Gordon Kenworthy Reed — PCA pioneer in church revitalization, early organizer of Reformed Theological Seminary, and one of the founding PCA pastors — has died. He was 90. Reed served several key PCA churches and institutions, including as the first director of Ridge Haven, on the faculty at Reformed Theological Seminary Jackson, and as a founder of RTS Charlotte.

In his 53 of ministry he pastored 11 churches, giving particular care to churches that were struggling to grow. “He would go to struggling churches and revitalize them before ‘revitalization’ was a word,” said Melton Duncan, a ruling elder and church administrator at Second Presbyterian Church in Greenville, South Carolina, who grew up hearing Reed preach.

Reed revitalized a struggling Second Presbyterian when he pastored the church from 1964 to 1975. As the neighborhood around the church declined and members left the downtown area, Reed continued to pour in to the congregation. Not only did the church start to grow, Mel Duncan said, but Reed led the congregation out of the Presbyterian Church (US) to the newly-formed PCA. Reed served as part of the Committee of 30, the group of teaching elders who founded the PCA in 1973.

Reed was born on October 3, 1930, in Bristol, Tennessee. Like many of the PCA’s founding fathers, Reed graduated from Columbia Theological Seminary. He was ordained in 1956 and pastored 11 churches in Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, and Mississippi.

“He was truly a founding father of the PCA, and he spent his life, really, founding things. But at heart, he was a local church pastor,” said Ligon Duncan, RTS chancellor and one of Reed’s former parishioners.

Reed’s pioneering spirit led him to leadership in several fledgling PCA organizations. When the denomination acquired property in the Blue Ridge Mountains for a Christian conference center, Reed was appointed to lead the camp called Ridge Haven Camp and Conference Center. He held the position from 1978 until 1980. The initial goal for Ridge Haven was to provide a physical space in which an intentionally-grassroots denomination could come together for teaching, training, encouragement, and rest. The 1979 report to the General Assembly casts this vision:

“We are not building a playground, we are building a conference and retreat center which the Church may come together for worship, learning and fellowship that the saints may be equipped for ministry. We see Ridge Haven being a ‘school of Christ on earth.’”

In 1986 Reed joined the faculty of Reformed Theological Seminary Jackson. Ligon Duncan recalls how his former pastor welcomed him to the faculty when Ligon became an RTS professor in 1990. When RTS was invited to start a campus in Charlotte, North Carolina, the seminary sent Reed to organize the operation. He served RTS from 1986 until 1993.

Despite his gift for administration, Reed’s true love was pastoring, and his son John said he particularly had a soft spot for small congregations. After his tenure as a professor, Reed returned to the pastorate, caring for two yoked congregations in South Carolina:  New Harmony Church in Alcolu and Sardinia Presbyterian Church in Sardinia.

Despite his gift for administration, Reed’s true love was pastoring.

The two congregations were struggling when Reed arrived, so they banded together to hire one pastor. By the time Reed retired from the churches in 2004, both congregations were thriving and investing in new buildings.

“He knew how to pastor people well,” Mel Duncan said.

John Reed said his father’s first love was preaching the gospel, and he often counseled struggling pastors and churches. Though Reed pastored some large churches, his son said Reed always had a soft spot for small churches and “was happiest and most fulfilled in smaller congregations.”

After retiring from full time ministry, Reed served as interim or stated supply several churches. He is the author of “The Sermon on the Mount: Living Life as Christ Taught It,” “Lord Teach Us to Pray,” “Living Life by God’s Law: A Study in the Ten Commandments.”

Reed is survived by two sons, Robert Theodore Reed and John Kenworthy Reed (Diana), both of Birmingham, Alabama; three daughters, Elizabeth Lee McNutt (Clark) of Birmingham, Alabama; Nancy Zoeller (Fred) of Everett, Washington; and Virginia Ann Akin (Mark) of Pell City, Alabama; 13 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren

He was preceded in death by a granddaughter, Meaghan Elizabeth McNutt; a daughter-in-law, Nancy Reed; and his wife of 65 years, Miriam Reed.