Returning 42 years later to serve as the newest pastor of Greenbrier Valley Church of the Nazarene is the church’s first pastor, Rev. Don Armstrong, who served the church from 1974 to 1976.

Armstrong will assume the ministry leadership of the Fairlea church Sunday, Apr. 29. He will preach in both the 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. services that day.

After attending Nazarene Bible College in Colorado Springs, Armstrong and his wife, Sue, came to Ronceverte in 1974 to begin the work of establishing a new Nazarene church there, which was located at 610 W. Main Street in the former home of the Ronceverte Church of God (now New Covenant Sanctuary Church of God) and prior to that the Methodist Episcopal Church North, which constructed the building in 1887.

The Armstrongs’ ministry at what was then the Ronceverte Church of the Nazarene was followed by additional work in establishing other Nazarene churches in Fairmont (Central Church) and Weston (Valley View Church).

The last several years Armstrong has been involved with Truckstop Ministries, Inc., headquartered in Jackson, Georgia. Through that organization has served as chaplain for a truck stop in Nashville and most recently in New Paris, Ohio. The couple has four grown children: Steve, Donna, Camella, and Jonathan.

“I’m thankful and excited that this wonderful congregation has called me to be their new pastor,” Armstrong comments. “My wife and I are in agreement that our purpose is to love and serve them. More than anything, we want what God wants for His church, to love one another as He has loved us. Jesus said it best: ‘By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another’ (John 13:35). We will gather to worship the one who died for our sins and gave us the gift of eternal life.”

Greenbrier Valley Church of the Nazarene is located at Davis Stuart Road and Dawkins Drive, approximately one-half mile south of Greenbrier Valley Medical Center in Fairlea. The church’s web site is accessed at gvnazarene.org.