pack2

MR. PACK:
Associate Pastor,
Persecuted For Holding Fast to the True Faith,
and the Only Friend Mr. Armstrong Still Has

Dave Pack was the associate pastor of my congregation (Manhattan, NY) in the late 1980's. If my memory serves me correctly, he was transferred to Akron, Ohio to serve as pastor around the time Gerald Flurry began his Philadelphia Church of God. Flurry's departure caused a number of transfers as one church pastor was transferred to Edmund, Oklahoma to replace Flurry, which necessitated another transfer to replace Flurry's replacement, and so on. Several such transfers took place, as Flurry's "rebellion" caused a re-shuffling of the church pastorates in the American mid-west. Dave Pack was the last transfer in the chain reaction, as he was plucked from our congregation to replace the Akron pastor. Mike Grovak, now with the United Church of God, was hired into the full time ministry to replace Dave as the Manhattan associate pastor.

Dave Pack is an intelligent man, but his intelligence is warped by several presuppositions that distort his thinking. First, he believes Herbert W. Armstrong was right about everything. Secondly, Dave believes he was placed into the ministry by God, as do all Church of God ministers. Third, Dave believes he is superior to all of the ordinary non-ordained members of the human species. Herbert Armstrong was right about everything, especially the exalted status of ministers in "God's Church," and, therefore, Dave is entitled to the deference of those not in his special class. Lastly, Dave Pack had a close, personal relationship with Herbert W. Armstrong. He was in constant contact with Armstrong until his death. Because of this, he and he alone knew what was on Armstrong's mind, and that makes him uniquely qualified to carry on the Armstrong legacy today.

Dave gives some autobiographical detail in his article "A Personal Insight: Rewriting Mr. Armstrong's Literature"
(http://www.restoredcog.org/articles/personal.html):

"I was sent to New York City and placed under men who were told to give me very little to do. This lasted for 4 1/3 years. I went from pastoring over 1,000 people (not long before my transfer), in a beautiful part of the country, to a level of responsibility equivalent, at times, to little more than a deacon. (This is not intended to denigrate the service of deacons, but merely to explain my severe reduction in responsibility.) All this occurred while having to serve in some of the most dangerous neighborhoods on earth!"

He gives a little more detail in the "Biographical Forward" of his book "There Came A Falling Away"
(http://www.restoredcog.org/books/tcafa-part1.html):

"Just before Mr. Armstrong died, his soon-to-be successor demoted me to associate pastor and sent me, with my family, to serve in the worst parts of New York City. This man intensely despised me and had often directly threatened me because of my relationship with Mr. Armstrong. I had been serving a very large pastorate in Buffalo, New York, and then I was demoted for over four years, during which time I was allowed to do very little when compared to the role of even a normal associate pastor."

Notice the outrage at his being demoted. Here was one of God's ministers, an intimate of God's apostle, being demoted by Armstrong's second in command. It was no wonder that Joe Tkach Sr., Armstrong's successor and future apostate, resented someone like Dave who was so loyal to Armstrong's legacy. Not only that, Dave Pack, a God-ordained MINISTER, endowed with the wisdom and insight from on high that all ministers received with the laying on of hands, was being wasted by doing the work of a lowly deacon (as Dave says, this is not to disparage the vital role of deacon, but they aren't as endowed with Godly attributes as God's ministers).

Perhaps the main reason he was demoted was that his tenure as pastor in Buffalo was a disaster. In Ambassador Report 32, two articles titled "Armstrong Follower Held In Murder of Daughter" and "Dave Pack's Reign of Terror" describes a thirteen-page letter prepared by members of his congregation listing grievances against Dave's heavy-handed approach to ministry. Those interested in these articles can read them at http://www.herbertwarmstrong.com/ar/AR32.html. Also of interest is the short letter by Harry R. Williams that appeared in Ambassador Report 49 (http://www.herbertwarmstrong.com/ar/AR49.html).

As one who attended services in Manhattan for almost twenty years, including Dave Pack's entire tenure in the New York City area, I can attest to the fact that Dave's work load was no different from any other associate pastor assigned to the area. He gave sermons regularly, while deacons never gave sermons. He regularly gave the Wednesday night Bible study, also something never done by deacons. He was the director of the Manhattan Spokesman Club, a role never filled by a mere deacon. I know this because I was secretary of the club the first year he served as director (the next year I joined the Graduate Club, directed by pastor Steve Botha). Like all of the full-time ministry who served in New York City, he spent a couple of days a week in the church's office in one of city's better office towers at Penn Plaza, right across the street from Madison Square Garden and Macy's, and in one of New York City's busiest neighborhoods. It was here that he counseled members and prospective members on a regular basis, definitely not the role of a deacon. He was a regular speaker during Holy Day services, giving sermons, while deacons would give sermonettes at most, or just lead hymns. He supervised other church activities as well, including fund raisers and the Plain Truth distribution program. He even chose the games we played at church picnics! And, as he attests in the two quotations above, he also did home visits, sometimes in "the worst parts of New York City," and "some of the most dangerous neighborhoods on earth!" but also in some of the wealthiest suburbs in the United States, where the busy executives who run
some of the world's largest corporations live.

If Dave Pack had a lot of time on his hands, perhaps it was because Worldwide Church of God ministers were, as a rule, under worked and overpaid. I only know what I saw, and Dave Pack had as much responsibility as any associate pastor assigned to New York City. He was never treated as though he was in exile. He was always treated with respect by the Bob Fahey and later Steve Botha (at least publicly), the pastors under whom Dave Pack served, and he always received the respect of the membership.

Dave attributes his demotion to Joe Tkach Sr.'s jealousy. As stated in the quote above, Tkach "demoted me to associate pastor and sent me, with my family, to serve in the worst parts of New York City. This man intensely despised me and had often directly threatened me because of my relationship with Mr. Armstrong." What Dave doesn't mention is that the church paid him a salary that enabled him to live in one of the best neighborhoods in the suburbs. I know because I was once visited him at his home. But that didn't make up for the occasional visits to the slums. He also fails to mention that he didn't always visit these poor neighborhoods alone. He was usually accompanied by a deacon, or a local church elder, or even by church pastor Steve Botha. In any case, the six foot, seven inch tall Dave Pack would hardly have been considered easy pickings by the neighborhood thugs.

I visited those same neighborhoods on a weekly basis. As a white guy in a business suit, I visited the poor, predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhoods almost every Saturday to pick up elderly church members to take them to services. I remember one occasion as I was helping a nearly 100 year old widow back to her apartment. All of a sudden, we were surrounded by seven or eight very strange looking people. I couldn't run off and leave the old lady there so I kept going, hoping nothing would happen. As it turned out, the people who surrounded us all appeared to be in a drug induced stupor and they just kept walking past us. But I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous.

While Dave may have been put off by visiting bad neighborhoods, there were several of us who made our rounds each week to pick up infirm senior citizens. We were dressed for the Sabbath, and in neighborhoods where unemployment was a way of life, we stood out and were easily spotted by the criminal element.

But even this is not cause for complaint (although if you want to praise me for being so selfless, please send your e-mails to the Missing Dimension, and they will be forwarded to me. I also accept pats on the back. Please call for an appointment). Let's not forget the poor church members who live in those neighborhoods. While Dave Pack made the occasional home visit, and I passed through once a week, there are church members who live in these "most dangerous neighborhoods on earth!" (which is, frankly, quite an overstatement). Disabled senior citizens are there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and they only got out a few hours each week when somebody was kind enough to pick them up and take them to church. Dave Pack should be ashamed of himself for complaining about his occasional visits to poor neighborhoods. I guess Dave is far too important to minister
in the inner city. Mother Teresa he is not.

Dave makes much of the close relationship he claims he had with Herbert Armstrong. According to Dave, Joe Tkach Sr. "intensely despised me and had often directly threatened me because of my relationship with Mr. Armstrong."

Rod Meredith justifies his claim to be the successor to Armstrong by pointing out that he was one of the original evangelists Armstrong ordained. Dave cannot lay claim to such lofty credentials. Instead, to give himself some legitimacy, he falls back on his alleged close friendship with Armstrong in which face to face meetings and telephone conversations were a regular feature. To back up this claim of close friendship, he points out that his wife was Armstrong's secretary for a number of years, granting him a unique entrée to God's apostle.

I heard Dave speak many times during church services and other occasions. While I do remember Dave mentioning that his wife was Herbert W. Armstrong's secretary, I don't remember him ever describing a close personal friendship with Armstrong himself. Ministers had more access to Armstrong than did ordinary lay members, but few ministers could legitimately claim that they had a close, intimate friendship with him. Dave Pack tries to back up his claim by pointing out that his wife was Armstrong's secretary at one time, and this gave him a special access to Armstrong unavailable to anyone outside of Armstrong's inner circle. Because he had this special relationship, he knew firsthand that Herbert W. Armstrong never intended to change doctrine. He knows what Armstrong had in mind during the last months of his life. Everybody else falls into two categories: (1) they don't know what Armstrong intended at the time of his death because they didn't have the same close, personal relationship that Dave had, or (2) they were close associates of Armstrong at headquarters, but they at best watered down his teachings (as the United Church of God people are doing), or at worst became apostates (as did both Joseph Tkachs and their minions in the Worldwide
Church of God).

Despite his close friendship with God's Apostle, Armstrong didn't prevent mean old Joseph Tkach Sr. from transferring Dave to New York City, where he was given nothing to do except wander through Harlem and the South Bronx without a bodyguard. Then again, Bob Fahey was also transferred to New York City to serve as an associate pastor when he landed in Herbert Armstrong's dog house. Fahey, at one time an evangelist ranked minister, was the successor to Stanley Rader as second in command of the Worldwide Church of God. For reasons which remain shrouded in mystery, Fahey was demoted and exiled to New York City, to serve as associate pastor under Frank McCrady, Jr. (Is it possible that Fahey's exile was the result of his questioning his boss for drinking coffee on the Day of Atonement? See AR 32, http://www.herbertwarmstrong.com/ar/AR32.html and AR18 http://www.herbertwarmstrong.com/ar/AR18.html.) When McCrady was transferred, Fahey succeeded him as pastor. So it is possible that when one fell out of favor in Pasadena, he was exiled, forced to survive in the wilds of New York City.

In Fahey's case, he was punished by being transferred to a place 3,000 miles from the center of church power. In Dave's case, he was probably demoted because even in the totalitarian atmosphere of the Worldwide Church of God, Dave almost managed to lose an entire congregation of tithe payers. His tale of being persecuted for being Herbert W. Armstrong's buddy does not ring true since he gave his relationship with Armstrong scant mention while he was in New York. Any minister who worked closely with Armstrong boasted about it as much as possible because of the status it conferred. Bob Fahey would always talk about his visits with Herbert Armstrong when he was in Pasadena for the ministerial refresher courses. Steve Botha frequently mentioned that Herbert Armstrong performed his wedding ceremony, and the games of hearts he played with Armstrong and others at Bricket Wood. But the only relationship with Armstrong I can recall Dave mentioning is the vicarious one he had through his wife, who was Herbert's former secretary.

Dave Pack has been churning out massive amounts of literature, available on his web site. Following in the footsteps of his hero, Dave is re-writing all of Herbert W. Armstrong's literature, just as Armstrong re-wrote J.H. Allen's Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright (which Armstrong re-wrote and titled The United States and Britain In Prophecy) and the works of Church of God, Seventh Day authors. Meanwhile, Dave's conduct not only hasn't changed, it seems to have gotten worse. Apparently, he has alienated everyone the Dave Pack Church of God has ever employed. A web site has been set up to document grievances at http://web.raex.com/~shep/bill/information.html#latest. It makes for very interesting reading.

Dave Pack has always operated grandly in the office of Minister. It was very important to him that ministers were always placed on a pedestal. During the first meeting in which Dave served as director of the Manhattan Spokesman Club, the topics-master joked about Dave's struggle to squeeze his mini-van into one of Manhattan's very tight parking spaces. Dave's first admonition when he stood to give his evaluation was that we should not make jokes about the ministry. Dave jealously guarded the prerogatives and privileges of his exalted office, and it stung when he lost some of those privileges when he was demoted to associate pastor. Now Dave is the head of his very own church, and views himself as the only true protector of the legacy of Herbert W. Armstrong. For Dave Pack, life is finally complete, and he is finally in a position worthy of his station. If only the world would see things his way....

MAM