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PAGE 4
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, DECEMBER
2 ,
1986
And what about the condition of the Church? How do we measure up to the
description Christ gives of His bride? We read in Revelation 19:7-8:
"Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of
the
Lamb
is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was
granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for
the fine linen is the righteousness of saints."
Through the last seven years, God's Church has been put back on the track
and has made remarkable progress. But we must continue to
put
on
Christ
until we are "without spot or wrinkle."
We have received, from around the world, many comments about the
smoothness of the transition to
Mr.
Tkach's leadership. And the positive
~
..
fruit of that leadership is clear. It was Christ who inspired the
apostle Paul to write, "Let all things be done decently and in order"
(I
Corinthians 14:40).
Mr.
Herbert W. Armstrong invoked this same principle
in what was one of his last official acts. In appointing
Mr.
Tkach as
his successor, he stated, in part: "I feel that the procedure I am to
adopt will aid in preserving the unity that exists in God's Church and
prevent
some
from falling away. All of this is for the greater purpose,
to aid the Church in carrying out its Godly commission in unity and
strength."
Christ is leading His Church and He is not nearsighted. During the last
several years Christ saw to it that
Mr.
Tkach was pressed into daily
contact with
Mr.
Amstrong and was directly, involved in virtually every
major decision.
Mr.
Armstrong delegated to
Mr.
Tkach ever-increasing
responsibility for gathering facts and implementing his decisions.
In
the final weeks of his life
Mr.
Armstrong specifically instructed
Mr.
Tkach in the responsibilities of Pastor General, sharing many personal
experiences with him. And before his death he appointed
Mr.
Tkach as his
successor and saw to it that the passing
- - -
of the baton
was
legally
documented and announced to the Church.
Now what is this passing of the baton? It is an analogy to a relay race
in
which one runner, having finished
his
course, passes the baton,
&
01 of continuit to the next runner
n
s
team. Firmly grasping
him. He is not required to return to the starting line because that part
of the race has already been run. The one receiving the baton receives
with it the position achieved by the cumulative effort of all those who
have run before him.
*-*
t e aton, t e secon runner leaps with new energy toward the goal before
Notice Ephesians 4tl1, "And he gave
some
apostles; and some, prophets:
and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers." It has become
obvious to the leading ministers at headquarters that
Mr.
Tkach
-
is doing,
as
Mr.
Armstrong was before him, the work of an apostle.
While we commonly use the term Pastor General as an administrative title
that describes
Mr.
Tkach's executive position, his spiritual rank and
authority supersedes all others in the min.istry just as
Mr.
Armstrong's
did. Christ has chosen him and sent
@&
forth as an apostle to carry on
His Work, supported and reinforcedby th-ole
Church, as co-workers
with Christ.