Joseph Tkach Jr.

Joseph Tkach Jr.
Joseph Tkach Jr. president of Grace Communion International.
Born	(1951-12-24) December 24, 1951 (age 65) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	President, Grace Communion International, President, Grace Communion Seminary and Host, "Speaking of LIFE"
Years active	1986–present
Website	Official website

Joseph Tkach Jr. is president of Grace Communion International, an evangelical Christian denomination based in Glendora, Calif, and host of the weekly Web-series "Speaking of LIFE". Since assuming his responsibilities in 1995, Tkach has overseen a period of radical change within the denomination that began during the administration of his father, Joseph W. Tkach. Once a strict seventh-day Sabbatarian organization that denied the Trinity, required observance of Old Testament law and adhered to Anglo-Israelism, the church has abandoned those and other teachings in favor of a doctrine of salvation by grace through faith.

He was born on December 23, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois. He spent most of his childhood in Chicago until his parents moved to Pasadena, California in 1966. He attended Ambassador College, from 1969 to 1973, when he received a bachelor of arts degree in theology. He was ordained a minister of the church in 1976. From 1976 to 1984, he was mainly involved in social work, initially with a private agency working on rehabilitation programs for juvenile delinquents and later for the state of Arizona serving the developmentally disabled. He received a master's degree in business administration from Western International University in Phoenix, in 1984. From 1984 to 1986, he worked for Intel Corporation in Phoenix, where he supervised the corporate services training department.

In 1986, he was hired to assist his father in the church administration department, eventually becoming director. When the elder Tkach became ill in 1995, he appointed his son to succeed him as denominational president in the event of his death, which occurred that September.

He received a doctor of ministry degree from Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California, in May 2000. He is on the board of directors of the National Association of Evangelicals.