KEYWORDS: work, lord, children, have

New Appointments

David Berg

—MODecember 6, 1975No.377—LTO

To All KCs, Martha and Imrah and LTs:

Precious Children, Greetings in Jesus' Dear Name!

1. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP in making the major improvements and changes in the Kingdom from the first of the New R to the present Administration R during the past year. We believe these have been of great benefit in accomplishing God's purpose in reaching the whole world with the message of Christ and His love, and the latest stats are proving the good results:

2. WE NOW HAVE MORE DISCIPLES AND COLONIES IN MORE PLACES THAN EVER BEFORE! 4,212 disciples in 580 Colonies in 62 countries or more scattered throughout every Continent around the Globe! We are winning more souls, 45,000 a month or 1,500 a day and growing faster than ever before!

3. WE ARE DISTRIBUTING 5 MILLION PIECES OF LITERATURE PER MONTH for a worldwide income of over 600,000 Dollars per month, which nearly equals our all time high of last March before the New R when lit had become our major emphasis. We are now attaining these same lit and income goals.

4. AT THE SAME TIME WE'RE BREAKING UP THE BLOBS, SCATTERING OUR PERSONNEL IN SMALLER COLONIES in more places and winning more souls and gaining more new disciples than ever before!—So the New R is accomplishing the desired results!—Hallelujah! Are these results worth the changes? Amen!

5. NORTH AMERICA STILL LEADS THE WORLD IN LITNESSING; North Europe in witnessing; Southern Europe, Africa and Asia in increase in number of Colonies; Latin America in new disciples; and the Pacific in new converts—all very commendable records and goals attained under the New R! PTL! Thank You Jesus for answering our prayers and rewarding Thy labourers with much fruit! Hallelujah!

6. THE RECENT ADMINISTRATION R HAS BLOWN UP THE NEW WS BLOB which was forming in Paris and scattered it around the world, giving the King's Councilors more responsibility and authority over the gathering of their own stats, income, reports and publications.

7. REPORTING PROCEDURES HAVE BEEN TREMENDOUSLY ABBREVIATED AND SIMPLIFIED AND ACCELERATED so we will get your timesaving reports when we need them. Publications, finances and administrative authority have been so decentralised and dispersed as to make them far more secure, less vulnerable to attack and almost impossible to suppress! Hallelujah!

8. THANK THE LORD FOR YOUR OBEDIENCE to His Heavenly vision! God bless you!—And I know He has and is and will continue to do so as you obey.

9. WE'VE HAD A GREAT DEAL TO SAY LATELY ON MARITAL MATTERS and sexual affairs due to the abuses of some, too much liberty and too little sense of responsibility for same‚ and particularly in the matter of resultant children.

10. WE ARE EXTREMELY CONCERNED OVER SUCH FAILURES at high leadership levels‚ as the Scripture is very clear regarding the qualifications of the overseeing officers of the church: Each must be the husband of (at least) one wife and rule his own house well, or else how can he take care of the house of God! (1Tim.3:5)

11. I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT LEADERS WITH BROKEN MARRIAGES and broken homes and broken families of young children are good examples to the flock when fathers and mothers are separated and children must also be divided at a young age.

12. IF YOU CANNOT KEEP YOUR OWN MARRIAGE AND FAMILY TOGETHER‚ how can you expect to unite the Family of God? God helped me to preserve my own first marriage for a quarter of a century at all costs for the sake of His Work and our children until they were grown and married and my own ministry was completely changed and revolutionised into one which needed a new mate, as all of you can plainly see.

13. BUT I DO NOT APPROVE OF THE CHANGES WHICH SOME OF YOU HAVE MADE in your relationships and families which are a bad example and endanger the Lord's Work. In some cases it may not seem the leader's fault but the guilt of his departing mate.

14. BUT I BELIEVE THAT MOST OF OUR LEADERS COULD HOLD THEIR MARRIAGES TOGETHER if they tried hard enough, at least until their children are grown and the separation will not hurt the Work or the children.

15. BUT DESPITE MANY WARNINGS‚ SOME HAVE CONTINUED relationships which have destroyed their marriages, become a bad example and endangered the Work in such a way that they can no longer be entrusted with such high responsibilities as they've had before, involving extremely sensitive security matters and the safety of the Kingdom.

16. WE HAVE FOUND THAT MOST OF THESE UNSANCTIONED CHANGES in marital relationships made without our approval have greatly lessened the effectiveness of the leaders concerned and caused a loss of confidence in them and a neglect of the Lord's Work in some way where they have put their personal affairs before the Work of the Lord and the good and safety of His Kingdom.

17. THEREFORE I SUGGEST THAT WE SERIOUSLY RECONSIDER THE POSITIONS and responsibilities of such leaders and make the necessary changes in their authority as deemed best as soon as possible. There may be a few rare exceptions in which the leader himself was in no way to blame.

18. BUT WHERE HE HAS BEEN WARNED AGAIN AND AGAIN of the possible consequences of an unwise relationship resulting in a broken marriage, home and family and the possible consequences affecting his position‚ he is without excuse‚ and therefore the situation must be dealt with accordingly.

19. SOME MAY FEEL THAT THEIR PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS are their own private affair and none of our business. But when they seriously affect and even possibly endanger the Work and others‚ they are no longer personal but have become of actual public concern, and particularly should concern the other administrative officials of the Kingdom.

20. WE ALL KNOW OF A NUMBER OF CASES OF SUCH UNWISE RELATIONSHIPS and marital difficulties which have recently brought about the downfall of several important leaders due to their neglect of the Lord's Work for these selfish affairs resulting in jeopardy to the entire Kingdom.

21. MOST OF THESE HAVE ALREADY BEEN DEALT WITH and removed from their former responsibilities to lesser loads where these personal problems can not so greatly affect the rest of the Kingdom. But there are still others which need your prayerful consideration as to what changes may be necessary to prevent any further dire consequences to the Work.

22. I BELIEVE I HAVE ALREADY MADE IT VERY CLEAR and the Lord has made it very clear in His Word that we most definitely disapprove of broken marriages where ungrown children are involved resulting in a broken home and family. We do not believe it is good for them nor for the Lord's Work nor for the confidence of their people in them.

23. WE BELIEVE THAT SUCH MARITAL AND FAMILY PROBLEMS have greatly reduced their former effectiveness and usefulness to the Work. This is particularly true of certain cases who were well-warned against the possibilities and dangers of such problems‚ but went ahead with these relationships in direct disobedience to direct orders, destroyed their own families and marriages and undertook new and unwise relationships which endangered the Work.

24. THESE MUST BE SERIOUSLY AND SUMMARILY DEALT WITH before they do any greater damage than harm already done. We have had some of these cases under serious and prayerful consideration for a long time, some even years, waiting to see the fruits and results of these associations as to whether they proved good or not good for the Work.

25. WE NOW FEEL MOVED WITH DEEP REGRET THAT WE MUST TAKE SOME MORE STRICT ACTION in this regard, which, as always, we are very sorry to have to do, but for the sake of the Work it must be done.

26. I HAVE PARTICULARLY IN MIND AT THE MOMENT THE CASE OF ONE of our most long-time faithful leaders and a member by marriage of our own personal family in the flesh. I tried for many years to help him keep his marriage together for the sake of the Work and his children, if not themselves, and I believe he could have done it if he had tried and not had other interests.

27. BUT DESPITE MANY WARNINGS WHICH HE REFUSED TO HEED, he has gone his own way and endangered and neglected the Lord's Work for his own selfish affairs, as is so recently manifest by his recent neglect of his former task as Business Manager in the supervision of the departments of the World Services remaining in Paris.

28. HE KNEW THAT JUSTUS POUND WAS NEGLECTING HIS JOB for his own personal romantic problems and he knew that he was getting out of hand in the usurpation of authority in the making of decisions which were not his to make, and yet he did nothing about it. He may have warned him and by his own admission he knew that these serious neglects were taking place, and yet he did not inform me nor any of the other KCs, but simply let the matter slide as he was too busy about his own affairs.

29. FROM THE TIME HIS OWN BROKEN MARRIAGE BEGAN TO THREATEN THE KINGDOM and he deliberately disobeyed me in publicly bringing a certain party into a certain area against my direct orders as a security hazard to the Work and a bad example, I have been looking to the Lord for ways to reduce his former power and influence and let him down as gently as possible in view of his years of faithful service and our own personal love for him.

30. BUT IN THIS CASE HE WENT TOO FAR, causing him recently to make a number of serious errors which have destroyed much confidence in his present ability to bear such heavy responsibility with so much power and influence.

31. WE HAVE THEREFORE REMOVED HIM FROM BEING OUR CHIEF OFFICER and Business Manager and have spread out his former responsibilities of administration to others. And now, we certainly cannot afford to have someone in his serious marital difficulties on the King's personal private Council of the Realm with such power and authority and intimate relationship with me affecting my personal security and the safety of the Kingdom of which I warned him over two years ago.

32. BUT HE PROCEEDED WITH HIS OWN PERSONAL PLANS DESPITE MY WARNINGS and contrary to direct orders, so I am now recommending to the rest of the Council that he be further demoted to a place of lesser authority and less sensitive security and lighter financial responsibility, such as the Prime Minister of Northeastern Europe, making Megiddo and Mara, Prime Ministers of Northwest Europe.

33. I AM TEMPORARILY APPOINTING THEREFORE MARTHA AND IMRAH TO STAND IN AS THE NEW KING'S COUNCILLORS OF NORTHERN EUROPE until further notice. They will take his place, removing him a step further from me and his former duties at WS which he neglected. We have disciplined others recently much more severely, so we trust he will be grateful for our mercy and know we still love him and hope he will do a better job in his new less-demanding position. God bless and keep you and continue to make you all a blessing! We love you!—Dad.

34. P.S.—In view of the coming administrative changes due January 1st, you Colony Leaders in the Northern Europe KC please remember to send your new reports with stats, tithes, etc.‚ directly to your new KC Office at the following address:

B.P.752

75123 Paris

Cedex 03 France

—with copies to your District and Regional Shepherds and your Archbishop‚ keeping one for your Colony files.

35. Thank you! God bless you! We'll be waiting to hear from you soon! We need your help during this crucial change to make it work.—Thanks!—We love you!—M&M