Recently I had asked Mr. Royer to do a little checking up for me to see whether our payroll is top-heavy. Three and a half years ago I asked Mr. Portune to make a similar check. At that time we found some of our many expanding departments—and even new departments coming into being frequently—were employing more or less "excess baggage"—employes not really needed. We had to make a reduction.
Let me tell you something—just heart-to-heart, as it were. Whenever Mrs. Armstrong and I have shown friends through our home, I have taken great pride and satisfaction—and experienced real gratitude—in being able to point out the SUPERB workmanship done by our own staff, in remodeling and refinishing this home for us. I have taken pride in knowing that they just do not see this fine quality of workmanship anywhere else. I have felt deep gratitude in the fact that so many of those on GOD'S payroll do put their whole hearts into their work—that it is painstakingly done—the finest of workmanship.
But let's face it—THAT SIMPLY IS NOT TRUE of ALL OUR EMPLOYES. As the number of full-time employes expands there is increasing tendency for SOME to look on it as JUST A JOB. In the case of some—and the number is growing—your hearts are not really IN the job you are doing. Some of you are bogging down to the attitude of the carnal in the world—you do just what you have to, and no more. Your real interests are elsewhere. You ARE NOT thinking about what you are doing while you are doing it! Some are late to work—early to leave. You are not looking on your job as YOUR PART in GOD'S WORK—your mind is not GOD-centered, realizing the great PRIVILEGE of WORKING FOR GOD—working to help speed in THE KINGDOM OF GOD—having a part in CHANGING THE WORLD—and in saving the world. Instead your minds and hearts are SELF-centered. Your job is for the purpose of GETTING THE SALARY—earning your living for YOU. You are not in the attitude of thinking of what your job MEANS TO GOD, and To HIS WORK—but of what YOU selfishly get out of it. FACE IT! Is that YOUR attitude? If it is, I wish, 1st) you would REPENT of it quickly and change it, or, if you don't want to do that, 2nd) just QUIT and get on some commercial WORLDLY payroll, where all phases of the business are selfishly motivated, and everyone is SELF-centered.
IF you get a job anywhere IN THE WORLD, whether you realize it or not your employer is NOT interested in YOU and your welfare—he is interested in how much PROFIT he makes from your work. In the world it's dog-eat-dog.
YOU are not employed in that king of organization. We, here, are interested in YOU and YOUR welfare—but we are also interested in the welfare of all of God's people, and even in THE WHOLE WORLD, by getting to them GOD'S MESSAGE of HIS WAY that will bring THEM happiness, and peace, and joy, and abundance. And we expect YOU to be interested in them WITH US—and to have your heart in wanting to HELP and to SERVE, along with me and all those God has set as leaders in His Work.
Do you ever think about it THIS way? Our brethren, and our family of Co-Workers send money to ME, as God's chosen Minister, FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE of proclaiming Christ's final and last Message to THIS dying world—of PREPARING THE WAY for Christ's soon-coming to CHANGE and RULE the WORLD! If I do not use that money for THAT purpose, I am taking it under false pretenses. Now when I use some of it to pay YOUR salary, I do want the understanding that YOUR time is spent in HELPING to fulfill that purpose.
WE ARE NOT LIKE THE EMPLOYES OF A COMMERCIAL BUSINESS! Unless we are DEDICATED people, whose whole hearts and interests are in GETTING THIS MESSAGE TO THE WORLD, and in MINISTERING TO THOSE GOD GIVES US AS BRETHREN, then we don't belong in THIS Work, and ought to resign and go get in a selfishly motivated and operated work in the commercial world!
I want every one of you to read, carefully, this present Co-Worker letter. Realize how, IF your whole heart is in it, YOU are devoting FULL TIME to helping CHANGE THE WORLD!
Now of course I know that many—I hope MOST—of you DO have your hearts fully IN THIS GREAT MISSION. As I said, I have taken grateful PRIDE in the fine, painstaking, conscientious work so many of you are doing. Look at the carpenter and cabinet-making shop. Originally there was a partnership shop off campus, run by Mr. Hegvold and Mr. Hoops. They did conscientious painstaking work. Their hearts were in their work—AND IN GOD'S WORK. Do you think they would both be God's Ministers today, if they had been SELF-centered? Mr. Hegvold served a while in our cabinet shop, and Mr. Bill Rapp was head of it for quite a while. Is it not BECAUSE their hearts were so conscientiously in WHAT they were doing, thinking about it while they were doing it, that they became Ministers? I have said that our cabinet shop is a stepping stone into the Ministry! Yes, and there was Mr. Bill Swanson!
The men at the top in God's Work are ON THE BALL—night and day! Look at the MANY responsibilities carried by my son, Garner Ted Armstrong—by Mr. Meredith, Dr. Hoeh, Mr. Portune, Mr. Hill, Mr. Norman Smith. They are all ABLE men, but they would NOT be if they had their hearts and minds as HALF-heartedly in their jobs as SOME of you. Those whose whole hearts are IN THE-WORK AS A WHOLE, and also in their particular jobs, are the ones who advance to BIGGER responsibilities.
Let's ALL get "ON OUR TOES!" There's no room for drones, or the careless, the indifferent, in THIS GREAT WORK. If our Co-Workers who contribute only their tithes, offerings, and prayers are having a part in changing and saving the whole world, as I wrote in the Co-Worker letter, HOW MUCH MORE you who are full-time employed in it? Let's have an AWAKENING!
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