Keeping and Spreading the Faith

One of the largest in-plants in the country, the Gospel Publishing House is crucial to its parent organization's existence.

By Erik Cagle

The Gospel Publishing House is arguably one of the most important and influential printing facilities in the in-plant world.

How can that be, you ask? What makes the Gospel Publishing House—the printing arm of the General Council of the Assemblies of God—the dean of in-plants?

Sure, it ranked a respectable number 22 on the IPG Top 50. But certainly, there are bigger facilities than the 93-employee operation, based in Springfield, Mo., site of the General Council's worldwide headquarters. And though GPH's annual sales of $11.8 million are impressive, surely other in-plants report far greater figures and boast more elaborate equipment and capabilities.

The point isn't that Gospel Publishing House is the biggest or best in-plant in the country, though. Rather, one would be hard pressed to find an in-plant that has had a greater impact on its parent company's existence, or one that plays such a crucial part in helping its parent sustain its core "business," in this case the creation and dissemination of the Assemblies of God's faith tenants.

"All the literature we produce goes out all over the world and furthers the ministry of the church," notes Michael Murphy, manager of GPH print operations and the print buying manager.

In fact, one of the reasons this religious denomination was created in the early 1900s was to allow its members to formulate their own doctrine and to control the printing of their religion's ideology. So the in-plant is essentially as old as the Assemblies of God.

And since the printed word is the gospel, and the gospel is the basis and lifeblood of this organization, in essence, no other in-plant means as much to its parent company as the GPH does to the General Council.

"Everyone can't be preachers, teachers or evangelists, but everybody can have their part in furthering the gospel," Murphy adds, referring to the in-plant employees who help to make the gospel a reality.

Tons of Printed Material

The premier publication GPH produces is the Pentecostal Evangel, a 32-page weekly magazine with a quarter-million print run. In addition to other monthly, bi-monthly and quarterly publications, the in-plant generates a full line of Sunday school literature in English and Spanish, pamphlets, tracts, book markers and other materials, to the tune of 14 to 15 tons of printed matter per day. Every other day a semi truck loaded with paper arrives at GPH, which operates two shifts five days a week, with Saturday overtime, if needed.

As for working on Sunday: not a chance.

Employees of the Gospel Publishing House are expected to be devout Christians and to abide by church rules. Assemblies of God membership is not a prerequisite for employment, but workers must be Christian, Murphy says. Smoking and drinking are forbidden; employees found to have frequented a bar, gentlemen's club or other "questionable places of amusement," would be terminated, according to Murphy. The in-plant does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race or religion, but can choose not to hire someone who flouts the standards set forth by the religion.

"It's a unique place in that you don't have to worry about people stealing things here," Murphy says. "You don't have to worry about coming into work and have someone cussing you out, swearing at you and smelling of alcohol, or tolerate someone's behavior because they have a hangover. We're kind of isolated from that.

"I sometimes tell my people, 'I'd like to take you out in the real world and let you work several months. You'd come back here and never complain,' " he adds. "We expect it to be a Christian atmosphere, and our dealings with both people inside and outside should reflect biblical principles. It makes for a good working environment, that's for sure."

Home-grown Talent

Murphy, a 41-year veteran of the Gospel Publishing House, admits that finding skilled pressroom labor is a tall order. Generally, most employees work their way through the ranks, learning skills as they go; Murphy's four managers have been with the company between 30 and 40 years. In fact, virtually all employees have been with GPH between 15 and 45 years, so maintaining employees is not a challenge.

GPH's printing employee ranks have dwindled about 10 percent in the last five years, mostly through attrition as the shop has increased its productivity and hasn't needed to replace retiring or transferred workers.

Getting New Gear

Another challenge Murphy faces lies in the acquisition of new equipment. Because he works for a church—a nonprofit organization—Murphy doesn't have a capital improvements budget. He brings requests to the Assemblies of God's four-man board, consisting of the general superintendent, general secretary, assistant secretary and treasurer.

"Anything I need has to have board approval, whether it's hiring, firing, buying new equipment, whatever we're doing," he says. "They approve it because they control the purse strings. We have to demonstrate good productivity, and be favorable in terms of revenues and expenses. Yet we're considered a revenue-generating department for the Assemblies of God, and they count on the monies we make because it goes right back into the organization."

Still, GPH has enjoyed several noteworthy acquisitions in the last two years:

• A four-color Heidelberg Speedmaster 52 with 2/2 perfecting

• A second CreoScitex Trendsetter Spectrum V platesetter

• An Iris 43 four-color proofer

• An Epson 10000 wide-format ink-jet printer

• A Muller Martini Prima Plus stitcher/trimmer, which replaced a 27-year-old McCain machine

The financial layout was between $2 million and $3 million.

"I have to justify on ROI and other factors when I want to upgrade," Murphy notes. "We can't write stuff off for tax purposes. Consequently, we have to keep our equipment a long time.

"With the stitcher/trimmer, I was able to justify based on increased speed, increased makeready and the capabilities, since we couldn't do things like inside ink-jetting, tipping on and the like. In the prepress area, we haven't had a problem purchasing stuff because that market continuously phases out old technology, which doesn't leave you with a lot of options."

The Prima Plus opened the door to merchandise tipping, which permits new applications. According to Murphy, unique projects include magazine covers being made into pocket folders, with CDs inserted. CDs are also tipped onto magazines with fugitive gluing.

Most of the significant changes at GPH have involved moving toward four-color printing as opposed to two-color work. The shop's primary large press is an eight-unit Heidelberg M-1000 A2 heatset web press. The Speedmaster joins two- and four-color Millers with perfecting capabilities.

The in-plant's biggest move came with the addition of CTP, and film is slated to be phased out by the time the first signs of spring arrive.

"We went CTP two and a half years ago with CreoScitex and we keep amplifying that even more," Murphy notes. "We have two Trendsetters now and have two parallel workflows coming off of it in case one goes down.

"We went CTP on the four-color process work first," he adds. "The numbers weren't really there to go one- and two-color. But now, with new procedures, we're about to go film free."

Insourcing Brings Business

Another recent development for GPH is the practice of insourcing. For years the in-plant farmed out printing when it could not compete with outside prices and turnaround times. (Murphy plays the roles of both production manager and print buyer.) While developing relationships with outside printers, Murphy began pursuing external work two years ago.

Some of this insourced work comes from Assemblies of God-affiliated but autonomous organizations. But other work comes from printers who send signatures to Murphy for perfect binding. The in-plant once assisted a Tulsa, Okla., printer that found itself in a scheduling jam, turning PDFs and two semis full of paper into finished product. Other jobs include catalogs for the Better Business Bureau, phone books and an audio-visual catalog.

Here, too, Gospel draws a line in terms of what products it can produce for outside clients. The materials cannot include tobacco or alcohol-related advertisements. Images depicting women scantily clad are also forbidden. This is generally not an issue, for the printers Murphy works with tend not to produce this variety of work. In all, Gospel reaped more than $500,000 in insourced income in 2004.

Unique Perspective

Murphy has learned a lot in his dealings with the many ministers at the Assemblies of God. Having a degree in philosophy from Southwest Missouri State University was beneficial, and he learned to wear many hats while serving the Army National Guard as an officer and commander for 39 years. With such a unique perspective into the world of religion, politics and the nature of people, Murphy knows well the challenges of keeping the in-plant viable and productive as it steers toward the future.

Perhaps the one bit of advice Murphy will pass on to his successor when he retires in the next few years is to take good care of GPH's little corner of the Assemblies of God world. With guided tours coming through the shop two or three times a day, that is more of an obligation than a suggestion.

"Aesthetics is very important," Murphy says. "But the cleaner you keep the machines, the better they run. I know it's not scripture, but as they say, cleanliness is next to Godliness."