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PASTOR GENERAL'S
REPORT
TO THE MINISTRY OF THE
WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
VOL.7, N0.28
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
FROM MINISTERIAL SERVICES
JULY 12, 1985
God has truly blessed His Church with tremendous growth during the past
several years. I thought you would be interested in the rate at which
growth is occurring this year in three major catagories: baptisms, new con
tacts and prospective members.
In 1984, we averaged 465 baptisms per month worldwide. For the first four
months of 1985, the average number of baptisms per month worldwide has been
597. The resulting increase in attendance can be estimated by multiplying
the number of baptisms by l.s.· As you can see, the rate of growth through
baptisms is phenomenal! God is adding to His Church the equivalent of a
good-sized congregation every month! About 80% of this growth occurs in
the United States. (We can expect this average to drop slightly in upcoming
months due to the larger number of baptisms that seem to always take place
just before Passover.)
We can also rejoice that the quality of baptisms is very high, due to the
instruction we've been receiving from Mr. Herbert Armstrong since he began
setting the Church back on God's track six years ago. During the mid 1970s,
Christ's instruction to "count the cost" simply was not emphasized, while
.the concept of "whosoever will" (not mentioned in the Bible until Revela
tion 22:17, where it refers to the time after the Great White Throne Judg
ment) was heavily emphasized. This unb i bl i cal approach resulted in many
being baptized who simply had never truly repented, who were never con
quered by God, and who never were a changed, converted part of the Body of
Christ.
In the June 24, 1985, Special Edition of THE WORLDWIDE NEWS, Mr. Armstrong
wrote:
We receive the Holy Spirit ONLY after complete repentance of the
way we were living. We must come out of this world to live a life
separate from the life and ways of the world, with our minds on
things of God, not things of this world•••some who become some
what interested, are baptized and start in the Church, drift back
into the world and leave the Church. Many professed to repent
and be baptized who had not repented, but were accepted by Church
members as brethren. These false brethren did and always have
entered into the Church professing to be members.
We all need to continue to carefully follow Mr. Armstrong's instruction to
be as sure as we possibly can about a person's repentance in our baptismal
counseling.
The second area of growth I want to share with you is that of new individ
uals contacted by the ministry. In 1984, we averaged 1,292 new contacts per
month worldwide. Through April of 1985, we've averaged 1,972 new contacts
per month worldwide!
C 1986WondwideChurcti ofGod