me is that it gave me the opportunity to pastor a church that my father also pastored historically. Obviously that resonated with me inside.”

Armstrong and First Lady Brenda Armstrong had been a part of the AME church community for many years, serving at S.S. Morris AME Community Church. However while a congregation may have some voice, it is the AME church governing bodies that decide who pastors each church. And so about 6-7 years ago, the Armstrongs left S.S. Morris.

“Initially when I left Madison from S.S. Morris AME, I was assigned to a church in Danville, Illinois,” Armstrong said. “I ended up staying for a little more than three years. And then I was assigned to a church in Davenport, Iowa and stayed there for about three years before returning here. They had a place for us in Danville and Davenport. But the places that they had, they couldn’t house everything that my wife and I own.”

When the Armstrongs served at S.S. Morris, they lived in Marshall, Wisconsin as Armstrong worked in Milwaukee while serving as pastor in Madison. While they were committed and dedicated to the AME Church, they also wanted a sense of control over their own lives.

“They tried to move me around,” Armstrong said. “But I never wanted to lose my house. And given the fact that Brenda and I didn’t have any children, I really didn’t have anyone to take care of my house. But they tried to do everything they can to force us to move elsewhere and to sell our house. Understand that I’ve been in the pastorhood for over 35 years. And I’ve heard other people talk about some of their woes in being a part of the ministry, particularly the AME church. There was one guy whom I knew who has probably gone on to be with the Lord who bought a house. He mortgaged it to pay his fees for the church and also took out a second mortgage, but ended up losing his house. I never wanted to be in that situation. We bought the house. We still live in Marshall. The bank and we own the house. I refused to live in any other place. I’ve always maintained my home. And we did the best we could.”

“We were blessed to be where we were at S.S. Morris for a while,” Brenda said about the tendency for AME pastors to be moved around. “Also it’s if a bishop displaces a pastor, oftentimes they were staying in buildings or homes owned by the church. And then what happened if their tenure should be abruptly halted, they would end up having to scurry to find a living arrangement. So that’s why we had said years ago that we always wanted to have a place of our own. You never know what happens down the road. We didn’t want to be homeless. We didn’t want to have to say, ‘Okay, our tenure ended here. And now we have to find a place to live. On many occasions, a pastor has been in a pastorate and then they end up dying during that time. That leaves that spouse or widow having to relocate to another place. That’s a hard thing. When you’ve been there for a long period of time, you might have 30-90 days to pack up and move somewhere. That isn’t ideal. I agree with Greg that we always wanted to have a place to go to in case something would happen or he decided not to pastor anymore. It could have been a number of things that could have occurred. Having a home was always precious to both of us.”

And then a little over a year ago, an opportunity fell in the Armstrongs’ lap when Rev. Joseph Baring retired.

“When no one else wanted to come to St. Paul, the bishop had called me and asked me if I would be the pastor,” Armstrong said. “I said that I would do it. ‘It’s only about 10-15 minutes away from my house. I’ll be pastor.’ That’s how I got back here. I assumed the pastorship in October 2020.”

The Armstrongs assumed their role in the height of the pandemic when no vaccine had been approved for public use. The Armstrongs came home to a virtual church.

“The difficult part has been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic,” Armstrong said. “But I dare say that the membership here at St. Paul has been very gracious. And although it does have a parsonage, we are looking forward to doing something different since we declined to move into that. We wanted to stay in our own home. St. Paul has had virtual services. But the first Sunday of December 2021, we decided that we were going to do both virtual and in-person. That’s not done every Sunday. It’s only done first and third Sunday of every month. And we shall reevaluate it sometime in early spring.”

As with many other organizations, the COVID-19 pandemic has had its silver lining, allowing some to attend church in the privacy of their own homes.

“I would say that even with COVID going on, it’s more prevalent,” Brenda said. “People are watching online. And there are church persons who are going from church to church on a Sunday.”

During the 6-7 years that the Armstrongs were absent from Madison, a lot had changed, especially on the political front.

“Since we’ve been back to Madison — not that we have moved — in terms of what we do in our ministry, the landscape has changed so considerably,” Armstrong said. “I trust it is for the better. The thing is I got the chance to meet the Dane County Sheriff. I got the chance to meet the Governor. I always pride myself in getting to know those people. You never know when you might need them for something.”

Since its inception in 1902, the role of St. Paul AME Church — as has some of the critical historical roles of the Black church — has changed. Armstrong has witnessed that changed since he was a child attending St. Paul in the 1960s.

“I do think the Black church plays an important role,” Armstrong said. “But I also believe that it may not play the same role that it has in the past. The reason I say that is when George Floyd was killed and the Black Lives Movement came to be, previous movements were led by pastors, by ministers. But with Black Lives, it wasn’t led by the pastor. It did not convene in the church. It was led by other people. Now were pastors a part of the Black Lives Movement? Absolutely. But it wasn’t organized by them. And so I think that is part of the difference that we see contemporarily that we didn’t see historically.”

And that movement was evolutionary in nature.

“What I do find is there is a lot of involvement,” Armstrong noted. “And I think the George Floyd murder and Black Lives movement made it such that it is not only on the American landscape, but there were people who protested across the world. I think, in my analysis, that meant growth. That meant more people involved. That meant that the world had to take more notice. There were people of different of colors, races and denominations who were all a part of that Black Lives movement. And it is still going on. The Locke situation up in Minnesota, you can see all of those people who got involved and are demonstrating and protesting.”

Next issue: An evolving world