I recently found a copy of the Western Recorder dated March 11, 1926. In this 32-page issue, the annual Southern Baptist Convention was a topic of conversation and the train trip from Louisville to the meeting place in Houston was carefully detailed like a modern travel guide. A stopover in New Orleans and Galveston en route to Houston was the highlight of the excursion.

The ad stated: “The trip itself will be one of the most alluring. Cutting through 1,200 miles of the fertile valley of the Mississippi, or down through the broad expanse of Western plains, it will teem with beauty and interest.”

The Western Recorder offered this trip of a lifetime to its readers: “For 55 new yearly subscriptions, the Western Recorder will pay your railroad transportation over the most direct route to Houston, Texas, and return, for the meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, May 12, 1926.”

What an offer and no, we will not match it this year or, for that matter, make any other similar travel offers to Indianapolis for this year’s convention. The point is this: Those of us who read the Western Recorder are impressed with its contents and we desire to put it in the hands of all Christians throughout Kentucky and beyond. There is no other publication that highlights the activity of God among Kentucky Baptists the way we do on a weekly basis.

Where else will you learn about the Kentucky Baptist Convention, its churches and the people in our commonwealth? What other publication informs you about the many conferences, concerts and related activities in Kentucky and its surrounding area? And we provide this to you for a mere 20 cents a week. What a deal!

We also take the burden of a church newsletter off your shoulders by offering our back page for you to publicize your church’s announcements and activities. Consider these factors about your church newsletter and the benefits of using our back page to send the Western Recorder to your membership:

• The amount of time, effort and money your assistants or volunteers spend on layouts, printing, folding, stapling, sorting, attaching labels and mailing. An electronic file is sent by the church to us on Monday morning and we take it from there. It’s that simple. With the increases in postage and postal requirements, we can send your newsletter for less than what you would pay to mail a weekly postcard to every church family.
  
  
• The information that gets into the households of your congregation. In addition to our news, our large pages allow you to include more news and photos. You can send one page or as many as four, depending on your needs.
  
  
• The satisfaction of knowing that your partnership with the Western Recorder is one of stewardship as well as communication

You may never know which of our award-winning stories have impacted our readers and influenced their commitment to the Lord. You can only imagine the national and international missionaries’ delight in receiving this publication and the news from home.

There is no downside. We exist to report the movement of the Lord throughout the state, nation and world and “to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 3). I will be glad to speak to you about the many advantages of the Western Recorder. I will also come to your church or organization to personally discuss our subscription plans. Please give me a call toll free at (866) 489-3535 and let me know how I might be of assistance to you.

Tom Townsend is marketing and business manager for the Western Recorder