Marshall Reinhardt preaches at Awtrey-Westwood Baptist Church on his 100th birthday.
ACWORTH, Ga. — Marshall Reinhardt celebrated his 100th birthday the way you might expect a retired pastor to do so – he stood in the pulpit and boldly preached the Word of God. In a strong and unwavering voice, Reinhardt told members of Awtrey-Westville Baptist Church in Acworth, pastored by his son Tommy Reinhardt, about the goodness of Jesus.
Reinhardt was born in Enigma, Ga., on Dec. 1, 1924. In 1945, he married Ruth Kelley, who passed away in 2002. They have two sons, four grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.
Tommy Reinhardt introduced his father with a passage from Deuteronomy 32, “’Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you.’ … I’ve been blessed to be able to ask my father a lot of things over the years. He was very helpful before Google.”
The pastor encouraged the younger members of the congregation to seek wisdom from their elders, and the older members to impart their faith to their children. “If you have grandchildren and children,” he said, “open your hearts to them. Let them know what you believe and why you believe it.”
After being saved at 15, Marshall Reinhardt went through two years of doubts, and he allowed those doubts to hinder his walk with Jesus. On the day he was saved, he had gone to church alone because his family were all busy on the farm. He said that on the trip from church to home, “The devil got on my shoulder and made me doubt. ‘Marshall, when you get saved, you’re gonna shout up and down the aisle like your mother, and you didn’t do it.’”
For the next two years, he walked one day in doubt and the next day feeling better. One day, after a church service, the pastor asked him to go somewhere and pray until evening service. “Get on your knees and pour your heart out to God,” he told him. Reinhardt went behind his house and down a deep gully, where he knelt and prayed. “And heaven came down,” Reinhardt said, “When I finally got out of that ditch, I knew, I knew the Lord had saved me, and I’ve been happy ever since.”
Reinhardt felt a call to preach and took classes at Roswell Street Baptist Church in Marietta, which offered seminary extension classes from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He went on to pastor 10 churches.
From the pulpit at Awtrey-Westville Baptist, Reinhardt recalled his first date with Ruth, 80 years before. After attending church together, they went to her parents’ house for lunch. He said that he did not witness to her because she was a church member and lived a good life, so he assumed she was saved. One night, not long after they were married and when their first son was a baby, Ruth attended a revival. She went to bed with the baby and when Reinhardt went to bed, she told him, “I just got saved.”
That revealed to him the importance of sharing the Gospel in word and in deed at every opportunity. “When people hear and see my actions,” he told the congregation, “they draw a mind picture, and if I’ve done anything wrong in their sight and I’m walking in sin, they know about it. They see that and it affects my witnessing to them.”
He reminded his listeners to be a light in a dark world.
“I believe if you love the Lord you’ll live for Him,” he said. “When you do wrong, I believe you’ll want to repent. I don’t believe you’re happy till you get right, and He’s always ready to make it right. Aren’t you glad?”
The centenarian then opened his Bible to 1 Timothy 2, saying, “If I can get my glasses on, I’m gonna read just a little, talk just a little, and preach just a little.”
The lives of Christians, Reinhardt declared, should reflect their joy at the goodness of Jesus. “I am so glad that Jesus died for our sins, I am glad Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe,” he said, recalling the words of the famous hymn.
“We’re indebted to Him, to live for Him, to glorify and honor His name,” he said. “People should be able to see Jesus in our lives, in our actions, the way we conduct our business.”
Tommy Reinhardt remembers that growing up the son of a preacher was a special situation. “Pastors were revered and respected because of their position,” he said. In addition, people would often call on his father at home when needs arose. Some would come to the house to be married right in the living room, and Tommy recalls witnessing some of those impromptu ceremonies in his pajamas.
One of the special guests present for the 100th birthday celebration at Awtrey-Westville was Ingrid Surkan, who traveled from Chicago to be a part of the festivities. When she lived in Georgia, Surkan was a neighbor of the Reinhardts, and would often wave to the elder Reinhardt as she passed.
When another neighbor told her that he was a pastor, she approached him with questions about the Bible. “Let’s start with John,” he said, and through those Bible lessons she came to faith in Christ, and the two developed a deep and loving friendship. As Reinhardt recalls it, “She’d come in the morning and sit a little while.”
Surkan said Reinhardt is an inspiration to her to follow the Lord. “His life is drawn from and based on the Bible,” she said.
Despite vision issues, Reinhardt is in the process of reading through the Word of God for the 47th time. “It’s been his sole reading for decades,” Surkan explained, “and he lives the Bible and it just exudes from him.”
Reinhardt closed his message by telling the congregation, “I love the Lord, He’s done so much for me. He’s the Savior, He’s the Lord of my life and he wants to be the Lord of your life,” before extending an invitation.
Afterward, when asked what advice he had for pastors just starting out, Reinhardt said they should love their church members and pray for them. Ultimately, he added, “Remember Who called you, and do God’s will. You can’t improve on God’s will.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE — This article originally appeared in the Christian Index.)
