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| No one can match WELS steweardship. |
An idea from SpenerQuest:
I would beg to differ on their point that [WELS] CMO is flat. Adjusted for inflation, CMO peaked in 2008. It peaked in 2008 because congregational offerings peaked in 2008 (inflation adjusted). CMO is mainly a function of the number of members and how much they give. According to my calculations, CMO will continue to go down in the inflation-adjusted sense for the next few decades.
Just a month ago, I learned that 2009 represented the peak year of earnings for Baby Boomers. Statistically, they will never earn more (inflation adjusted), because of aging and retirement. Although the WELS has been shrinking since 1990, giving continued to rise until 2008. This article explains why giving continued to increase for nearly two more decades.
Because of these demographic changes, the best thing the WELS could do would be to sell property to pay down their debt, which threatens to grow in the per-capita sense. Buying a new, cheap admin building to replace their old, relatively valuable one is a very good idea.
An even better solution would be to sell both buildings and turn the basement of the new chapel at MLC into offices. There is more than enough room down there.
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GJ - But where do they move when MLC is turned into a retirement village or a prison?
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The same principle could be applied to the LCMS. The St. Louis seminary was rumored to be worth $500 million (granted the economy may have reduced this now), the purple palace is well located for a commercial building, again should be worth a pretty penny. Sell them, use some to build/buy property in Wentzville (on I-70 30 minutes from Lambert airport) where land is much cheaper.
Move the seminary to Concordia TX, where they have more land than they know what to do with; or Seward, NE in both cases to move away from the Synod HQ. That should leave enough to pay off the synod debt, at which point, it should be made illegal to go into debt more.
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GJ - I wonder why Pewaukee Universalist Towers was not purchased on a contingency. That would have ended the sale when The Love Shack sale went bust.
Instead, WELS seems to be on the hook for $3 million for a real estate office building. Was that an ominous sign? The firm did not want its own office building.
Real estate continues to decline in Milwaukee, something the real estate firm probably knew would happen. Mortgage foreclosures. Lay-offs. Unemployment. Obama. Leftist politics.
Various people have the same insights. Various denominations have plenty of land, and they own land in very choice locations, like Mequon. The officials would have to swallow their pride and pick low-cost land, away from their swank homes bought with tax-free housing allowance money.
A successful retailer has made a few billion dollars by following the same plan - low overhead, cheap land, no-frills headquarters. WELS and Missouri, though, are non-prophet operations.
