Local Pastor Celebrate 60 Years of Preaching

By M. Patterson; Director, FBC Communications & Public Relations |  August 9, 2017

The Fairview Missionary Baptist Church, located at 1700 N. E. 7th Street in Oklahoma City, invite the community to join them and their 54-year veteran Pastor on Sunday, August 20, for 10 a.m. Morning Worship, as they celebrate Senior Pastor Reed’s 60 years in the Gospel Ministry.  Guest preacher for the service is Bishop Broderick Huggins, Pastor of St. Paul Baptist Church, Oxnard, California.

John Arethaus Reed, Jr., answered the call to the Gospel Ministry in August 1957 and preached his first sermon, “A Messenger with A Message,” on the third Sunday evening of said month, August 18, 1957.  He was issued his License to the Gospel Ministry by the Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Stillwater, where his biological father and father in the ministry, Rev. Dr. John A. Reed, Sr., was serving as Pastor.   

Rev. Reed was ordained to the work of the Ministry on July 30, 1961, at Mt. Zion.  He served a brief period at the Pleasant Mt. Gilead Missionary Baptist Church, Ft. Worth, Texas, before being selected to serve as the assistant to Dr. S. S. Fairly, Pastor of Fairview Missionary Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, in January 1963.  On January 12, 1969, the pastoral responsibility was passed on to Pastor Reed.   
 
Rev. Reed has remained faithful to his call.  “For the past 60 years, I have been true to my calling in the proclamation of the Word,” stated Rev. Reed.  A dynamic and inspiring Gospel preacher, he has traveled nationally and internationally, preaching and teaching, conducting revivals, seminars and workshops.  His travels and work has reached throughout the US, Europe, South America, Asia, Israel, Egypt, and South Africa.

He states that the greatest title that you can be called is Servant.  His aim in life is to faithfully serve God and mankind. “Faithfulness is the criteria for Christian ministry,” Reed continued.  “I have been faithful in my call to which I committed the Lord to.   Preaching of the Gospel is a life-time commitment,” he said.  “The Lord puts his treasure in trash.  We’re nothing but trash but the Lord uses trash to carry his treasure,” Rev. Reed stated as he talked of how for 60 years, God has used someone like him to carry His Word.  He spoke with excitement, yet humility, as he referenced a sermon he preaches entitled, “A Treasure in Clay Pots,” II Corinthians 4:7 – NIV.

As a builder of men and a gifted leader, over 40 young men, many now pastors, have accepted the call to the Gospel ministry under his leadership and spiritual guidance.  He strives to integrate Christian love into the entire social and economic fabric of the Oklahoma City Community, the state and nation.  He began as a young pastor in Oklahoma City and continues to actively participate in and lead religious and civic movements and struggles.  

Rev. Reed has held and continues to hold many leadership positions, religious and civic.  Some of his religious past positions include:  President of the Oklahoma Baptist State Congress of Christian Education, President of the Oklahoma Baptist State Convention, 5th Vice President of the National Baptist Congress of Christian Education, an affiliate of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. (NBC-USA, Inc.), Moderator of the East Zion Consolidated District Association; past Instructor in the Minister’s Division of the National Baptist Congress of Christian Education.  

He is currently serving a second term as a Vice President of the 7.5 million-member body of the NBC-USA, Inc., having oversight over the Western Region.  He is President of the Baptist Ministers Association of Greater Oklahoma City and President of the Concerned Clergy for Spiritual Renewal (CCSR) of OKC.  In 2016, he founded John A. Reed, Jr. Ministries, which sponsors the John A. Reed, Jr. Ministerial Ethics and Preaching Conference.  The Conference was birthed out of Reed’s passion to help young preachers and pastors and to provide opportunities to help them in their journey to grow in ministry and become all that God has ordained them to be.

Many lives have been changed through the Ministry of this great preacher and spiritual leader.  More information on his work and ministry is available at www.fairviewokc.com.
 

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