Elder Michael Hartwell has served as pastor-teacher, shepherd of the St Andrew P B Church family fellowship for the last four years. During this time Pastor Hartwell has sought to encourage believers to walk worthy of the vocation to which he have been called and to shine as lights in this darkened world
Prior to coming to St Andrew, Elder Hartwell served as pastor of the Indian Creek Primitive Baptist Church in Huntsville for ten years and during that time he served as treasurer of the Greater Huntsville Interdenominational Ministerial Fellowship, mission director and parliamentarian for the Mallard Creek Primitive Baptist Association, Hospice of Huntsville Board of directors, vice-president of the Davis Hills PTA, and vice-president of the J. O. Johnson High School PTA, University of Alabama Birmingham Parents Association board of directors, president of the Indian Creek Nutrition Center. He currently serves as the vice-president of CARES.
Elder Hartwell’s education includes Alabama A&M University where he majored in physics and received “Greatest Honors” and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA where he received a Ford Foundation Fellowship to study physics.
Elder Hartwell has been a member of Twelfth Baptist Church, Roxbury, MA, the New Maryland Baptist Church, Inglewood, CA, the Grace Fundamental Church, Los Angeles, CA, and the Union Hill Primitive Baptist Church, Huntsville, AL.
Elder Hartwell has served as Sunday school teacher, Sunday school superintendent, deacon and Church Council member. He attended the Los Angeles Bible Institute and the Grace Fundamental Bible Institute. He answered the call to the gospel ministry and was licensed by the Union Primitive Baptist Church, and ordained by the Consolidated Flint River and Running Water Primitive Baptist Association.
Elder Hartwell retired after 31 years of federal service at the United States Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM), where he has served in a variety of positions from Research Physicist, Electronics Engineer, Program Manager for the Hydra 70/2.75 Rocket Program, Associate Director for Program Management Support in the Integrated Materiel Management Center, and Deputy Program Executive Officer for the Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space. During his career Elder Hartwell was awarded the Army Materiel Command Top Ten Outstanding Personnel of the Year award, two Assistant Secretary of the Army Commendations, two Meritorious Civilian Service Awards, the Superior Civilian Service Award, the Achievement Medal for Civilian Service, the Ernest A. Young Logistician of the Year, the Society of Logistics Engineers Logistician of the Year Award, the Honorable Order of Saint Barbara, and the Army Life Cycle Logistician of the Year Award. His professional involvements included the Huntsville Electro-Optical Working Group, National Society of Black Physicists, Association of the United States Army, Society of Logistics Engineers, Beta Kappa Chi and Sigma Xi Honor Societies, and the Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineers.
Elder Hartwell has been married nearly 42 years to Darala Millsap of Chicago, Illinois and she is a double graduate of Alabama A&M University with a BS in Sociology and a Master’s in School Counseling. She has been employed by the Huntsville City Schools for more than 20 years and is currently a counselor at ASFL. The Hartwell’s three children: a daughter, Michael, is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Alabama A&M University and is currently a civilian Senior Military Analyst with the Advanced Capability Improvement Center in Arlington, VA, who is married to Joel Medina; a daughter, Frances, a Magna Cum Laude graduate of the University of Alabama, who received a Master's in Public Affairs from for Princeton University and a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center; and a son, Jonathan, who received a BS in physics from University of Alabama at Birmingham and a Juris Doctor from the University of Alabama Law School. Jonathan accepted his called to ministry and was licensed by the Indian Creek Primitive Baptist Church. Jonathan is engaged to Victoria Towner a fourth year student at the Duke University Medical School.