A true shepherd sent from Jesus to keep watch over the flock
May 22, 2023 § 1 Comment
Harry Reeder was a pastor, a true shepherd sent from Jesus to keep watch over the flock that he had purchased with his own blood.
That truth has risen to the forefront of my mind, settling in and holding reign over my thoughts and emotions as the tributes, testimonies, and accolades have flooded the internet the last days, as staff and church members have stood together and alternately reminisced, prayed, and wept, as his precious family has shown us the right way to use social media by calling us in their own grief to praise God even in this hard but sanctifying Providence.
Although I joined the pastoral staff of Briarwood only slightly more than a year ago, for over 25 years before that, Harry Reeder was my pastor.
I first met Pastor Reeder in St Louis in the early ‘90s during a missions conference at the church where I served my first call as an assistant pastor. His passion for the Great Commission was clear and convicting, and I was taken by his effective use of aphorisms and alliteration; in the mouths of most preachers they seemed more schtick than anything else, but with Pastor Reeder they were the effective delivery system for remembering powerful Biblical truths.
When I transitioned in 2002 from my first Senior Pastorate in Tuscaloosa to a similar call in Pensacola, Florida, Pastor Reeder graciously granted me the opportunity to seek his counsel. He was barely three years into his own transition at Briarwood, and it was clear his words came from someone who both had learned and was learning; these were the things he himself was doing as a pastor, not rehearsed syndicate lines that automatically emerged by pressing “play.”
For the next 20 years he made himself available by phone, email, appointment when I was in town—and, eventually, though not enthusiastically, by text: Answering, encouraging, advising, challenging, humbling, and even poking fun, usually right when it needed to happen. I always felt honored to have his ear even for few minutes, and I never ended a conversation with him without having been blessed. Harry Reeder was my pastor.
When I arrived in Birmingham I began to discover just how many Rob Loopers there were out there—pastors, missionaries, leaders—who had received the very same pastoral attention because Pastor Reeder loved the Lord and the men he had called to be his under shepherds. He shared their commitment to proclaiming Christ, their compassion for those who seemed as sheep without a shepherd, and their comradery with affliction as men called to Gospel ministry. Whether electronically or in person, he took time for each of them because he longed for them to be built up in and in awe of the means of grace given to the church. He wanted this for them because he knew that pastors often feel they have no pastor. For that reason Harry Reeder was their pastor, too.
All of this was alongside his pastoring the flock at Briarwood, discipling by believing and implementing the truth of Ephesians 4:12-16, that he had been called to
…equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
No one knew better than Pastor Reeder that he was far from the perfect pastor; as he said to us in his last Lord’s Day morning sermon at Briarwood, our walking by the Spirit as we follow Jesus is “uneven and imperfect.” But with every one of those steps we have the full assurance that God’s love for us is just as deep and sure as when Jesus cried out, “It is finished”—paid in full—and that he is unswervingly committed to finishing the work he began in us.
That work is complete for Pastor Reeder. And one day it will complete be for everyone whose life is hidden with Christ in God.
Harry Reeder was our pastor—and he would without question remind us at this very point to not lose heart, to stay “on message, on mission, and in ministry” as we, living by the Spirit, walk by the same Spirit, loving one another and loving the waiting elect by bringing them to Him through sharing the glorious Gospel of grace.
God in his good Providence will bring us another pastor. But there will only ever have been one Harry Reeder. Thank you, Pastor, for showing us Jesus.
Roblog 
Thank you for sharing this beautiful picture of Pastor Reeder.