Annual Treasurer’s Report

Once again, the board members give thanks to God for his gracious provision for Reformed Believers Publishing (RBP) the past year.

The fiscal year for RBP runs from October 1 through September 30. The primary source of income continues to be gifts from individuals and church collections, which support the publishing and mailing of Sword and Shield. Additional income comes from a small number of paid subscriptions and the sale of bound volumes.

For the past fiscal year, total income was $168,787.76, of which amount $168,130.74 came from individual and church donations. Total expenses amounted to $84,169.75, including $59,020.92 for printing and typesetting and $25,148.83 for administrative costs, which were primarily postage and website design fees. This resulted in a reported net income of $80,290.08 for the fiscal year.

While these numbers appear to show a strong surplus, there are a few important anomalies to note. A total of $55,000 was donated specifically for the future purchase of the inventory of and rights to Rev. Nathan Langerak’s children’s Bible storybooks. That income is included in this year’s report, but the related expenses will not appear until the next fiscal year. In addition the board purchased the inventory of and rights to Reverend Langerak’s Walking in the Way of Love series for $6,000. The board also received a generous $60,000 donation from an individual who is not a member of Reformed Believers Publishing. If these unusual items are excluded, a more accurate picture of RBP’s financial position would show income of $53,787.76, expenses of $78,169.75, and a net deficit of $24,381.99 for the year.

Currently RBP prints 2,000 copies of each issue of Sword and Shield. Each issue costs approximately $5,000 to produce, depending on the size. About 1,800 copies are mailed within the United States, and 75 copies are mailed internationally.

Since a substantial portion of RBP’s expenses this year was dedicated to website design and development, I will share a few interesting and encouraging details about how the site is being used and its growing outreach. Please note that this information reflects analytics from the updated website only and does not include data from before the redesign. Since the new website launched last year, nearly 7,000 users have visited it. The majority of these visits came through Google searches, though many users also arrived by typing in the website address directly or through social media links.

The website ranked prominently in web search results for topics such as “Norman Shepherd,” “Why I Left the Protestant Reformed Church,” “Protestant Reformed Church Split,” and “Reformed Education.” This means that Sword and Shield articles have been found and read by people who were actively searching for these subjects online.

Visitors to the website came from not only the United States and Canada but also from Singapore, China, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Since the website launch, there have been 6,676 file downloads, including both magazine issues and audio files. The site’s internal search feature has been used over 250 times for topics such as “repentance,” “De Wolf,” “antithesis,” and “conditional fellowship.”

Some of the most-read articles include “A Tale of Two Protests,” “Set for a Defense,” “Who is Responsible for ‘Scattering the Sheep’?,” and “Wasteland.”

It is encouraging to see the digital outreach of Sword and Shield expanding as readers around the world engage with the Reformed truth.

Once again, the board members thank our covenant God for faithfully providing the means to continue publishing and distributing Sword and Shield free of charge to our readers. All printing, typesetting, mailing, and website expenses have been fully covered by the generous support of our readers and donors.

Please prayerfully consider continuing your support. Donations may be made online at the Reformed Believers Publishing website (www.reformedbelieverspub.org) or mailed directly to the RBP office at the address listed on the masthead. On behalf of the board, I sincerely thank you for your generous support throughout the past year.