CEO’s Report - February 2025

BSSC CEO’s February 1, 2025, PR Report:

February begins with a hope of Spring, warmer weather, and God’s continued blessings for the new year. The processes in the building continue at full speed, and the work is pressing upon us. We are blessed with great folks working here to fulfill the needs of the churches for literature. I have often said that we have the best literature in the world, and partly because it is the only literature that follows our ABA Doctrinal Statement. However, we are always working to make it better, and we do appreciate your input on how we are doing and how we can improve.

Along with this new year comes new and continuing challenges. Our Perfect Binding machine continues to get older and from time to time fails to operate. This is the machine that puts the square spine binding on the Sunday School Commentary. It has just been fixed for now, but it is worrisome. The Perfect Binder is getting old and may have to be replaced soon at an estimated cost of $250,000.00. Sending the materials out for binding also is cost prohibitive and only is an option if we have no other choice. So hopefully, we can keep it going for a while, until it can’t be fixed.

The cold weather has shown us we have heating problems in 3 areas in the building. We already have some repairs and updating needed on air conditioning systems. In the coming year, we could face as much as $100,000.00 in additional expenses to fix old heat and air systems.

The bookstore had a good year in 2024, relatively speaking, but remains a cost to the ministry to keep the bookstore open. This is nothing new. It has been recognized as a loss for years. The ministry subsidizes the bookstore to keep it open. It is very difficult for a bookstore in modern times to make a profit with so much online shopping competition.

Paper prices on our most used paper recently increased by 8% in cost. This increase was expected as mentioned in an earlier report. We purchased all we could store at the lower price before the increase.

Our finances are steady, and it appears 2024 was a productive year. Our yearly Audit which is due in April should confirm the good report. Our work atmosphere is great as we labor together for the Lord. If you are in Texarkana, come visit. If I can be of any service to you, please ask. Thank you for the opportunity to serve.

J. A. Crain