Jon Reed

Senior Pastor

Jon Reed

Senior Pastor

Jon Reed

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I grew up in Gate City, Virginia where I attended the First Baptist Church there.  I was fortunate to grow up under 2 very caring and loving pastors who taught me the word of God and who personally nurtured me in the Lord.  When I was almost 9 years old I accepted Jesus as my Lord and my Savior and was baptized shortly thereafter.  When I was 15 years old I accepted the call to preach at a revival service and was blessed by my pastor to have the opportunity to preach many times when he was away from the pulpit.  During that time I also was blessed to be a part of the Exalt the Christ youth ministry.  Exalt the Christ was primarily a contemporary Christian band and I was given the opportunity to speak before their concerts and also to serve as their Bible study leader.

Shortly after graduating from Gate City High School, I began to run from my calling by diving head first into the things of the world.  God was faithful however and He never let me go.  Finally because of His great faithfulness and love I repented and returned to what I knew I was supposed to be doing.  At that time I was also privileged to serve as the Youth Minister at my home church.

It was during that time that I met the love of my life, Leann Musselman (now Leann Reed).  She patiently loved me during that difficult period of my life and I know that it was due to her prayers, and the prayers of my parents that I returned to the Lord.  Shortly thereafter Leann and I were married and moving on the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.  (I had graduated from East Tennessee State with a degree in English at the end of 1993) That was both an exciting and difficult time for us.  Exciting because it was a new challenge, but difficult because neither one of us had been away from home.  God continued to amaze us however with His faithfulness and I became the pastor of Pisgah Baptist Church in Cloverport, Kentucky.

Pisgah was a small church but the love of the people there definitely helped Leann and me through our times of homesickness.  They were tremendous people and I was able to serve there for almost 3 years.  From there I served churches in Northeast Tennessee and Eastern Kentucky before becoming the pastor of Blairs Baptist Church in Danville, Virginia.  Leann and I served there (she was youth director for awhile) for 8 years.  While we were there I got to see the Bible verse that says, "God gives you the desires of your heart", come to life in 2 ways.  First I have always had a love for the game of football, my Dad was a high school coach for many years, and while I was running from my calling I thought I was going to pursue that as well.  God had other intentions but He gave me the desire of my heart by allowing me to serve as a volunteer coach and team pastor for the Averett University Cougars.  I was able to be a part of that team for almost 5 years and still remain very close friends with their head coach. 

Another desire of our hearts has been for children, and after many years of not being able to have any, God blessed us in 2005 with our first son Austin David.  Austin was and is a great blessing from God.  When he was 2 weeks old he was flown to Duke Hospital with a congenital heart problem.  They did surgery there in November of 2005 and he is extremely well today.  We thank God for that everyday. 

In 2007 we sensed God leading us away from the Danville area back to our home area.  We prayed earnestly about this and shortly thereafter I was contacted by Sulphur Springs Baptist Church.  In August of 2007 Leann and I were privileged to come here to be the pastor of SSBC.  Shortly after relocating back to Northeast Tennessee, we found out that Leann was expecting and in May of 2008, God blessed us with another son, Isaac Lynn.  I thank God for that everyday and know that we are getting to serve Him with a wonderful staff, a wonderful family,  and a wonderful caring, praying congregation.  I look forward to seeing what God does as we minister together at SSBC.