Basic HTML Version
PASTOR GENERAL'S
REPORT
TO THE MINISTRY OF THE
WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
VOL.6, N0.30
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
FROM MINISTERIAL SERVICES
Recent Ordination
JULY 27, 1984
On July 24, the final banquet of the seventh Ministerial Refreshing Program
ended joyfully with one ordination. Mr. Dennis Johnson, who serves as the
associate pastor in the Glendale and Reseda, California Churches, was
raised to the rank of preaching elder.
Update for U.S. Ministers Who Own Their Homes
U.S. ministers who are living in homes they have owned (or had a contract to
purchase) prior to January 3, 1983 have been given another year to include
mortgage interest and property tax as an itemized deduction on their income
tax return. The Tax Reform Act of 1984 has made provision to continue the
deductibility of these items until January 1, 1986.
This means your "double deduction" benefit is available through the 1985
tax year. Even though your mortgage interest and property tax is paid with
your housing allowance (which is exempt from income tax), you can still
list these expenses as itemized deductions on your tax return. This effec
tively excludes another substantial portion of your income from income tax.
Those ministers who purchased homes after January 2, 1983 are not eligible
for this benefit even during the current tax year. For them the benefit was
terminated on June 30, 1983.
International News
Canadian Update
"Second class mail permit pending" now appears on the
Canadian PLAIN TRUTH magazine, reflecting the status of our application for
this new postage rate.
Canada Post wrote us late May asking for more
details and assured us that they would continue processing our application
when they received our reply. A reply was mailed to them late June con
taining pertinent information about our organization, plus evidence that
The PLAIN TRUTH generates much revenue for the Post Office. Now we continue
to wait and hope that approval will come in the near future.
The decision was made for England to print their own newsstand copies of The
PLAIN TRUTH each month and Canada will simply reimburse them the expense
upon receipt of invoices. This is much better for Britain and also saves
the Canadian Office the cost of freighting the magazines to England.
The WATS line this year has seen a 30% increase in responses over last year.
Canadians are still slow to call in, nevertheless we are slowly but surely
picking up more requests from this source. Incoming mail for June was up by
49.3% over June 1983. Outgoing mail was down due to last year's mailing out
of the semi-annual letter at this time.
June's income was up 4.8% over June 1983, bringing our year-to-date in
crease down to 13.6%. There was one less income day in June this year than
in 1983, which contributed to the lower increase. However, we are still
running ahead of budget and finances are in a healthy position.