Harry Reeder, a Covenant College graduate and former Chattanooga pastor who built a Birmingham, Ala., church to over 4,000 members, died Thursday morning in a car crash.
Birmingham Police said Rev.
Harry Reeder III, 75, was on Dunnavant Valley Road just after 10 a.m. when he ran into the back of a dump truck that was stopped to make a turn.
He had been the senior pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church since its founder, Frank Barker, retired in 1999.
Briarwood Executive Pastor Bruce Stallings said, “It is with a deeply heavy heart that I communicate to you that our Lord has called Pastor Reeder home through a car accident. Please pray for Cindy, Jennifer, Ike, Abby and their entire family as well as our staff and church family as we all grieve this tremendous loss together. But we do not grieve without hope because we know our pastor is with His Savior and has been received by grace with - ‘Well done My good and faithful servant.’ '’
Rev. Reeder was also an author and hosted a podcast.
He is survived by his wife, Cindy, three children and a number of grandchildren.
Rev. Reeder came to Covenant after he first studied at East Carolina University. He graduated at Covenant in 1974.
He then pastor an Independent Bible Church here for six years, while studying part-time at Tennessee Temple.
He pastored Pinelands Presbyterian Church in Miami, where he gained a divinity degree at Westminster Seminary. He was later the founding pastor of Christ Covenant Church in North Carolina. Both those churches went from small congregations to large numbers.