History
A History of Precious Seed
It is hard to believe that the work of the Precious Seed Trust has been going for over seventy-five years. In 1945, several meetings were held in Taunton, Devon, for prayerful consideration of the situation which then existed. For some time, brethren had been concerned about the lack of teaching with regard to New Testament church principles. Out of this desire came the magazine Precious Seed which would seek to be ‘a magazine to encourage the study of the scriptures, the practice of New Testament Church principles and to stimulate interest in gospel work’. Those early brethren have now all been called home, but the pattern has been followed by their successors.
Over the years many changes have been seen in the layout and size of the magazine. When originally published it was a quarto-sized magazine, but Volume 2 was reduced to 7.5″ by 5″ (180mm x 120 mm) and this continued until the end of 1999. The January 1993 issue saw the start of colour pictures on the front cover. From 2000 onwards the magazine has been published in A4 size and in four colours.
At present, the circulation is more than 13,000 and is distributed to over 90 countries. However, in recent times some have chosen to read their copy online through this website. The major readership is in the UK, Canada, USA and India. Although most of the readership is in fellowship with the assemblies, we know that there are many readers in other churches. In recent years, we have been sending an increasing percentage of the magazines abroad and now 50% fall into this category. This trend can be expected to continue as the numbers in assembly fellowship in the UK decreases.
The magazine tries to maintain a balance of material in its articles, including expositional, devotional, and practical, as well as the historical. Articles for the magazine may come either:
- Unsolicited – which we are always glad to receive and to which we give an immediate decision as to whether to publish as edited, or not to publish.
- Solicited – we ask various brethren to write for us and mostly on a specific subject.
It is our policy to publish articles only by living authors and not to reproduce old articles from the past, excellent though these may be.
Since the start, the policy has been that no advertisements will be accepted, and that the magazine will be supplied free of charge. Over the years the Lord has vindicated this decision and we have found that He has supplied all our needs through His people. The committee freely give of their time and meet on a quarterly basis and keep in touch regularly by telephone and email.
