The Living Church of God publishes its audited financial statements each year. The complete Living Church of God (International), Inc. and Affiliates Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Schedules can be found at the bottom of the LCG.org/about-us page.
The audit was conducted by Cherry Bekaert, LLP Certified Public Accountants, and the report of the independent auditor states their opinion as follows: “In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Church as of December 31, 2022 and 2021, and the changes in its net assets and its cash flows for the years then ended in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.”
In 2022, the Church allocated 46.10 percent of expenses to preaching the Gospel, 47.14 percent to feeding the flock, and 6.76 percent to administrative needs.
Previous articles have discussed the unexpected and significant financial blessings of 2020 and 2021 and the resulting strategies to expand the preaching of the Gospel. We began to implement these plans in late 2021, with 2022 the first full year of the expansion. This included hiring additional personnel, upgrading systems, increasing Internet advertising, increasing TV coverage, and temporarily increasing both the magazine circulation list and the number of issues printed annually. We also began to expand the scale and frequency of Tomorrow’s World Presentation campaigns. The audit reflects those priorities—both in the draw-down of reserves and the increased percentage of dollars spent on proclaiming the message of the Gospel.
One of the more notable items this year was the $160,083 replacement of our Mail Processing Department’s main inserter, which stuffs letters, envelopes, and even booklets into mailers. It replaces an older machine affectionately named “Milly,” which has served us well and today has 11,571,615 duty cycles.
The story is even more interesting because, after purchasing the new machine, we were at first unsure of what to do with the old machine, which technicians had given up on as completely unusable. Should we sell it for scrap or for parts? Amazingly, our Headquarters ministerial trainee at the time, Mr. Julian Braddock, has a background in industrial production machines, and was able to resurrect Milly for use as a backup capable of handling some smaller, slower jobs. So, thank you Mr. Braddock!
This reminds me of how God blessed the artisans of Israel for the building of the tabernacle in Exodus 31. Of course, an inserter certainly does not compare to the tabernacle in complexity or importance, but it is a vital tool that we use to preach the Gospel and serve God’s people. “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship” (Exodus 31:2–3). We each have a vital role to play as we prepare for the Kingdom. Whether in a congregation or working in Charlotte at Headquarters, God has called each of us and given His Spirit of power so that we can be a part of the Work at this time. This humbles and motivates me every day, and I hope it does the same for you.
Please continue to pray that God would send us resources as He sees fit and the wisdom to do His will as we preach the Gospel and feed the flock to the end of this age.