back to head quarters. That doesn't mean thats all the expenses for the church but maintain ward and stake budgets is a big one. I also talked to my dad who is a stake clerk. He said the same thing. Almost every other church publishes financial reports every year and the expenses are huge. Its always around 90% spent for that same year. Savings isn't a part of the equation.

I think its a good thing. The church knows how to be conservative and manage its tithes. While other congregations spend 60% of their income just on salaries or adminstration costs, the LDS church is following correct principles. I was reading the NT last night and saw that Paul ripped on pastors for earning a salary for preaching. Apparently Paul was a tent maker and supported himself.

Did you know if the church ever published their finances, it would literally blow every other church finances out of the water. Almost every church spends 95% of their income for their congregation every year. Many churches are in the red. The LDS church only spends like 10% of its income for each ward. Thats 90% savings every year for other programs in the church. Then of course if it ever is published, people will start doing everything they can to make sure the church doesn't have that kind of money.

I'm creating a survey or study to know how your ward is doing statistically. Is it growing with members and baptisms or is it shrinking?