THE GRAVEYARD CHURCH OF GOD
DAD'S OFFICE
Below is one of Dad's masterworks. Exquisite technique, masterful manipulation, and the full range of emotions--- God's church, God's people, God's work, promise of rewards, threat of the lake of fire, shaming members for their failure to respond, and commanding members to respond immediately with cash! An incredible tour de force!
Times were tough. Dad reveals he does the Work on a "lady's dressing table" due to lack of space at HQ and needs a new office. He reminds the membership its up to them or God's Work dies...Of course, Dad finally did get that "executive" office he yearned for, with a private entrance/parking place, and a private elevator that went directly to his private office - so that the sheep would not interfere with the Work. Funny thing is that even that new office wasn't big enough for Dad, because he continued to do a lot of work in my sister's bedroom in the evenings.
DICK ARMSTRONG
RADIO CHURCH OF GOD
WORLD HEADQUARTERS
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109
HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
PRESIDENT and PASTOR
Broadcasting
The WORLD TOMORROW
Publishers of
The PLAIN TRUTH
October 16, 1961
Dear Brethren of God's Church:
GREETINGS,
in the name of Jesus Christ! I have to tell you,
now, about our most serious problem in God's work. I
made some mention of this -- or part of it -- at the Feast
of Tabernacles, both at Squaw Valley and at Gladewater.
It is SERIOUS and it is URGENT, and so I hope you will, as a
begotten child of God, take this to heart, and pray very
earnestly about it...
GOD'S WORK
CANNOT STOP GROWING! For 27 1/2 years it has continued
to grow 30% a year. Now RIGHT HERE is our TOUGHEST
PROBLEM!
Do you
realize that most churches don't grow at all -- or they grow
at a very slow rate, compared to our 30% a year? Do
you realize that most business corporations grow very slowly
-- or not at all? DO YOU KNOW WHY?
One reason
is that when a business man or a corporation starts an
expansion program, they soon learn that expansion demands
the advance investment of MONEY, and trying to finance this
expansion often causes a firm to go bankrupt.
Commercial business corporations finance GROWTH and
expansion programs by borrowings. But both the Church and
the two colleges are NON-PROFIT corporations.
And neither banks, nor loan companies, nor insurance
companies, nor private investors, will loan money to
non-profit corporations. Do you know why? They
are afraid that IF they had to foreclose on the mortgage, or
whatever is given as security, on a church, a college, or a
hospital, there would be a great howl of
public protest. The bank or association loaning the
money would suffer great loss of public prestige and good
will.
SO WE
CANNOT FINANCE NECESSARY EXPANSION BY NEGOTIATING LARGE
LOANS. And, with an operation that MUST OPERATE ON
MONEY, we cannot MEET A 30% INCREASE IN OPERATIONAL EXPENSE
EVERY YEAR out of a 30% increase of income, and at the same
time accumulate large special funds for the purchase of
additional properties and the construction of additional
buildings.
Now look at
this PROBLEM. I have to face it! But I can't
solve it WITHOUT YOUR HELP!
We have
plans all drawn for converting old cow barns into a new
student dormitory, and the former electric light plant into
a new much larger dining hall, at our college in England.
UNLESS WE CAN NOW PROCEED IMMEDIATELY with this alteration
and building project -- UNLESS IT IS COMPLETED BEFORE
OCTOBER NEXT YEAR, we cannot
accept any more students at the college in England -- IT
MUST STOP GROWING. If this work stops growing, it
cannot be the WORK OF GOD -- and it will die....
There
is one more urgent need I feel cannot be longer neglected.
I feel that I must have an office in which to do my
work. For the past several years I have used a small
room on the third floor of the Library as a place to do my
work -- but it is not really an office. I do not even
have a desk -- there is not room enough for one, so I do my
work on a lady's dressing table. Now I did have an
office -- but there was no privacy -- everybody knew where I
was-- I was constantly interrupted, and could not get my
work done. So I moved up to this smaller room in order
to get enough seclusion to write and get my work done, and
my former office is now used by Garner Ted Armstrong.
All of our other executives and department managers have
offices, and office desks, and secretaries and
stenographers. I have none, for there is no
place to put a secretary.
More than
ten years ago, our architect made preliminary plans for an
executive office for me. But it was part of a new
wing on our administration building and we couldn't build it
then, because funds were not available. They have
never been available since. Then about two and a half
years ago, the architect completed plans for a much-needed
new wing on Ambassador Hall to provide additional class
rooms. We have published pictures of this. It
included an office for me. But we did not have funds
on hand sufficient to build such an addition -- and have not
had since. So that office never materialized.
Next, with
the need of an office for myself growing desperate a year
and a half ago, the architect completed plans for
a remodeling job that would expand my present work-room and
give me an office -- and provide a suitable one also for
Garner Ted Armstrong, adjoining mine, with a mutually-shared
reception room and space for a secretary or two we could
share between us. This would put us both just a
few steps from the radio studio -- which is rather
important. The plans were approved by the city
building commissioner's office, and building permit was
taken out. But then, we simply did not have the funds
on hand for this remodeling job. I wrote all our
members, and urged you to keep up, or increase your special
offerings for the property and building fund. But, instead,
these offerings slacked off. SO WE NEVER STARTED
THIS ALTERATION JOB -- and I still do not have an office.
Now, dear
Brethren, LISTEN! We simply cannot delay some of this
building program longer! This IS the Church of God --
this IS the very WORK OF GOD, being done by HIS CHURCH!
God's work CANNOT stop growing. I am unwilling to
simply grab it by the neck, and STRANGLE IT TO DEATH --
which I would be doing if I allowed it to
STOP growing, because we can't somehow induce YOU BRETHREN
to do anywhere near as much for the building and property
fund as you did do three years ago.
There IS a
way we can provide for this NECESSARY BUILDING. We
can't finance it by making a big loan, payable in
somewhere between 8 and 20 years. But there is a way
we CAN finance it. Over three years ago we were paying
out $18,000 per month to pay for the new 7,000-seat
Tabernacle near Gladewater, Texas. You Brethren DID
SEND THAT IN THEN, as special offerings, over and above
regular offerings for the Gospel, and tithes. THERE
WERE LESS THAN HALF AS MANY OF YOU, THEN!
Today there
are MORE than TWICE AS MANY OF US. Today I KNOW WE CAN
RISE TO MEET THIS IMPERATIVE NEED! If we don't, it is
not because God has not made us able -- IT WILL BE ONLY
BECAUSE OUR
HEARTS ARE NO LONGER IN HIS WORK!
As God's
minister, whom He uses in the over-all direction of His
work, I am not going to wait around any longer for
luke-warm, or half-hearted, or rebellious "brethren" -- and
if your hearts are NOT in God's Work, ARE you really
brethren? ARE you going to be in God's Kingdom -- OR
IN THE LAKE OF FIRE? As God's Apostle, I now put it
squarely to you! WE CANNOT WAIT LONGER!
So, I tell
you, NOW, that I HAVE GIVEN THE GREEN LIGHT! THIS ENTIRE
WORK OF GOD IS GOING TO SINK OR SWIM ON IT! I have
ordered work to begin IMMEDIATELY on the office for myself
and the Vice President. I have given orders for work
to start, FORTHWITH, immediately, on THE NEW DINING HALL for
the Pasadena campus. I have
given order for the work to proceed forthwith, on the
dormitory and dining hall in England. I am not willing
to see this work DIE.
Brethren, I
have written you -- I have begged you -- I have pleaded -- I
have quoted the Scriptures of how God's people of old
responded MORE than asked -- BUT YOU HAVE NOT RESPONDED.
Right now, with nearly TWO AND A HALF TIMES more members,
you are sending in only an average or $12,500 per month --
about two-thirds as much as
less than half of you sent in three years ago.
By creating
this SPECIAL fund for property and building -- now of
$35,000 per month -- over and ABOVE, and apart from regular
offerings for the work of the Gospel, and your honest FIRST
TITHES -- we can proceed and keep this work from dying.
THIS IS THE WORK OF GOD, Brethren! But God uses us as
His instruments. You GIVE a little more, and GOD WILL
PROVIDE YOU WITH MORE! IF you are HIS BEGOTTEN CHILD,
you will respond.
Now, once
again, I call on YOU for a totally RENEWED statement of
intention. When I asked you for a conditioned PLEDGE,
YOU SIMPLY DID NOT RESPOND! And, Brethren, let me tell
you, THIS HAS BEEN THE MOST DISCOURAGING EXPERIENCE I HAVE
HAD TO SUFFER IN YEARS! I know that God's people would
respond, many did -- but too many did not!
I made it
mighty plain that, if for some unforeseen cause your income
dropped, or you found yourself, later, UNABLE to
continue to send in regularly whatever you pledged, that you
are automatically released -- the pledge would not be
binding, if you become UNABLE to continue it.
I did not
ask for a VOW -- I have said to you that God does not
require us to vow -- ever, and He teaches us that it is not
wise to vow -- for if we do, God will hold us to it,
regardless of circumstances. But that is not what I
asked. I asked for a
conditioned pledge -- a statement of INTENTION, as long as
you are able. That is something altogether different
from a vow!
The program
I have now authorized is going to have to run two or three
years. But I will ask you to send in a STATEMENT OF
INTENTION, or a Conditioned Pledge, to be binding as long as
you are able, for the coming year.
Those of
you who are already sending in these extra SPECIAL offerings
regularly, are also asked to send in once again
such a statement. Perhaps you can increase it, now.
Those who sent in such a pledge before, yes, YOU are to send
in a new one, now, which will automatically cancel and
replace the former one. AND THOUSANDS OF YOU WHO NEVER SENT
ONE IN, I call on you, now, BY ALL THE AUTHORITY VESTED IN
ME BY JESUS CHRIST, IN HIS NAME, TO
SEND ONE IN FOR THE LARGEST AMOUNT YOU CAN PLAN TO SEND,
according to your ability.
During the
war, people dug down deep and GAVE TILL IT HURT, to have a
part in WARFARE OF THIS WORLD -- in killing! People
are PATRIOTIC toward their NATION -- but are YOU toward your
GOD? Are you willing to give extra special, even till it
hurts, toward SAVING LIVES for all eternity? Are you
less loyal to GOD than carnal unconverted people to their
HUMAN government?
Do you
realize that this very addition to the building and property
fund might influence one of your own unconverted loved
ones getting into God's Kingdom -- being saved for eternity?
Listen! Even though this is not the time God is calling
everyone --
nevertheless, if you PRAY earnestly enough for your
unconverted loved ones, with FAITH, God may call one or more
of them NOW -- convict them by His Spirit. And it
could well be that, through the physical facilities made
possible by our property expansion program, and the
continued GROWTH of the colleges turning out additional
ministers and workers in this globe-encircling work, that
the right spiritual help would be available for them at the
right time. And if we have to STOP the growth of the
work, such needed help might NOT be available.
IN ANY
EVENT, additional PHYSICAL facilities for TRAINING men and
women for spiritual service DOES MEAN more precious lives
converted and finally born into God's Kingdom for eternity!
THIS NEED MUST BE MET -- N O W!
NO PEOPLE
ON EARTH have been blessed in material prosperity like we in
America. Our Brethren in England give MUCH MORE, in
proportion to income, than you Brethren here. They
don't get to enjoy all the luxuries you do, but they do give
till it hurts.
Now I am
FORCED TO ask every member to give this conditioned pledge
for whatever you are able. PRAY EARNESTLY over this,
see how you can re-arrange your own budget -- readjust it so
you can spare something extra for this property and building
fund. PRAY earnestly that God will AWAKE AND AROUSE HIS
CHURCH, that all
other members, too, will respond generously. We HAVE
to do this, or see the work die -- and we are NOT going to
let such a powerful work of God die. THANK YOU, and
GOD BLESS YOU! This time, I know we are going to GO
OVER THE TOP!
With much LOVE, in Jesus' name,
Herbert W. Armstrong
P.S. EVERY MEMBER is expected to fill in and mail the
enclosed
coupon IMMEDIATELY!