Chapter Fifteen – The RCG Strategic Plan
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The Restored Church of God (RCG) has operated under a long-term Strategic Plan. This plan has to do with our early priorities for preparing to continue the WORK, feed the FLOCK, restore the full TRUTH and rewrite the Church’s past LITERATURE. Some initially misunderstood our intentions. Others knew them, but found advantage for their own organization in misrepresenting them. This chapter looks more closely at where we have been, and where we are, with Chapters Seventeen and Eighteen looking more closely at where we are going!
May 1999
The Restored Church of God came into existence in May 1999. Since its inception, many have asked that we explain the Church’s ;strategic plan for continuing God’s Work and feeding the flock—the First and Second Commissions. Most inquiries of this nature come from people who attend one of the splinters. Of course, we refer them to our extensive material designed for those with a Church of God background. Everything about who and what we are has been explained in exhaustive detail in our Splinter Explanation Packet. And many have found it is also helpful in understanding our early history.
We did not formally present a synopsis or overview of our Strategic Plan until June 2002. At that point, because our enemies were taking delight in declaring that we were not going to continue the Great Commission, and had no plans for such, we revealed the plan. Obviously, it has evolved over the course of time, continually expanding as we have identified new publishing projects that God wanted to be carried out and as new opportunities—gigantic open doors!—have presented themselves. This ;evolution has been dramatic.
Some Background
Before giving specifics of the plan, some background is necessary to understand a critical decision we faced very early in our development. It has everything to do with what we are today, and in a sense defines The Restored Church of God.
Some history: I was disfellowshipped from the Global Church of God on May 3, 1999 for defending truths that its leadership would no longer teach. This followed a major split that had occurred in this organization about six months earlier. Though that division eventually culminated in a struggle for power in late 1998, my concern centered on the many false doctrines that had crept into that Church. I said this very loudly at the time, but few listened.
During this difficult period, and for some time before, I became increasingly aware that all of the splinters were compromising many doctrines restored by God to His Church. Some were admitting they had made changes. Others (like the Global Church of God, which became the Living Church of God) were deceitfully claiming they had not. All were growing worse! I knew something had to be done.
By now you have probably read enough that it should be obvious Christ established The Restored Church of God for those willing and strong enough to stand up for the UNCOMPROMISED restored truth. Christ knew that all who loved the pure, unabridged—and unvarnished—doctrines of the Bible, as the Church once understood them, and who wanted to continue supporting God’s Work as the Church once did it, had to have a place to do this! Now they would. Gradually, over time, more and more brethren learned about us and left the splinters to join us.
Of course, from 1999, I was able to speak much more loudly about doctrinal compromise throughout the splinters. This book, along with my 2-volume Biography, demonstrates at what level!
A Crucial Decision
Shortly before establishing RCG, I envisioned reprinting Mr. Armstrong’s literature and using it to rekindle the same Work. This seemed the most natural and desirable way for an organization believing all that he taught to continue Jesus’ commission as God used Mr. Armstrong to do it. It would have been the most correct way to go forward—and much easier, faster and less expensive than any other approach. It also would have allowed me time to simultaneously write the over 2,000 pages of books like this one, so necessary just to explain the apostasy and related questions for those with a Church of God background.
After almost 29 years in the ministry at the time, I simply could not leave God’s sheep ;hanging in regard to the greatest questions facing the Church in this age. Mr. Armstrong had personally trained me and I felt a duty to explain to God’s people what happened and to warn of the consequences of what would yet happen if they did not heed Christ’s warning. While opinions were everywhere, I also saw that no one else felt the need to do this in any systematic way.
But Federal Copyright Law eventually prohibited us from republishing Mr. Armstrong’s material. (Having already reprinted eleven of his smaller booklets, we were forced to stop.) As mentioned, a Federal Appellate Court upheld the WCG’s copyright, and the Supreme Court refused to hear PCG’s appeal. Because PCG was not willing to rewrite the literature, it had pressed on blindly, wasting years and millions of dollars in legal expenses, in hopes of overturning the decision. The WCG later sold a number of copyrights to PCG for more millions.
We were not so foolish—or so ;patient. Understanding it is the truth Mr. Armstrong taught that is important, rather than his precise wording, we accepted God’s will and proceeded with the only alternative: Take on the staggering task of rewriting all the Church’s past literature!
That has been done, and was completed in 2005.
Books and booklets formerly produced by the Worldwide Church of God.
Books and booklets written by The Restored Church of God.
Then: The Bible Story, Youth Bible Lessons, Bible Correspondence Course lessons, articles and three magazines formerly produced by the Worldwide Church of God.
…And Now: The Story of the Bible, Children’s Bible Lessons,Bible Introduction Course lessons, articles and three magazines produced by The Restored Church of God.
Unique to RCG: Above is the additional literature unique to The Restored Church of God, which was essentially not needed in the period under Mr. Armstrong’s leadership.
On a related note, let me underscore again for emphasis that some other individuals and small groups, pretending to be independent Christians ;defending the truth and ;carrying on the heritage of Mr. Armstrong’s literature even after the official legal ruling, today openly defy the law and publish Mr. Armstrong’s writings, anyway. They feel no restraint, nor will they accept any from anyone or any organization. Naturally, others are happy to link to these sites—thereby endorsing them—and disobey Romans 13:1-7, among other scriptures. This includes the Eighth Commandment prohibiting stealing. We pray for all these people, because they are in more trouble than they know—with God, and possibly man!
Therefore, early on, I had to make a simple decision between two clear choices: (1) Immediately re-start the First Commission, without either literature or a trained and faithful staff and ministry, or (2) firstreconstruct the enormous amount of written material explaining all of God’s doctrines (which no other leader or entire organization was willing to do), and then expand into what would be a much larger andmore effective Work. While some organizations wrote a couple booklets and immediately started a ;work on radio or television, I knew that approach would be unwise for a host of reasons.
In addition, I recognized that when Mr. Armstrong left Sardis in 1933, only 19 people came with him and six of them were his family. This meant he had no immediate pastoral responsibility to a shattered flock of hundreds following his lead—and to the thousands more left scattered and confused, with many of these wondering where to go.
I did!
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