Co-Worker Letter – January 4, 1985
WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91123
HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
PRESIDENT and PASTOR
January 4, 1985
Dear Brethren and Co-Workers:
The time has come to send each of you your receipt for tithes and offerings for 1984.
I want you to realize the magnitude of the accomplishments you have helped make possible – yet I wonder if it is humanly possible to comprehend just how great is the Work the living Christ is accomplishing through our combined efforts and sacrifice under him and through the boundless power of the great Creator God.
We are humanly inclined to judge by what we can see physically. What we see physically is one of the smallest church bodies on earth. Yet what we should see spiritually is something so stupendous as to defy any comparison, so colossal above all that has been accomplished by all the combined efforts of the large churches of this world. Spiritually it is a gigantic worldwide accomplishment compared to no spiritual accomplishment whatsoever.
Jesus Christ sent forth the first apostles going afoot, or on horseback or by sailboat, to the small world of that day, centered around the Mediterranean Sea. In 20 years there was violent controversy over whether the gospel to be proclaimed was a gospel ABOUT Christ, or the gospel OF Christ. For nearly 1,900 years Christ’s Gospel of the Kingdom of God was thereafter NOT PROCLAIMED to the world. But Jesus had said, “THIS gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto ALL NATIONS, and then shall the end [of this world] come.”
The tithes and offerings of this little church began proclaiming 1,900 years later the Gospel of the Kingdom – the only true Gospel started by Jesus – throughout Europe after it had gone forth for 19 years over the United States and Canada.
It is now true that this Gospel has been proclaimed within EVERY NATION ON EARTH BY THE WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD.
NO OTHER CHURCH has proclaimed THIS true Gospel at all!
Following are actual figures you should know of for the year 1984 in comparison with 1981, just three years earlier.
- In 1981, 22 million PLAIN TRUTH magazines were sent to homes or distributed on newsstands. In 1984, 73 million PLAIN TRUTHS went out. Monthly circulation soared past seven million copies.
- In 1981, 800,000 GOOD NEWS magazines were mailed. In 1984, 3.7 million went to members, co-workers, and other subscribers.
- In 1981, 191,000 copies of YOUTH 81 magazine were sent to teenagers and other readers. In 1984, 1.2 million YOUTH 84s were sent out.
- In 1981, two million books, booklets and reprint articles were sent out. In 1984, more than six million were sent upon request.
- In 1981, our Mail Processing Department received 2.5 million letters, plus 336,000 telephone requests on our toll-free lines. In 1984, five million letters were received, plus 800,000 telephone requests.
- In 1981, 52,000 enrolled in the Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course. In 1984, 250,000 enrolled.
What tremendous growth in just three years your tithes and offerings have made possible!
With love and gratitude, in Jesus’ name,
Herbert W. Armstrong
