Frank Miller Reynolds, age 91, went home to be with the Lord, Tuesday April 9th at 2:17 pm. Frank was born September 11th 1921 in Trumansburg, New York and spent nearly his entire adult life leading by serving in ministry.
Growing up during the depression and surviving polio at an early age, Frank determined to succeed in life. He enrolled and worked his way through Cornell University. After graduation, Frank worked at the Reconstruction Home where he had once been treated for polio. There, he met “a lovely, young nurse’s aide, Gladys Richards.” He asked her on a date, and she invited him to church instead. After hours of research about Christianity and accepting Jesus as his Savior, Frank asked Gladys to marry him with the romantic proposal, “How would you like to wash and iron my shirts for the rest of your life.” Gladys smiled and said yes. Four sons and 67 years later their love for each other was evident to all who saw them.
Frank and Gladys pioneered an Assemblies of God church in Canandaigua, New York in 1947 and another in Medford, New Jersey in 1954. Frank accepted a position as the District Home Missions Secretary for the Assemblies of God and oversaw the planting of 35 new churches in five years. Frank became the pastor of El Bethel Church in Staten Island, New York. This was just two weeks before David Wilkerson came to New York City and ended up on the front page of the paper.
Given his experience with forging new ministries, it was fitting that Frank would join David Wilkerson in his fledgling outreach to teens in gangs. At first, Frank thought the country preacher was naïve about his chances of success. But the first time they met Frank remembered, “When I grasped his hand in mine, I somehow knew that this meeting was ordained of God and that my life would be intertwined with his.”
Frank’s premonition came true in an astounding way. In 1962, he became the first director of the Teen Challenge Training Center in Rehrersburg, Pennsylvania. Frank literally built the Farm from the ground up, and developed the men’s discipleship program that would become the model for Teen Challenge centers worldwide.
In 1973, at the request of the Executive Presbyters of the Assemblies of God, Frank moved to Springfield, Missouri to coordinate the development of Teen Challenges across the country and created training for Teen Challenge leaders. Frank travelled the US and around the globe, training Teen Challenge staff. In 1987, after much prayer, Frank felt the Lord directing him to begin to step back from the ministry that was so much a part of his life. But Frank, once again, accepted the challenge of leading the Farm in Rehrersburg for another 18 months. Then, Frank officially retired.
Frank never retired from sharing the gospel, whether through his church, Evangel Temple, with college students at Chi Alpha, the Springfield citizens Advisory Board or inmates in the Greene County jail; Frank wanted everyone to know his Jesus!
In Frank’s book “Is there a God?,” he shared his thoughts about the day he would meet Jesus. “My final step into uncharted waters will be when that great call comes from heaven, ‘To come on home.’ There I will finally meet my God and my precious friend, Jesus Christ, who has walked with me all these years. My desire is He will say to me, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant. You have fought a good fight. You have finished your course. You have kept the faith, so there is a Crown of Life laid up for you! Enter in to the joys of the Lord!’
When I contemplate that step, I have two desires that I share often in my conversations with God. One is that I will have many who were cast-offs unwanted by society and hopeless in their own eyes who will meet me there at the feet of Jesus because I have shared the gospel message. My second is that when the call comes He will find me winning souls and helping others! I want to live my life helping broken people.”
Frank lived the life God put before him. He could share the gospel with broken, drug addicts or president’s wives: Jesus was real and Jesus changed lives. What a heavenly sight; the line of those who have been touched by Frank’s gentle humble ministry, sharing Jesus.
Frank is survived by his wife, Gladys; sons, Daniel; Stephen; Timm and his wife, Helen; Mark and his wife, Molly; daughter in-law, Linda; his nine grandchildren; his seven great-grandchildren; sister, Doris Eaton; brother Jim; and sister in-law, Elsie. He was preceded in death by his parents, three brothers, two sisters and youngest son, Thomas.
