Begin Year Fourteen
With this issue PLAIN TALK enters its fourteenth year. The Oaks-West church of Christ, Burnet, publishes this paper as a part of its teaching program; making it available free of charge to all who wish to receive it. Plain Talk is hardly a medium for the masses — no effort is made to appeal to the "general public." We are trying to offer thought prompters, assistance in Bible study, to serious Bible reading brethren. We seek to promote better attitudes toward God and our fellowmen. We are aware that some who are not our brethren, yet have a desire to be right with God; and we try to offer them something too. We believe that sincere study and conformation with Bible conclusions will bring us together, and we will become fellow saints in the Lord.
Brother Dan Shipley is the preacher at Oaks-West, and the able co-worker in Plain Talk. He will edit the paper while I am in Australia, later this year. I once asked him to take On more of its writing —hinting that some day he might have to do it all —but his reply to that was that he would just have to "go when you go." Since I'm not even sick now, we will leave things as they are for a while.
We are printing 7,650 copies per month, and using most of them. A few back issues are kept for those who request them. We welcome questions or comments about the material covered; and still offer an equal space (two pages each) arrangement for discussions with those who feel our differences should be made public. Neither time nor priorities will allow for lengthy pro and con correspondence, but this does not mean we feel "our" word is final or authoritative. We are just trying to maintain a balance in subject matter.
To maintain a mailing list of folk who really read Plain Talk, we will continue to remove from our files all who move and fail to send a change of address. We pay the post office 25 for each paper returned, so please send change one month in advance of move so we can avoid this expense. We truly appreciate your letters of commendation, and even the occasional sour note. We promise to "read you."
When I announced that my book, STUFF ABOUT THINGS, was available, I deliberately left off the price, trying to avoid any commercialization of Plain Talk. However many tell me I just gave them the problem of double correspondence, so I'll try again. It is $3.50 — from Publishing Systems, Inc., 240 Hawthorne Ave., Athens, Ga. 30601; or from various book stores.