With this issue of Truth Magazine, twenty-three years of publication will be completed. In accordance with our mailing agreement which states that there will be no mailing the first week of July and last week of December, Truth Magazine will not be printed this week. The Lord willing, we will be back the first week of January with our thirty-two page special issue which is entitled "The Blood Bought Body of Christ."

I think that you will not want to miss that issue of the paper. Here is a list of the articles and authors for this coming issue. I think that you can see from this list that this special issue of the paper is the kind of issue you would like for every member of the church where you worship and many of your non-Christian friends to have the opportunity to read.

What Is The Church? by Jerry Parks

Metaphors of the Church by Dennis Abernathy

The Organization of the Church by Darrel Haub

Departures From New Testament Organization: By Modern Denominations by Karl Diestelkamp

Departures From New Testament Organization: By Those Among Us by Jimmy Tuten

The Establishment of the Church by Earl E. Robertson

The Names of the Church by Bill Cavendar

The Names of the Saints by Johnny Stringer

The Work of the Church by Ron Halbrook

The Social Gospel by Mike Willis

The Worship of the Church by Keith Sharp

Apostasies in Worship by Leslie Diestelkamp

Terms of Membership by Irven Lee

The Church and Salvation by O.C. Birdwell

Can The Church of the First Century Be Restored? by Dan King

Is The Church of Christ A Denomination? by Leonard Tyler

Is Modern Denominationalism Acceptable to God? by Ron Halbrook

Unity In The Church by Irvin Himmel

The Blood Which Bought the Church by Bob Buchanan

I hope that you will enjoy this special series of articles. Having proof-read this material, I can assure you that the material in it is excellent.

As has been our custom in the past couple of years, Truth Magazine plans to publish at least two more special studies in the coming year. I have received enough comments regarding these special studies to know that our reading audience appreciates the extra work which goes into these issues. Frankly, I think that they have upgraded the content of Truth Magazine.

This issue of the paper contains our "Index." To some of our readers, this is wasted space; to others, it is indispensable. Without an index, the material which is published in a periodical such as Truth Magazine becomes useless because it is not readily accessible. Though our index is not the best in the world, it is helpful to those who need to locate material published in 1979.

Building The Circulation

The circulation of Truth Magazine has remained rather constant throughout 1979. This has been caused partly as a result of changing printers; there were just too many other details to work out to bother him with the confusion of advertising mailing. Now that the problems of adjusting to Truth Magazine have been worked out, I anticipate doing more work toward increasing the circulation of the paper.

However, I will need your help. I need our readers to recommend Truth Magazine to their friends; I need them to send me names to whom I can mail sample copies of the paper; I need those who think that what we are publishing is worthwhile to send gift subscriptions to their friends or to purchase bundles for distribution. Will you help?

Walking With God Revision Available Soon

During this past year, we have rather quietly been working on a revision of the first twenty-four books in the Walking With God series of literature. This material covers the pre-school and first through third grade levels of workbooks. The material has been completely re-written; new artwork has been prepared. The lay-out of the material is designed to be used in conjunction with our Truth In Life series. However, we think that it has some features which will make it even better than the Truth In Life series.

In addition to having questions in the workbook for the parents to work with their children at home, this series of literature has some in-class worksheets over each lesson which the student will not have seen until he comes to class. We are not aware of any literature published among brethren which has this feature in it.

We are anticipating that Year 1, Books 1-4 will be available within a couple of weeks. We are publishing these books in this fashion because the teachers manual for the entire year will be published in one volume. The material for the series of literature is practically completed in its writing stage; we lack typesetting, artwork and printing. However, we anticipate no lengthy delays in getting this in print. Watch for announcements to the effect that it is now available.

Book Business Is Appreciated

We continue to appreciate the volume of book business which brethren are sending to Truth Magazine. Without your book business, Truth Magazine could not continue to be circulated on a weekly basis. I would like to remind you that Cogdill Foundation is a non-profit organization. This simply means that whatever profits are made through the sale of books must be reinvested in producing more material; it cannot accrue to the benefit of its board members. Consequently, everytime that we make an extra dollar, we use it to publish more good literature for Christians to use.

Presently, we have the following items being prepared for printing: (1) a biography of John T. Lewis written by Otis Castleberry; (2) a series of lectures on the grace-unity heresy which was originally delivered in the Dallas-Fort Worth area by such men as Tom Roberts, Wayne Partain, Bill Reeves, Robert Gabhart, Pat Farish, and others; (3) a 70 page manuscript by Tom O'Neal on the grace-unity heresy; (4) a commentary on First Corinthians by me; (5) a series of sermons by Irven Lee. Perhaps there are other works which I cannot immediately recall. However, you can see that we are concentrating on putting and keeping good literature in print. We appreciate your book business because it enables us to serve you in this manner; we think that your appreciate the kind of material which is being put in print.

More of the Same In 1980

As 1979 comes to an end and we face the beginning of a new decade, we who are associated with Truth Magazine are resolved to continue writing the same gospel message which we have been writing for these last few years. There is no conscious effort being made to change the thrust of the paper. We shall still be teaching, to the best of our ability, what is revealed in the Bible. We shall still be calling for book, chapter, and verse for those things which we see practiced in the world of religion. We shall still be exposing sin and commending righteousness. If you appreciate these things, I think that you will enjoy Truth Magazine in 1980.

Truth Magazine XXIII: 50, pp. 803-804
December 20, 1979