Two thirds of 1985 is now history. Except for unexpected changes, the financial trend could be set for the year. We pray that is not so, and that the trend will make an upward change for the rest of the year.
August produced an increase of 9.2% in income — for the Church in the United States — over last August. As this is lower than the overall average, our year-to-date figure dropped a little during the month to 11.9% more than last year.
The expenses for most departments are slightly below budget. The Media Purchasing area is considerably over budget because of new stations. The Mail Processing area is on an upward trend that will continue for the rest of the year, requiring an increased number of booklets to be printed. Present projections indicate that these two areas will exceed our overall budget for the year by 2 or 3%.
Unless there is an upward increase of income during the remainder of the year, we will have from 2 to 3% less in our cash reserves than at the end of last year. We are thankful to God that the financial "cruse of oil and barrel of meal" have not been depleted, even though the reserves have been low since late in 1983.
The month of September, especially the last half, is projected to be the low point during this year. In fact, it is expected to go "negative" for awhile, which will make it necessary to borrow funds from Church reserves in Canada to carry us over this difficult period.
Everyone in the Church is surely aware of the tremendous increases during the last few years in television coverage and magazine circulation. This month's circulation of The Plain Truth exceeds 8 million, not including The Good News and Youth 85. All this necessitates allocation of additional amounts from the budget. You could say that we have been investing these amounts in “sowing" the seed. At the same time we have been allocating only slight increases to the “reaping” that follows the “sowing." Hopefully more can be allocated for "reaping” in the future. This includes the handling and processing of responses, requested follow-up booklets, more ministers to respond to visit requests and many other support functions.
Last month I mentioned how few people “pay the bill” for all these expenses, and how many receive the benefit. Most people see the telecast, read the literature and don't help at all. You may be interested to know that about 2 % of the readers of The Plain Truth supply the financial support. We can put this another way. Less than two in 100 pay the bill and 98 others receive the benefit.
REPORT FROM THE TREASURER'S OFFICE
Worldwide Church of God