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PASTOR GENERAL'S
REPORT
TO THE MINISTRY OF THE
WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
VOL.6, N0.4
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
FROM MINISTERIAL SERVICES
International News
JANUARY 27, 1984
1983 Summary From the British Isles Excellent responses to the late 1983
advertising program have made a fitting end to a year of circulation
growth.
The overall response to date has surpassed the most optimistic
expectations. Already over 33,000 new subscribers have been added to the
U.K. list. The READER'S DIGEST advertisement has drawn 13,889 responses up
till January 18th--0.94% of the circulation. The ad in the SUNDAY TIMES
color supplement has reached a remarkable response rate of 1.11%, while
response to the OBSERVER insertion distribution is almost 5,000.
The
result of all this promotion is that for the first time in 10 years, sub
scriber circulation has passed the 100,000 mark, having reached 102,000.
A furthe= effect of the advertising program has been the dramatic upsurge
in mail received. Up until the end of November, mail was down three percent
over 1982, but at the end of December this had changed to a 19% increase.
The total increase in income in the U.K. for 1983 was 17% over 1982.
Middle East: December was a record month for mail received from the Middle
East. The count was 34% up for November and 65% up for December. PLAIN
TRUTH circulation in the Middle East is now at an all-time high of 8,700.
Interest in The PLAIN TRUTH and other Church literature has been steadily
increasing, and incoming mail is up 24.1% over 1982. The number of booklets
mailed is up 51.5%. The general increase in interest from this critical
area probably reflects the tension and trouble that exists there.
Canadian Year-end Report 1983 is now history for God's Church in Canada.
With income picking up as the year drew to a close, the month of December
finished with a 4.4% increase. Early indicators during the month seemed to
point to a minus for December income, but needless to say, it was a pleasure
to see the negative trend reversed. This increase brought the year-to-date
increase to 11.8%.
Considering the state of the economy and high un
employment still prevalent in Canada, everyone was grateful to God for this
increase.
A total of 487,658 pieces of mail were received in 1983 (down 7.6% over
1982), but 1,721,100 pieces of literature were mailed out, an increase of
7.6%.
During the past year, over four million magazines (French and English) were
distributed through the newsstand program.
Added to the subscription
copies, the total circulation each month is over 700,000.
96,775 new sub
scribers were added to the English file and 24,676 to the French, bringing
the total subscribers to 223,489 and 77,138 respectively.
Church attendance increased 6.5% over 1982: baptisms were up 16.8% (452 in
1983): membership went up 4.9% to 6,346 (of which 498 are French speaking).
1,137 new visit requests were received for an increase of 4.5%.