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PASTOR GENERAL'S
REPORT
TO THE MINISTRY OF THE
WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
VOL.6, N0.29
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
FROM MINISTERIAL SERVICES
International News
JULY 20, 1984
Report From Southern Africa We are experiencing wonderful growth in God's
Church in Southern Africa despite the fact that radio and television are
closed to us. Since we have to rely solely on The PLAIN TRUTH magazine to
preach the Gospel, this necessitates concentrating our efforts in the doors
open to us.
First and foremost we embarked upon a direct mail program during the first
six months of 1984, sending letters to 700,000 householders. The response
has been encouraging. Thirty-eight thousand one hundred eighty new sub
scribers have been added, giving us a 5.5% response. During the latter half
of 1984 we shall be sending out 500,000 direct mail letters in Afrikaans.
We start the program with 50,000 in July, 150,000 in August and then 100,000
per month for the next three months.
We have had an exceptional response to an advertisement placed in READER'S
DIGEST in February of this year. The response has totalled 29,008, which is
a very fine 6.1% return. Further advertisements will appear in August and
October.
The newsstand program is also very successful. We have just recently added
Johannesburg Central Station and Jan Smuts International Airport to our
outlets. This should increase our newsstand distribution to over 50,000
per month.
The response is still averaging over five percent.
Other
sources from which we add subscribers are waiting room programs, blow-in
cards, advertisements in national weekend newspapers such as the SUNDAY
TIMES and RAPPORT, and word of mouth.
According to our end-of-June computer summary report, we have added 97,064
new subscribers to our mailing list year to date. This is 221% more than at
the same time in 1983 and already about 10,000 more than the total added
during all of 1983!
Our current subscription list now totals 192,070,
which is 90.4% more than in June 1983. Circulation of The GOOD NEWS maga
zine is 9,180, which is 24.4% more than June, 1983. And YOUTH 84 is up 6.1%
with a distribution of 1,432.
We still print The PLAIN TRUTH magazine in both Zimbabwe and South Africa.
This enables us to use the funds in Zimbabwe. Our present total print run,
including both subscriber and newsstand copies, is over 244,000.
At the end of May we had a 15.24% year-to-date increase in income. The num
ber of co-workers is up 22% and donors are up 25% compared with the same
time last year. The membership, now 1,521, continues to grow at a rate of
five percent. Baptisms during the first six months of 1984 showed an in
crease of 24.5% over the same period in 1983.