Joseph W. Tkach - Background

Background

Joseph W. Tkach was born March 16, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest of five children and the only son of Vassil and Mary Tkach. The name Tkach (/təˈkɒtʃ/) is of Carpatho-Russian (Rusyn) origin, but his parents were originally from Czechoslovakia. The neighborhood where he grew up was composed mainly of blue-collar working people of Russian origin. He graduated from Tilden High School in southwest Chicago. He then served a short term in the U.S. Navy near the end of World War II and afterward returned to his native Chicago. On March 31, 1951, Tkach married Elaine Apostolos and had three children: Joseph Jr., Tanya, and Jennifer.

Tkach grew up in the Russian Orthodox faith, but eventually his family, including his parents, became interested in the Radio Church of God through the radio broadcast of Herbert W. Armstrong, the founder of the church. The Radio Church of God would eventually change its name in 1968 to the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), the church that Tkach would lead. It was a church characterized by the strong influence of its founder and his unique doctrines based on his own interpretation of the Bible. Initially Tkach was the only member of his family who was not interested in listening to the radio broadcasts. However, a purportedly miraculous event was to change him. At the time, Tkach suffered from severe ulcers and was required to stay on a special diet. His wife then suggested that God would heal him if he were to become a minister in Armstrong's church. Although skeptical, he accepted to become a minister and he found himself cured, never again to suffer from the ulcers. He was baptized by Radio Church of God minister, Dean Blackwell, on March 1, 1957. On June 7, 1961 Blackwell ordained him a deacon in the Chicago congregation, and on June 3, 1963, Roderick C. Meredith, who would eventually lead a breakaway church from the WCG, ordained him as an elder.

In 1966 Tkach moved his family to Pasadena, California, where he enrolled in classes at Ambassador College, a state-approved, but not regionally accredited, college that was sponsored by the WCG. In 1974 he was ordained to the rank of preaching elder. Armstrong taught that the Bible endorsed "ranks" in the ministry, and elders could progress up the ladder from local elder to preaching elder to pastor to evangelist. The highest rank, apostle, was reserved for the leader of the church.

In the late 1970s a period of financial and leadership disputes occurred within the church hierarchy, with church treasurer, Stanley Rader, at the center of many of the disputes. The gravest incident was when the church was placed in financial receivership by the Attorney General of California, George Deukmejian, an action that was later disallowed in court. During this period Tkach took an active role in the defense of Armstrong, Rader, and the church headquarters' operations. He rallied the WCG membership to take action against the court proceedings. Armstrong recognized his effectiveness and subsequently, he ordained him to the rank of evangelist on September 27, 1979. See Evangelists of the Worldwide Church of God. In March 1981 Armstrong appointed him to the WCG's advisory council of elders, and eventually Armstrong named him Director of Church Administration, one of the most prominent administrative positions under Armstrong himself.