Greetings from Pasadena! It is a busy and happy time out here with scores of parents and friends around for college commencement which takes place at 4:00 p.m. this afternoon.
We had a wonderful senior banquet and dance last night with the entire college and the seniors' parents up at the Castaway Restaurant on a mountaintop overlooking Burbank. It was certainly a warm and loving atmosphere, and the students do seem to be genuinely grateful and appreciative for the new spirit that has been injected, once again, into Ambassador College. Senior Grad Brunch was this morning, and I had the opportunity to announce a number of student hirings for the field ministry! We are hiring four young men — Al Maggio, Jim Herst, Dave Meyers, Malcolm Tofts for summer assignments before their upcoming senior year. Then, we are hiring Tom Melear and Chris Moen for permanent field assignments! The students, of course, are very excited and enthusiastic about this, and I am sure it will engender a great deal more of a sense of purpose and diligence in student life and studies from now on.
Denny Luker just called in this morning from Denver, and reported that the Denver campaign was a success and inspired a great wave of enthusiasm among the brethren in the area there. Like San Antonio, new attendance was not large, but those attending did respond much more and it now appears there will be more "fruit" in the local churches as a result of these campaigns than any in recent years. Total attendance ranged from 220 to 428 over the three nights and new attendance was 50, 77, and 35 on the three nights respectively. Messrs. Kelly and Luker both felt the final night's attendance was somewhat lower because, unfortunately, it coincided with Mother's Day.
Now, I hope all of you will encourage your congregations to pray for the Pasadena campaign to be held this Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights here in the House of God! We especially want to portray the right image here in this area and will count on all of your prayers.
Another very happy announcement is that we are going to start nine new churches and two new Bible studies this summer! The locations will be listed in a separate box and, of course, other new churches may be added in the near future. This will certainly save hundreds of our brethren from additional driving which is especially important now with the gas shortages building up.
As I told some of you personally, Art Mokarow is going into his own career in Human Development, so Mr. Leroy Neff is now working with him and will take over the Human Potential area starting this week. We will be cutting back the scope and financial expenditures of the Human Potential area a great deal, but there may still be a few programs which we will continue after checking with Mr. Herbert Armstrong. Please direct any of your inquiries regarding Human Potential or Outreach to Mr. Leroy Neff in the future.
Some transfers within the ministry which I think will be encouraging and exciting to all of you involve Mr. Dean Blackwell coming in to Pasadena to replace Mr. Raymond McNair as Director of the Midwest Church areas! This was done with the total enthusiastic input and counsel of Mr. Raymond McNair who simply needs to devote himself full time as Deputy Chancellor of Ambassador College, but will continue to be a Senior Adviser to us in P.A.D. and a regular "trouble-shooter" who makes trips to the field from time to time and especially on the annual Holy Days. But we on the "P.A.D. team" are very excited because of Mr. Blackwell's long experience in most of that area and his ability to help us in a full-time and in-depth manner on any problems that may arise. He will be directing the Milwaukee, Kansas City, Dallas, and Nashville. This will mean that Burk McNair will be directing the Cincinnati, Cleveland, New Yark, Washington D.C., and Atlanta areas, and Mr. Luker will be directing only the Denver, Chico and Pasadena areas. However, as all of you know, Denny will be assisting me greatly in the international work and overall planning functions as Deputy Director of the Field Ministry. Replacing Mr. Dean Blackwell will be — we can now say once again — "Old Faithful" Ken Swisher! Ken has had such long and loyal service in God's ministry and such an effective record as a District Superintendent years ago, that we are most happy to see him join our list of fine Area Coordinators at this time. So congratulations, Dean and Ken!
Another bit of good news is that Bob Fahey is becoming Area Coordinator of the Vancouver area in Canada! He will be working directly with Les McCullough and assist him in special programs involving the whole Canadian work.
One bit of sad news to report is that Ted Armstrong held a publicly advertised meeting of his dissident church out here in Arcadia just east of Pasadena this Sabbath, and was joined at the podium by both Wayne Cole and Dave Antion. Hurt feelings and rebellion make strange bedfellows. As all of you know, these two men continually proclaimed that they would NEVER join Ted and told many of us privately including myself that they were appalled at Ted's wretched immorality and hypocrisy over so many many years that they did not feel he was fit to be a minister of God. Yet here they are, frisking up by his side in the hope, perhaps, that his personality and human charisma and following may somehow work to give them a following and sense of "respectability" after their dastardly attack on the Church of the Living God this last January.
Strange bedfellows, indeed! But, as Mr. Amstrong has said, this is truly our "testing time" and all of us have got to decide whether we will look to "God's anointed," Mr. Herbert Armstrong, who did NOT die as some of them hoped he would, but who remains as a powerful WITNESS against the deeds and lies and accusations of these self-willed mal-contents.
Remember Romans 16:17 from Epistles of Paul class? "NOW I beseech you brethren mark them which cause division and offenses contrary to the doctrines which you have learned and AVOID THEM."
Certainly these individuals — and others like them — who have persistently and deliberately undermined the respect for God's Government and for His way — of life ARE causing "divisions" and they are causing "offenses" — upsets and confusion — which are CONTRARY to the doctrine we have learned! To a man, they are doing exactly OPPOSITE of what they always proclaimed they would do! They are directly or indirectly attacking the authority of Jesus Christ and his chosen apostle, Mr. Herbert Armstrong. They are attacking or undermining the peace and unity of the body Jesus Christ has used all these years to do His Work. They do NOT wish to exercise patience and humility and to "wait on God." Rather, they have decided to take matters into their own hands and REBEL against the one whom they have ALL acknowledged as the specially chosen leader of God's Church in this time — Herbert W. Armstrong.
They have said, in effect: "I have had enough. I can't take anymore! I have got to justify my own vanity by taking matters into my OWN hands!"
The above is an excellent example of what King David did NOT do when he had every provocation to rebel against Saul — including his own attempted murder by Saul personally! Yet, here we have a young man who proclaimed over and over before hundreds of us: "If my father ever asks me to just be his aide and carry his briefcase, I will say, 'thank you, dad' and be glad to do it; or if dad would ever ask me to step aside and just go up to a ranch in Colorado or something, I would say, 'thank you, dad' and be glad to do it."
But when reality comes, God's dedicated apostle — who has never tried to hurt or kill or unjustly humiliate anyone — was finally forced by increasing evidence of rebellion and immorality to ask his son to go on a leave of absence. The result?
WHERE ARE all those "yes sirs" and responsive attitudes? And where are they in the lives of David Antion and Wayne Cole who honored Mr. Armstrong up until so recently, while at the same time proclaiming their disgust and distaste of Garner Ted Armstrong?
The LIVING JESUS CHRIST is, indeed, trying and testing and judging each one of us on the very gospel we preach to the world — the very gospel all of these men used to preach — the gospel of the Government of God. May God grant that all of you and all of us here at Pasadena may show Him by our words and actions that we remain LOYAL to our Creator and to His Word — that we will not get our "feelings hurt" so easily and turn aside to rebellion, dissent, and utter hypocrisy.
Our strength in this must be the confident realization that our God sits in blazing GLORY at the controls of the universe with our living Savior, High Priest, and Head at his right hand; that, together, God and Christ are leading, guiding, and "orchestrating" the major events in the world and in their human Work: that they are working with, testing, fashioning and molding every one of us so that some day God may say: "NOW, I KNOW that you are truly surrendered and yielded to your Maker and to His Government, that you will not get your feelings hurt at the slightest provocation, that you will not rise up to challenge your Maker and try to be Number One because of VANITY which has never really been conquered — now I KNOW that I can give you a city, a kingdom, or perhaps even an entire planet and be totally confident of your patient dedication and LOYALTY to your Maker and his Government — FOREVER."
Let's all think and pray about these things, fellows. God's Work is going on and growing in spite of our trials. The warmth, the love and the increasing unity among us will produce wonderful fruits in the months and years to come IF all of us remain loyal. Let's show our God and His apostle where we stand!
FROM PASTORAL ADMINISTRATION
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