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RADIO CHURCH OF GOD
WORLD HEADQUARTERS
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
PRESIDENT and PASTOR
Broadcasting
The WORLD TOMORROW
Publishers of
The PLAIN TRUTH
LONDON, July 24, 1960
Dear Brethren of God's Church:
I have just had an urgent long-distance telephone call
from Pasadena Headquarters. The SPECIAL offerings for the Building
Fund are dropping off alarmingly.
Frankly, dear Brethren, I feel discouraged, helpless,
frustrated. MANY of you--in fact, MOST--whom we have believed God
had added to His Church, are not putting your hearts into the NEED
of the Church as did the ancient Israelites, or the early
Christians.
The NEED is imperative--desperate. Yet, when a few
months ago I sent a serious request for pledges for this Special
Fund in two different letters, only about one out of ten or twelve
of our membership has responded. We are no longer a tiny Church of
two or three hundred members, as we were back in 1933 when the
broadcasting and publishing work was started. We still are just
the "Little Flock" compared to the world's larger churches and
denominations--yet God has added to His Church until it numbers
some 12,000 or more today. And yet, only 1,077 members have
responded to send in these direly needed pledges.
Let me explain two things:
1) I have not asked for a pledge that would BIND you, if
personal circumstances change so that you could not keep it up. I
have not asked for a "vow." The pledge that I have asked is a
statement of what you will undertake to contribute to this special
Building Fund, over and above, and in addition to your tithes and
regular offerings, PROVIDED God supplies you with the same ability
you have now and expect to continue having. IF your income is
reduced or cut off--IF bona fide circumstances make it impossible
to continue, it is understood you are to be released from the
obligation. It does NOT bind you against unforeseen or impossible
future circumstances.
2) It has occurred to me that some of you may have
thought that, since you did send in such a pledge some two years
ago when we started building the Tabernacle at Gladewater, Texas,
you do not need to send in another one now. But we wanted EVERY
MEMBER to send in a new pledge, now. If you sent in one before,
this new one cancels out the former one and replaces it. But EVERY