East Otto native inks book, donates profits
By BRIAN ACKLEY
Journal Reporter
There are two things that East Otto native Grove Armstrong never really planned on in life: becoming a minister and writing a book.
Now he can say he's done both.
Published on January 3 of this year, "The Kingdom That is Transforming the World" took Armstrong seven years to complete, and is a study of the history of civilization with the emphasis on what the author calls, "the most overlooked fact in history –– the tremendous impact that Jesus Christ through His kingdom and church has had upon our world."
Now a resident of Casa Grande , Arizona, he has fond memories of the East Otto and Springville area. He attended school in a one-room school house in Otto in what is known locally as "the Brooklyn school" under the direction then of Mrs. George Fleckenstein, a longtime resident of Springville. He then moved on to Cattaraugus Central where he was a member of the Class of 1949.
"There were 14 students in the school at the time," he recalled of his elementary school days in East Otto, where he and his family worshiped at the one-room Free Methodist Church.
"My folks were very poor, but we almost always made a journey to Springville on Saturday night to do our shopping," he recalled. "What clothes my mother did not make for us and out shoes were purchased from a thrift store in someone's home on West Main Street."
While the book would come decades later, Armstrong recalled that his calling to the ministry, "came at a very young age. It was not a call I welcomed, but discovered to my great surprise that I loved being a teacher."
He survived a scary accident when he was 10, when a gallon of kerosene can exploded in his hand. "I was badly burned and I spent two months in the Chaffee Hospital, which at that time was a single house on East Main Street."
From high school, he studied at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester and after graduation continued his studies at the Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. Following graduation there he pastored at the Park Neighborhood Free Methodist Church in Trucksville, Pennsylvania, for 13 years, during which time the church and its congregation built a new church.
In 1996, he retired from the Central Congregational Church in Derry, N.H. after spending 16 years there as the senior minister. Prior to his move to New Hampshire he lived in New Jersey where he was a salesman with the Prudential Insurance Co.
Armstrong and his wife, the former Charity Peaton of Columbus, Mississippi, have eight children, 24 grandchildren and four great grandchildren. In Casa Grande he is a seminar instructor with Prison Fellowship.
Like his draw to the ministry, the thought of being a published author was never much in the forefront of Armstrong's mind, until a holiday season some 10 years ago.
"The inspiration for the book came while working on a sermon for Christmas in the mid 1990s," Armstrong recalled.
"The idea of writing a book was attractive but the details of how to take an idea and move it through all of the publishing processes were shrouded enough in mystery to make it seem like an unrealizable dream.
"But, after my retirement in 1996 whenever we were near a large library for any length of time I began to read and do research and take notes," he continued.
"I made many mistakes such as not recording where I had found each book and from which I had taken information and quotations. So, at one point I had to do some difficult back tracking to locate certain books to make sure that I had copied names and information exactly correct."
Writing the weekly sermon was one thing, Armstrong quickly discovered, penning a full-length book was quite another.
"I kept on gathering information until my high school English teacher told me to stop researching and start writing," he said. "I took her advice and began writing. I worked five or six days a week on it almost full time, managing a page or two a day. I prayed over it as I had prayed over all the sermons in my 33 years of active ministry. I believe I experienced divine help, particularly in the way I chose to organize and present the historical material."
And if Armstrong thought the writing part was hard, what he found out was showing it to friends, including a former parishioner and college professor Dr. DuWayne Howell, and getting published is the really tough trick.
"After it was complete, with some considerable anxiety, I asked two respected high school and college teachers to review the book for me," he recalled. "I was afraid it might not pass the test of being scholarly enough, since I was more experienced in writing sermons than history books," Armstrong offered.
"I will always remember with a great sense of relief and gratitude when, after reading it, Dr. Howell said to me with sincere affirmation, 'You have a Doctoral Dissertation here.' He and his wife gave me invaluable help and suggestions for changing it from a dissertation to a readable book for popular consumption. That work took me all winter to complete."
The mountain still was steep however, and Armstrong turned to another friend and former parishioner to get over the final hump.
"Then I was greatly helped by an author in my former congregation, Susan Wereska, who explained the publishing process to me and guided me through that maze with great skill and encouragement. Finally the day came when a publishing house offered me a contract," he recalled.
"But after that, I was amazed at the tremendous amount of work we had to do in the editing process, which took several months. Eventually the wonderful day came when the first 175 published books arrived on my doorstep."
Armstrong had previously self-published one book, "The Art of Personal Worship" which has gone through five editions. In 1992, he was honored with the Dr. Harry R. Butman Award for Outstanding Service to the National Association of Congregational Churches for his work in writing the Lay Minister's Training Course.
An avid traveler, Armstrong and his wife continue their giving life while on the road summers in their recreational vehicle, having helped build four Habitat for Humanity houses.
And when the author bug isn't biting, he plays in a senior softball league and sings baritone in a barbershop quartet.
Despite being a published author in newspaper, devotionals booklets and denominational booklets, Armstrong said he wasn't quite sure what to expect when his latest venture hit print on January 3.
"The most surprising and wonderful thing is how the book has been accepted," he said.
"I am getting orders for the book from all over the country. One lady heard part of it read in a Thanksgiving Day service and ordered 10 copies to give away. People are stopping me on the street and telling me how much they are enjoying the book and saying such things as, 'It is so encouraging'. Several people have sent me reorders for four, five and seven books. Already we have been able to donate over $1,000 and are hoping it will expand to millions of dollars."
More information on the book can be obtained at www.grovearmstrong.org, or at www.livingwater-books.com.
You can also write Armstrong at 16680 Val Vista Blvd, #333, Casa Grande, AZ, 85222, enclosing a check for $14.95, which covers postage and handling costs as well.
(Editor's note: East Otto Journal correspondent Mrs. Carlton L. Smith provided much of the information for this story. She and Mr. Armstrong were classmates in the one-room school house in East Otto, along with her deceased husband.)
Book Quotations
The Ancient World:
“For the masses of men, mostly illiterate, unenlightened and victims of every ill known to man because of their ignorance, the ancient world into which Christ came was a dark and hopeless place. Mazzolan puts it well for the entire world, I think, writing concerning the Roman scholars, Sallust, Livy and Tacitus, “No hope sustained these historians. No celestial city rose as a viable alternative to the horrors of the era in which they lived. No political faith permitted them to forecast a better future.” p. 67
“We know for certain that before Jesus came life was a painful, fearful, sorrowful, slavish, bloody, brief, and hopeless existence. The longer human society stretches back into antiquity, the stronger a testimony it gives to its own inability to lift itself out of the ignorance, violence and brutality that cursed it. Only when Jesus came did any realistic hope appear.” p. 130
The Liberating Truth:
“To a world that lived by lies and intrigue, Jesus announced an eternal principle: the truth will set men free. Truth liberates. When Jesus said, “I am . . the truth.” (John 14:6), he was in fact announcing to the world that he was not only its Savior from sin and death, but its Savior from the enslaving power of ignorance and falsehood. He was announcing himself as the great Liberator of all mankind.” p. 71
The Church, The Mother of Science:
Whitehead, claimed that Christianity is the mother of science because of the church’s insistence upon the intelligible rationality of a personal being. This conviction, according to Whitehead, gave the early scientists confidence that every detailed occurrence can be correlated with its antecedents in a perfectly definite manner, exemplifying general principles. . . .This foundational belief underlies all scientific efforts.” p. 78
“The Christian reformers, convinced that God is the essence of truth and that his creation is as certain a divine revelation as is the Bible, were impelled to relentlessly study and seek God in his created universe as diligently as they sought him in the Bible. This drive to seek out the truth and to follow wherever it might lead is exactly the scientific method. Consequently, it was they who introduced us to it (The Scientific Method) and to all the discoveries that have ushered in the modern world.” p. 216
“Clearly God intended the kingdom/church to be the true agent of change in this world. History has demonstrated that truth, but the kingdom’s great contribution to our society’s improvement is not all in the past. It is the contention of this book that today the church, rather than weakening, is more alive, active and effective than it has been since its earliest days. pp. 34-35
Confidence and Hope for the Future:
“The Old Testament Scriptures, the Bible of the early church, express a great faith in God’s ability to transform both men and societies. This book calls the twenty-first century church to the same confidence; based not upon the improving circumstances of our day, but upon the character of God and his Scriptures.” p. 202
(Micah’s) “last days are the Gospel days, the year of the Lord’s favor (Isaiah 61:2). They appear to Micah to be glorious days. . . . .Since the prophecy of Messiah’s birth in Bethlehem came true, why should we be skeptical of this prophecy given by the same messenger? It is, of course, much easier to believe prophecies that have already been fulfilled, than those as marvelous as this one yet to be realized. Christians cannot pick and choose between prophecies, believing some and discounting others. It was, after all, the zeal of the Lord Almighty that brought about the birth of the baby in Bethlehem. The same Lord Almighty will bring these prophecies to reality. pp. 192-193
“It is an exciting and fruitful time to be
citizens of the kingdom of God. The fields are certainly white unto the harvest and God is sending forth laborers into the harvest.”
pp. 133-134
Bill Bright correctly referred to these times as “the greatest spiritual harvest of all times.” p. 99
Let The Kingdom That Is Transforming The World transform your perspective today.
Rita Tate: Back Cover.
