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Golden Years

Article from Messenger-Inquirer (April 28, 2007)
By Karen Owen


Pictured: Rev. Glenn Armstrong

A few hours after the Rev. Glenn Armstrong preached his trial sermon at Beaver Dam Baptist Church, he stood behind the pulpit and looked out over a now-empty auditorium with dark woodwork and no air conditioning.

He felt "this eerie sensation I would spend my life here," Armstrong recalled recently, walking around the campus of Ohio County's largest church.

His premonition was pretty accurate.

Armstrong, 69, is retiring in May after 40 years as the pastor at Beaver Dam Baptist.

He considered retirement at age 62, and then again at 65 but didn't think the time was right. He did set a 40-year target date for himself.

"Forty is a good, round biblical number and a symbol of completion," Armstrong said.

Beaver Dam Baptist is only the second pastorate Armstrong has ever held.

Armstrong grew up on a farm near Murray. His father died when he was 4.

He sensed early on that God was calling him into the ministry but first spent four years in the Air Force after graduating from high school in 1955. He met his future wife, Elaine, at Murray State University, married and transferred to Georgetown College. He led a church in Mount Sterling while finishing college and seminary.

Armstrong later earned a doctorate at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville.

During his time at Beaver Dam Baptist, attendance grew from about 250 on Sunday mornings to a peak of nearly 600 by the late 1990s. The congregation also built a new auditorium, educational wing and activities building and opened a preschool and Christian elementary school.

"One thing of which I'm proud - this church organized in 1798," Armstrong said. "It's been here on this spot 209 years, and the church has never been in a split. I'm relieved and happy there wasn't one on my watch."

Surviving so long in one pastorate takes a minister with a tough hide, said the Rev. T.A. Prickett, a close friend of Armstrong's who spent 34 years at Seven Hills Baptist Church in Owensboro. "And it takes a fellow who doesn't feel he's got to always be right."

The first 20 years were the most challenging, Elaine Armstrong said. Her husband weathered power struggles and disagreements. The last 10 to 15 years have been "blissful," she said.

"In the squabbles we have had, many of those who have been enemies have become my friends again," Glenn Armstrong said. "One philosophy I operate under: It is not my responsibility for everybody to love me, but it is my responsibility to love everybody."


Pictured: Rev. Glenn Armstrong

Armstrong credits a strong staff for much of his contentment. The church's music minister has been at Beaver Dam Baptist for 24 years and the youth minister for 22. The church has had only two secretaries in 33 years.

Also, "I was blessed with a wife who has handled the role of pastor's wife very, very well and has been very supportive," he said.

The Armstrongs always had a policy of not discussing church conflict or difficult church members in front of their four children.

She and her husband "did a lot of going out on the parkway to a restaurant and having coffee," Elaine Armstrong said with a chuckle.

Their policy paid off, though, the couple says. Unlike some "preacher's kids," their children are all still involved in religious life and aren't bitter toward the church.

One advantage to such a long tenure, Armstrong said, is "you develop a unique relationship with people you serve and also the community in which you serve."

Noah Phelps Jr., who was on the search committee that brought Armstrong to Beaver Dam Baptist, said the pastor baptized his three sons and three of his grandchildren. Armstrong has also been with his family through times of loss, he said.

"You can't ask for more than that," Phelps said.

Such a long tenure does make it harder to say goodbye, Armstrong said.

His wife predicts he won't have any trouble adjusting to retirement. The Armstrongs have 10 grandchildren and plan to do a little traveling. He rides bicycles and motorcycles, enjoys yard work, and plans to take golf lessons.

Armstrong already has five preaching engagements and one revival booked after his official retirement date, his wife says.

He says he wants to get involved in Baptist disaster relief work too. "I know how to use a chain saw," Armstrong said.

"I don't want to do anything where I have to go to committee meetings," he said.

Armstrong's church is out of practice when it comes to searching for a new pastor, so he is trying to prepare members. He's been talking to them about factors that could affect their search, such as the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention and a growing interest in Calvinism among some Baptists.

"They haven't called a pastor in 40 years," Prickett marveled. "You just think about what age the people in leadership were when Glenn came." Most Beaver Dam Baptist members really can't remember any other pastor, Prickett said.

The Armstrongs plan to remain in Beaver Dam, but the retiring pastor won't cause problems for the new one, the couple predicts.

"I can tell you this," Elaine Armstrong said. Her husband will be "the strongest supporter that the next pastor has, if he can do it honestly, and if he can't, he will be quiet."

Armstrong will preach his final sermon as pastor at 10:30 a.m. May 20. A retirement celebration will be held at the church at 2 p.m.