Proclaim to the World the GOOD NEWS OF THE WORLD TOMORROW
Box 111, Pasadena, Calif. 91109
Publishing: The PLAIN TRUTH a Magazine of UNDERSTANDING
January 27, 1967
Dear Co-Worker with Christ:
Many of our Co-Workers MISUNDERSTOOD my letter of December 29. Some of them thought I was saying that Christ has called them to actually stand in a pulpit and preach—or to go out and preach on street corners, or to preach to every person they see, or to become a missionary.
But NO!!! I did not mean any of those things.
At first, when letters began coming back to me expressing this misunderstanding, I was perplexed. I thought I had EXPLAINED PLAINLY what I meant in my letter. And, on reading it again, SO I DID—but not near enough to the beginning of my letter.
I'm real sorry if you misunderstood. Let me explain—and will you keep reading, till you have read EVERY WORD, please?—and then I'm sure you will understand what I meant.
One woman wrote to me, answering my letter, saying: "Does this mean I'll get out and preach like you once did? God really called you—(that's for sure)—and you really got out and preached His Word. I'll soon be 71 years old. I'm wondering if God wants an old woman like me to preach. Am I to be a preacher like you? That's what I want to know."
No, that was not THE WAY I meant. Keep reading, and I will try to make it PLAIN, this time.
Another woman writes: "I understand that Jesus Christ spoke to you and called me to preach the Gospel to the world. Does this mean for me to be a missionary worker? If so please give me your advice at once what to do as I want to do God's will."
These letters show that these people are willing to do as God says, even though they misunderstood my letter. God LOVES these people whose hearts are right toward Him!
I'll quote just part of one more, and then try to EXPLAIN clearly! A man writes: "But, Sir, here is one thing that bothers me. How do I preach to 615 people a week? I don't come in contact with that many. Maybe I could send that many pennies to be able to pay for some other means of getting God's Gospel out, but, Sir, maybe I just don't understand. Well, I will try to do my best with God's help, with what I have. Please pray for me."
I do thank God for you Co-Workers whose hearts are yielded to Him. Here is a man doing his best with what he had to do with. And that's the way God looks on us. He looks first at the heart— and then He judges us by how well we do according to what we have to do with. A lot of people, poor in this world's goods and money, are going to be RICH, very soon, in God's Kingdom!
Now let me explain, VERY PLAINLY, what I meant in my last letter to you.
I did NOT mean to say God has called you to preach with your mouth, by verbal SPEECH, preaching to people personally— either in a pulpit, or on a street corner, or in a public park, or even to people you meet one at a time. I did NOT mean becoming a missionary.
I DID say that, as a CO-WORKER WITH CHRIST in God's great Work, that "Jesus Christ has called YOU to preach His Gospel now." But, later, in that letter, I explained that today YOU, as a Co-Worker with Christ in this very Work of God, by Your earnest PRAYERS for this Work, and by your faithful tithes and offerings, are actually responsible for preaching Christ's Gospel to approximately 615 people every week!
NOT by what you preach with your own mouth to other people—but by PRAYING FOR, and by PAYING FOR that many additional people to HEAR Garner Ted Armstrong preach the Gospel by radio—615 people who would not have heard it otherwise! And also, in addition to that, paying for subscriptions to The PLAIN TRUTH read by about 25 people!
I explained it this way: 33 1/2 years ago, when there were NO CO-WORKERS, and I had no money, I was able to preach to 40 people in a little one-room country schoolhouse. Without the help of Co-Workers to help with their PRAYERS and financial support, that is all I was able to preach to—FORTY PEOPLE. Then about 15 people—all poor people of very low incomes—added their PRAYER and financial support, and put their hearts into God's Work with me. What THEY did made—it possible for me to preach over the air on one of the very smallest radio stations, and together with MY VOICE we were preaching to more than A THOUSAND people.
Then gradually, more people joined with us as Co-Workers— all of us fellow-workers WITH CHRIST—and pretty soon we were reaching TWO thousand people. As MORE Co-Workers added their prayers and help, we began to preach to FOUR thousand, then EIGHT thousand, then SIXTEEN thousand—then MORE AND MORE, until TODAY we are able to preach Christ's GOSPEL all around the world—over EVERY CONTINENT—to MORE THAN 40 MILLION people every week!
That means that YOU CO-WORKERS have MULTIPLIED the POWER and SCOPE of this tremendous Gospel preaching MORE THAN A MILLION TIMES greater than I could do alone. Approximately 45 MILLION people hear it now EVERY WEEK! More than TWO MILLION PEOPLE read The PLAIN TRUTH every month. More than 80,000 students are studying the Bible Correspondence Course.
But look at HOW MUCH MORE the help of you Co-Workers had ADDED to the GREAT POWER of this mighty Work! Today there are 210 college-educated ordained ministers stationed at various points ALL AROUND THE WORLD—130 of them in the United States—visiting with and helping, personally, THOUSANDS who REQUEST this personal ministerial help—baptizing new converts being brought into God's Kingdom. There are an additional 41 Ambassador-college-trained ministerial assistants, working with the 210 ministers. Most of these men will be ordained after completing their ministerial training.
But—STILL MORE! Today Ambassador College has THREE CAMPUSES—in Pasadena, California, in eastern Texas, and in England. These colleges are training a constantly increasing number of men and women, most of whom will find permanent positions in this world-wide Work of God—and some of these men will become ordained ministers.
STILL MORE! There are the SEVEN branch offices outside the United States, each staffed with trained personnel, ranging from 6 or 8 up to nearly 50 in each office. They receive the countless thousands of letters from radio listeners, mail out requested literature, answer letters. On the Pasadena campus is a two-story building occupied fully by our "Letter Answering Department." This is staffed by ordained ministers and college graduates who devote their entire time to dictating personal answers to radio listeners and PLAIN TRUTH readers who ask questions not answered by one of our free booklets. Also in this building is a large secretarial pool—girl typists who type out the letters these men dictate.
THIS IS TODAY A HUGE GLOBE-SPANNING WORK. Jesus Christ—the living Christ—heads it, directs it, inspires it, empowers it with God's Holy Spirit—and BLESSES IT!
What I tried to make plain to our Co-Workers is this: YOU ARE Preaching to HUNDREDS of people every week—through Garner Ted Armstrong's voice on the air—beside having part in carrying on the colleges, the overseas offices, maintaining these ministers to help thousands of people, publishing The PLAIN TRUTH, the Correspondence Course, the booklets we offer FREE—and ALL the MANY operations of this big Work.
You are doing that preaching—NOT by your own voice, except with your earnest PRAYERS—by your financial support. Now of course, many of our Co-Workers are only able to contribute small amounts, while some others have been blessed with ability to give large amounts. But, averaging it all up—as if all gave the same amount—YOU, as a Co-Worker—ARE, now, actually PREACHING to some 615 people every week, paying for 25 others to read The PLAIN TRUTH, paying YOUR PART for getting out the Correspondence Course, paying your part for the support of these 210 ordained ministers who devote their FULL TIME to counseling, baptizing, and helping people spiritually, beside their assistants, and ALL these other phases of this vast Work of GOD. You are helping SUPPORT AMBASSADOR COLLEGE, training many hundreds of outstanding, intelligent, dedicated, students being prepared for DOUBLING and QUADRUPLING even the present giant size of this Work.
I wanted you to know HOW MUCH your PRAYERS, and YOUR financial support is ACCOMPLISHING. THOUSANDS of precious lives were converted and baptized through this Work, and by our ministers in just this last year alone—yes, THOUSANDS! THAT is what YOUR SUPPORT—YOUR PART IN GOD'S WORK—is doing. Doesn't it make your heart LEAP for JOY? Doesn't it give you a happy, joyful THRILL?
When you realize that every year, now, THOUSANDS of precious lives are being converted, personally counseled with by our own trained and ordained ministers IN ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD, and baptized by them; when you realize that this mighty Work of God is proclaiming Christ's Gospel (not MEN'S gospel about Christ) to more than FORTY-FIVE MILLION people by radio, in four languages, EVERY WEEK; when you realize we publish and mail out almost A MILLION COPIES of The PLAIN TRUTH every month; when you add to that three college campuses housing and feeding several hundred high- caliber dedicated students, being trained for full-time important offices in this great Work—well, you must realize that the living Christ has built for this Work a very large ORGANIZATION for carrying it on.
One of the most important phases of this Work is the PUBLISHING DIVISION. By developing our own printing plants, we have saved the Work close to $20,000 per month. Formerly we had to hire the largest commercial printing plant on the West Coast of the United States to print The PLAIN TRUTH and much other literature. This huge plant also prints the West Coast editions of LIFE, TIME, and NEWSWEEK. Although they were able to print The PLAIN TRUTH for less money than a smaller printing plant would have charged, yet by installing our own giant presses we are able to print it for approximately $20,000 LESS per month than they would have to charge for our present mass circulation.
Our own printing plant in Pasadena is now one of the four or five largest printing plants in the western part of the United States. We have the huge web-fed four-color press, another large sheet-fed four-color press, a large two-color sheet-fed press, beside about six smaller presses. Then there are giant folding machines, the big collator, and the amazing addressing machines that stick the name and address stickers on thousands of magazines per hour.
There is, beside, the Art Department, the darkrooms, the plate-making equipment, the big Intertype machines setting the type, a large composing room, a marvelous color-separator, and a large separate building housing the book bindery. That is in the Pasadena plant. Then, at North Sydney, Australia, and at Watford, England, we have two other good-sized printing plants with both two-color and four-color presses.
I have just received a Progress Report from the Director of our Publishing Division on the Pasadena campus, Mr. David Jon Hill. It was written primarily for the employees of this important division of the Work here at Pasadena. It occurs to me that this report might be an eye-opener to you. Perhaps you did not realize the magnitude of this important phase of God's Work. It prints and mails out The PLAIN TRUTH, the Correspondence Course, the special books and booklets which we offer FREE.
Just the PAPER ALONE used in our Pasadena plant in one year would completely fill the largest freight train that can be assembled—a WHOLE TRAIN, of 125 full-size (U.S. size) freight cars!
Just ONE ISSUE of The PLAIN TRUTH would fill FOUR LARGE FREIGHT CARS! I will quote below Mr. Hill's Progress Report to his employees:
To AMBASSADOR COLLEGE PRESS EMPLOYEES A Progress Report, by David Jon Hill
"In a sense the Work of God walks on two legs: RADIO and PRESS! We comprise the PRESS leg! We are composed of 67 people full-time and 32 students part-time (they are people too!) for a total of 99!
"I'd like to tell you a little about this last year, and point to the anticipated future growth, effort and production that will be expected of us in this vital segment of God's Work in carrying out the giant commission God has given us in this End Time.
"PRODUCTION: 18,480,025 finished pieces of literature were produced in 1966, ranging from business cards for the ministers, through The PLAIN TRUTH. Each piece cost us an average of just under 10 cents. Total impressions made by the presses: 50,630,510! Our fellow pressmen overseas in England and Australia are producing equally on a proportionate scale. Though I do not have a report similar to this from them, I'm sure that combined with them (and not leaving out Mr. Stewart and his outfit in Texas!) Ambassador College Press around the world produces more than two million pieces of literature per month!
"Thousands of hours of overtime have been required—and willingly given, for which I want to express a deep appreciation. Bobtail shifts and Sunday work have been more the rule than the exception. We are now to a point where this will be less of a demand, we have more employees to share the load, you are all learning to do a better and more efficient job. But knowing God's Work as I do from nearly 16 years of experience, and hearing what I do in the Ministers' Conference about plans for booklets, going into ads in magazines and newspapers, and the prospect of TV closer than ever—and especially hearing Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong telling us we are going to have to accomplish more in the next two years than we have in the Past 33!!!!! I realize this is just the lull before the storm! So brace yourself for more work than ever!
"ABOUT SALARIES: Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong has recently commented to me and Mr. Justus (Plant Manager) that he wants to be sure our people in the press are adequately paid—he's concerned in a special way about you because of his intimate, nearly daily contact with some form of writing that is our job to print. Mr. Justus and I have spent many a long hour going over salaries, praying about it individually, trying to conform, as God would want us to, to the austerity years; yet being sure no one is suffering any hardship, being sure you were being paid adequately for what you are doing, for your improvement, attitude, effort, production.
"Most of you came to work with little or no actual experience in the printing trade—the notable exceptions are as obvious to you as they are to me: Mr. Justus, Mr. Merk, Mr. Louter, Mr. Schoon, Mr. Winger, Mr. Caradonna, and several others...as you see they are in a supervisory capacity because of this experience. Their pay in each case reflects these qualifications. Maybe they (and you) could make more in the world, what with union wages (don't forget the dues, the social security, the insurance and retirement deductions) and the ridiculous way in which the world looks at overtime. On the other hand (completely aside from the fact they (and you) are all in a vital part of God's Work) work in the world is not always as steady, not to mention the atmosphere of carnal swill in which most printers are forced to work, the air festered with curse words and polluted with smoke! So far I haven't had any offers of a resignation from any of these men!!!
"We're all part of the greatest Work in this age! Let's continue and improve on the attitude and effort shown last year—and especially remember we are only one part of a giant organization which must continually have the cooperation of every member to carry out its job. One of the greatest strides made this last year has been the cooperation between us and other departments of God's Work...let's keep that up so we will be sure to continue to be that press leg, a hard-working, driving part that helps motivate the body to which Jesus Christ will say at His Return, 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant!'"
Isn't it a blessing to know that The PLAIN TRUTH, and all the literature sent out by God's Work, is not only written by converted men called and chosen by the living Christ, but EVERY employee in this Publishing Division is a converted, dedicated true Christian. There is no smoking, no swearing in any of the buildings that make up this division of God's Work. The PLAIN TRUTH is printed in a CLEAN plant by conscientious, dedicated people! And they all help with this Work, not only by their labor, but with their earnest PRAYERS, and their tithes and offerings. All told, God's Work today employs many hundreds of people in all its divisions and offices around the world—and all are real dedicated Christian people!
Now, of course it does cost large sums of money to publish almost A MILLION copies of The PLAIN TRUTH (read by two-and-a-half or three million people) every month—even though we now do it for some $20,000 LESS than if we hired a commercial profit-making plant to do it. It does cost huge sums to purchase radio time on the world's most powerful prestige stations—45 MILLION watts of radio power per week—to preach Christ's Gospel to more than 45 MILLION PEOPLE in four languages on all the continents around the earth!
All this is possible because, 33 years ago, a little handful of poor but devout people added THEIR PRAYERS and THEIR TITHES AND OFFERINGS to what I was able to do—and because gradually more and more people became Co-Workers with Christ and with me, until now our little family of Co-Workers has grown large enough to make this tremendous IMPACT on the world possible.
Alone, I was able to preach to only 40 people. With all our Co-Workers, beside hundreds of full-time employees, today we preach to more than 45 MILLION people! Today EACH ONE of our Co-Workers is responsible for preaching to 615 people every week!
THINK OF IT! Just by YOUR prayers for the Work, and your tithes and offerings, YOU are getting the Gospel preached THROUGH THIS WORK to 615 people every week, while I, alone, was able to preach to only 40!
I know of NO PLACE where every dollar accomplishes SO MUCH. And HOW MUCH are the SEVERAL THOUSAND precious lives worth that were converted, brought to Christ, and baptized, just last year alone? HOW MUCH VALUE do you place on a LIFE to be made IMMORTAL, inheriting ETERNAL LIFE in God's Kingdom? Yes, HOW MUCH?
That is what your tithes and offerings are being invested in.
JESUS CHRIST is the living HEAD of this Work! THAT'S WHY this Work accomplishes so much on so little. THE POWER OF GOD'S HOLY SPIRIT ENERGIZES IT!
Many of our Co-Workers wait for one of these Co-Worker letters from me before sending in their tithes and offerings. So I do have to tell you the NEED is again URGENT! And please try to send an EXTRA offering during the last half of February. REMEMBER —February is the shortest month—yet most monthly expenditures we have to pay out for the Work are as large as any other month. We seriously need to have all Co-Workers (as you are able) to try to send in something EXTRA during February.
And, as always those who have on hand a larger sum they feel they cannot send as a donation at this time, but who could LOAN it for a year or more—or until needed—such loans PUT TO WORK WHERE CHRIST IS DIRECTING THE WORK can be of very great help. Remember, further, that we maintain a separate cash reserve in the bank, adequate to meet any normal demands for the repayment of any of these loans, in part or in whole, as your need may be. If you should wish any legal help or advice in regard to making a will to God's Work, our own Legal Department (of Christian people) will be happy to help.
Remember, too, that MOST of our Co-Workers are people of only average and below-average incomes—many are poor people with very meager incomes. That is all the more reason why the FEW of our Co-Workers of better financial ability should be especially liberal and generous in their giving for Christ's Work. God LOVES a cheerful giver (II Cor. 9:6-7). "He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."
But to those of meager income, God expects only according to your ability —little from those who have only little means— much from those who have much. But NEVER think that, if you are able to give to God's Work only very small amounts, that it would not help in a Work now growing great and world-wide. IF IT WERE NOT FOR THESE SMALL OFFERINGS FROM PEOPLE OF SMALLER MEANS, THIS WORK COULD NOT GO ON! Remember, there are MANY OF YOU—and even a single dollar in this Work, UNDER CHRIST'S DIRECTION, produces truly GREAT results for His Kingdom. I want those who are able to send in only the smallest amounts to know IT HELPS IN A REALLY BIG WAY—and I am personally very grateful—and I can tell you that God and the living Jesus Christ are also VERY PLEASED! Remember, in business, the DIMES spent in the Woolworth stores built a great multimillion-dollar world-wide business! Every single dollar in this Work COUNTS!
God DOES prosper the tithers. Remember, that first tenth of your income is HOLY to the Lord—and it BELONGS to Him—so HE says, in His Word! God does PROSPER the faithful TITHER! Things certainly GO BETTER with the tithe payers—financially, and in other ways!
As a Co-Worker with Christ, and WITH YOU, let me tell you that the greatest blessing that could possibly come to ME, is this WONDERFUL privilege of being a Co-Worker with the living CHRIST, in HIS WORK—and in being, through Him, a child of GOD, and a CO-HEIR with Christ to INHERIT eternal life, and all that our Heavenly Father has! WHAT A BLESSING!
The wonderful WORLD TOMORROW will be here in a VERY few years! We have a VERY few years left in which to finish THIS GREAT WORK—and THEN,—PEACE on earth at last, and happiness and joy forever! Let's be sure Jesus Christ finds YOU and me diligent and BUSY in HIS WORK when He comes—REAL SOON!
For your reply, because it has proved helpful to so many, I again enclose a stamped self-addressed return envelope. If convenient for you to add a 3 cent additional stamp, marking the envelope AIRMAIL, it would speed it to us one to three days sooner.
Copyright © 2024 Herbert W Armstrong Library