I've actually seen this about a decade ago, but it didn't click with me then. The Stake Center for the Cumberland East Tennessee Stake does not have a home ward assigned to it. To be fair, I haven't been there for a few years, so they may have added one, but it did not have one all the years I lived in Tennessee. What's more, it was built specifically to service the stake, without any classrooms.

It has a large cultural hall, with a full sized basketball court, built directly in front of a podium that can be used for Stake Conferences, a kitchen, and a High Council meeting room, then some bathrooms. I have no idea who scrubs any of this stuff.

The entire stake serves a bunch of wards, that are really just branches with their numbers fudged, and a few more branches who were far too small for number fudging. It's Stake Center does however sit in a very prominent location, on a hill overlooking the highway, where it looks like a prosperous church six days out of the week, and a tempting target for copper thieves the rest. Sort of makes the members feel like the church is growing, and the work is going forth.

I was wandering around Google Earth yesterday and I actually stumbled upon an LDS chapel in the middle of nowhere, near the Lake of the Woods. I can't see any towns for miles around. That one surprised me. I wonder what it's doing there.

Well that's different. I've never seen a Stake Centre which didn't have a ward attached to it. Or several wards, usually.

Is that Lake of the Woods in California near Frazier?

Ana

These buildings are all primarily investment vehicles which double as advertising. They also provide a "power base" from which to claim power in politics.

"The Mormon Church has three temples, fifteen stake centers, and a hundred ward buildings located in the state....."

Even though there are only a thousand active members left.

This fulfills the requirement to use the money for "spiritual activities" when it is actually holding money which is not needed for anything but would be taxed if it generated interest.


Anagrammy

...this is the Church in a nutshell; their very savvy investment strategy. Holding (converting) your a$$ets into tax-exempt, Church-owned real estate, versus dealing with additional, problematic tax-avoidance schemes.
...Kinda' like when Romney funneled 3-4M in Burger King shares into the Church, for use as a "charitable contribution". Church then gains the tax-exempt donation, which is then "absorbed" into the belly of the beast...........genius.

anagrammy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is that Lake of the Woods in California near
> Frazier?

No, it's at the corner of Minnesota, Manitoba and Ontario. Really in the middle of nowhere.

Yes... your spelling of "Centre" gave it away. :-)

I spent some time bothering the good folks in Kenora.

The ones that in the middle of nowhere puzzle me.

I'd always assumed the buildings were investments kept for appreciation value, but if that's the case, doesn't it make sense for them to be built at least in the suburbs?

And what good does it do for advertising that they are in the sticks where no one would see them?

Sounds more like a survival facility to me.


Anagrammy

An isolated chapel can indicate a dead congregation started during a flurry of baptisms by some charistmatic missionaries. Gradually the LDS population diminishes until few (or none) remain.

When I live in Prince George, Bella Coola, B. C. was in our district. They were so distant that their 7 members were only accessible by air (no roads in or out). Yet they had their own chapel because once upon a time, they had over 100 members in their branch.

In other words they built a gymnasium.

That's probably better for re-sale down the road. At least it could be used as a community center or something more useful.

Or an Islamic temple, since they are the real "fastest growing religion" in the United States.

They could even keep the angel, just take off the horn.....


Anagrammy

The increased value of the land 20 - 30 years from now is what the church hopes to gain from this.

they most likely bought this site years ago and for a good price, and if needs be, they could sell the land for much more than they bought it for.

they are very good about making sure they choose sites that in the future could be worth much more than they paid for it.

They have to spend those billions they suck out of the sheeple on SOMETHING.

We stumbled on a full size stake center in Anza,Ca last year.

Located up in the San Jacinto mountains, near an Indian reservation and a shabby casino.

There is NO Way on god's green earth that there are enough members to fill that thing.
We were remarking at the time that some local leaders must have been hallucinating, or thinking wishfully.

A church building is just a way for the church to hold that land without paying taxes on it. With a building on it, it will probably up the resale value considerably. I'd be interested in finding out how many of these empty buildings exist.

"A church building is just a way for the church to hold that land without paying taxes on it"

In what state or county would having a building change the tax consequences for the better? Is empty land taxed lower than land with a building when the property owner is a non-profit church? I'm pretty sure that the expenses associated with building a 15,000-20,000 square foot stake center plus the upkeep would not offset whatever property taxes (if any) TSCC would be required to pay on empty land.

Doesn't make sense to me. What am I missing?

there may have been a clause in the purchase agreement stating that they had to build a church within x number of years after purchase or they would be required to sell the property.

THe church may have felt from an financial standpoint that it would be better to build something, and wait for land values to increase, rather than sell the land now.

This kind of garbage doesn't surprise me, & all it does is make the cult look bad.

FCD:

Tried to find the building you desribed online -- but I don't see a "Cumberland East Tennessee Stake" listed anywhere online. Am I just missing it or could it go by another name maybe?

One of my "pet topics" is church buildings -- wierd, I know -- so I'm curious about this stake center without a ward. For the last 2 or 3 decades or so, TSCC has gotten away from building stake centers large enough it fit an entire stake for stake conference -- most/all stake conferences are now held in the multi-sesson format (morning/afternoon) because not everyone can fit into a SC for a meeting or, alternatively, they broadcast to far-away buildings so stake members don't have to drive).

Sounds like the building you described may have been a "test" case that wasn't repeated anywhere else, maybe?

They built a stake center in Provo that doesn't have an wards in it, just stake functions for several stakes, and offices. It's on 9th east next door to Golds gym and the little Caesars. It has a stake meeting in there about 40 weeks in the year, so no time for wards to meet.

Thanks. Yes, I've seen that building during construction and aksed someone about it.

It services many of the college wards in Provo, which of course do not have any building at all. The building was built primarily to provide offices for bishops and provide space for stake conferences for the collge wards. Previously, bishops used rooms on campus or sometimes other church buildings.

In Provo, that makes sense (maybe).
In east Tennessee, not so much.

That's probably the one on the lot that used to be St. Francis of Assisi Catholic school when I was a kid. I don't know whether they bought the land from the Catholics or not.

I goofed the name of the stake. I know it has the name Cumberland in it and is in East Tennessee. It may be the Knoxville Cumberland Stake, or simply the Cumberland Stake.

I just saw World War Z, and so my thinking is probably a little off kilter. Maybe the Q15 know something about a future zombie attack that we don't know, and they are setting up defensive positions.

They do believe in zombies, but sometimes they seem more like zombies than people. Their food--bearing their testimonies to people that have asked them to leave them alone!

I must meet with you before the end of the month!

Some have also put forward that the LDS church has patrons and benefactors in the construction industry. Perhaps this is their way of keeping the below the table renumerations going in this time of decline and decay.

The Mormon church is built on Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon.

It's a rotten foundation and is failed, just all the money makes it look healthy to people without knowing eyes.

"If we build it, they will come"

I couldn't figure out how to do a Google Maps location link, but it says it's in Bergland, Ontario, which looks pretty tiny and it's way north of the chapel.

It sounds like spend the budget. I'm getting the impression the old geezors in charge have no idea what is going on or maybe they are making money themselves on these bridges to nowhere.

TSCC may have finally done something correct. Build a building that is not useful.

Buildings that have wards and SC attached to it, have a very high usage problems. This might not be a bad ideal.

Well...they want to build ANOTHER "Meeting House in my neighborhood. There's TONS of Mormon churches around but they say they -NEED- another church because one prominent mormon in my neighborhood said he HAS to drive past 3 Meeting Houses to go to his house for worship.

I told him his inconvenience is not my problem and hey...why doesn't he just go to the CLOSEST Meeting House???
He said "it doesn't work like that..."

Mormons are assigned to a congreation and are not supposed to choose which nearby mormon church to go to. Still seems stupid though. Poor thing has to drive more than walking distance on sundays! Really? My family had no problems driving 40 miles to church every sunday.