God Calls JD Reed Home, to a New Field of Service

Beloved husband, father, son, friend, pastor, teacher, musician and ambassador of Jesus Christ, JD Reed, entered fully into the presence of his Lord on Sunday, February 16, 2025.  This transition came just eight months after he was diagnosed with ALS, or “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.”  JD was a passionate and joyous follower of Jesus, eager to help others get to know, love and worship the Lord with heart, soul, mind, strength, music… and laughter.

JD gave his life to Jesus when he was just eight years old.  Later, when a division developed in the congregation early in his teen years, JD recoiled from the lack of love he was witnessing.  During his college years at West Virginia University Institute of Technology, JD’s passion for Christ and for ministry in the church was rekindled.  As he worked with youth, whether as a counselor at the West Virginia Baptist Convention’s Camp Cowen, or as a youth pastor, JD brought to ministry a deep conviction that “relationships are everything.”

JD‘s growing relationship with Jesus led him to serve youth at Camp Cowen for several summers.  In 1995 the Lord surprised him with another life-transforming relationship:  fellow camp counselor, Rhonda Wilburn.  A year later, on June 29, 1996, JD and Rhonda were married.  Rhonda’s short term mission experience in Thailand, and her passionate commitment to the cross-cultural service of Christ opened JD’s eyes and heart to what was for him a completely unexpected possibility.  Later, as he served in pastoral ministry in West Virginia, a good friend invited JD to be part of a short-term mission experience in Nagaland, India.  JD later recalled, “After that, I was hooked.  I traveled all over the world on short term mission trips.”  In time, as many around them affirmed their gifts and encouraged them to move into a long-term commitment, JD and Rhonda applied for missionary service with International Ministries (IM).

Referring to IM’s Go Global mission statement, JD said that he was drawn to IM’s core commitments to prayer, Scripture, caring for people and especially, “flexibility, creativity and freedom.”  Creativity and adaptation have been hallmarks of JD’s ministry, whether in the U.S. or internationally.  JD completed his Master of Divinity studies as a participant in the innovative West Virginia Extension of the then Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University).

Personal relationships, innovation and creativity—and a great deal of hard work—were necessary as JD and Rhonda prepared to be commissioned as IM missionaries (now, global servants).  When JD and Rhonda applied to become global servants, IM had already replaced its traditional centralized missionary support with its current personalized support model.  But IM was still early in the process of learning and adapting that would best enable new missionaries to form effective Mission Partnership Teams (MPTs) and advance from endorsement to commissioning.  JD and Rhonda were among the pioneers in in this work of learning and adapting.  IM is deeply grateful for the perseverance and grace with which they and their MPT helped to lead the way for many others.

JD’s own experience in a non-traditional theological education program at Eastern/Palmer was vitally important for the mission service he was commissioned to undertake.  Rhonda and JD were commissioned in 2011 to serve as residential global servants in Bolivia.  The Bolivian Baptist Union (UBB) had asked IM for help as it sought to provide initial training for bi-vocational pastors, and continuing education for all pastors.  Though blessed with established theological education institutions, their traditional approach was unable to meet the UBB’s need to make theological training accessible at the grassroots level.  JD was invited to play a catalytic role in UBB’s response to this challenge.  To the extension education model he had experienced as a practicing youth pastor, JD added several innovations, including an experiment that made theological education resources available to those without internet access, through the use of tablet computers.  As his area director at the time, José Norat put it, “JD was a pioneer in finding successful ways to join innovations in technology and theological education in Bolivia.”

As JD worked with UBB pastors and colleagues to find creative solutions to the challenges they faced, he was excited by two separate but parallel developments:  growing internet access in Bolivia, and a new partnership between IM, Palmer Theological Seminary and American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS) to deliver theological education.  In 2016 the partnership launched an innovative online Spanish-language Master of Theological Studies (MTS) program, available throughout the hemisphere at a greatly reduced cost.  The combination of educational innovation and low cost has been crucial to the MTS program’s success.  Since its inception, over 220 students in 26 cohorts from 18 countries have graduated with degrees they simply could not have undertaken in the traditional way.  Also vitally important is that these graduates include a very large number of women.

The combination of educational innovation and low cost made the program compelling also to JD, who played a larger and larger role in its success from 2016 onward.  JD continued to be used by God for mission in Bolivia, but found himself increasingly called to this broader, hemispheric ministry.  In addition to teaching courses, JD made vitally important contributions to the program as a cross-cultural, relational bridge.  This meant developing friendships to provide fundraising for the program.  But at least as important, it meant bridging the gap and solving misunderstandings between a program based in U.S. cultural frameworks and participants immersed within quite different Latin American frameworks.  JD served as a consistent interpreter, coach and cheerleader for those participants.  In the words of IM global servant, Tim Long, JD’s colleagues cherish “beautiful memories of ministry… that include special times of collaboration, celebration and relaxation with JD.”  IM global servant Mercy Gonzalez-Barnes adds, “JD was patient, soft-spoken but firm, a great teacher… but most of all, a good friend.”

Throughout his career in the U.S. and the Americas, JD never forgot that the key to everything in the service of Jesus Christ is relationships.  IM’s chief program officer, Jim Bell, notes that their deep relational commitments to their Bolivian friends and colleagues led JD and Rhonda to remain in Bolivia even during times made difficult by massive upheavals in Bolivian society.  Deeply blessed by the hospitality of his Bolivian friends, JD reflected that hospitality to everyone around him.  Adalia Gutierrez, his area director at IM for the final years of his ministry, comments, “I will always cherish JD’s hospitality,  cooking paella at his home in Bolivia. He brightened up when he talked about Rhonda and his children. When he struggled with hearing loss, he filled conversations with love, intentional eye contact and care the moments he wasn’t able to hear you. JD’s disability became his strength, as he allowed the Jesus he loved, to manifest his power through his ‘weakness.’”  In the words of Sharon Koh, IM’s chief executive officer, “He will be remembered for his shiny blue eyes, amazing ability to read lips and His passion for those he loved and his Lord Jesus.”  She adds, “JD was both a friend and a colleague. His sense of humor often showed me both that he was listening hard about ministry-related matters and that the joy of the Lord was in his heart. He would say something and then look at me with those piercing, sparkling blue eyes to see if I understood the depth of what he said, and then he would follow with something funny that brought levity to the moment. I had planned to work alongside him for many more years to come, and I will miss him dearly.”

JD has now gone on ahead of us, into the full embrace of Jesus.  We thank God for his restoration now to fullness of health in the Lord.  We hear his laughter and his music as he awaits us who are yet to follow.  We know he looks forward to sweet reunion, especially, with his wife Rhonda, his children Grace Jackson-Reed (Sam), Abie Reed Boehm (Josh) and Nathan, and his grandson Reed Michael Boehm.

Funeral services will he held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 22, 2025, at the South Parkersburg Baptist Church in Parkersburg, West Virginia.  Visitation will be held on Friday, February 21 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the church.  In lieu of flowers, friends are invited to give to International Ministries “JD Reed Memorial Fund” for the House of Hope Foundation in Bolivia.  Donations may be made online at https://internationalministries.secure.nonprofitsoapbox.com/reedmemorial or mailed to International Ministries at 1003 West 9^th Avenue, Ste. A, King of Prussia, PA 19406.