You will read in the paper that Pastor Charles Pearce is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. At that moment of his passing he shall be more alive than we are now. Papa…(as his 6 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild affectionately called him) shall have gone higher than us all — out of his old clay tenement into a house that is immortal, a body that sin cannot touch, that sin cannot taint, a body fashioned into His glorious body. He was born in the flesh in 1927; he was born of the Spirit in 1943. Charles joined the Marines in 1944 World War II, with a passion to help his mom and serve the country he loved. After the Marines, God called Charles to be a Minister of the Lord in God’s Army. He went to the Missionary Training Institute in Nyack New York. After graduation Charles married his teenage sweetheart Isabel Marie Thornhill in October 1952. Rev. Clifton Thornhill, Isabel’s dad, had a great influence on Charles as a young Christian. Their first church was in Hambden, Ohio. The other churches he pastored were in: Muskegon, Michigan; Norwalk, Ohio; Wadsworth, Ohio; West Palm Beach, Florida and Kennesaw, Georgia. As a pastor, he had a passion for loving his congregation, loving and teaching God’s Word, loving his neighbors, and especially, reaching out to everyone he had contact with to bring them to the saving knowledge of Jesus. Pastor Pearce, in my opinion, was the holiest earthly person I ever meet. A.W. Tozer states, “Holiness, as taught in the Scriptures is not based upon knowledge on our part. Rather, it is based upon the resurrected Christ indwelling us and changing us into His likeness.”
Rev. Charles Herman Pearce was a Loving Husband, Loving Father, Loving Grandfather and Great-Grandfather, Loving Friend, and Loving Pastor. Chuck, as he was affectionately called by his wife who he will be reunited with in Glory, is survived by his 3 children and their spouses ; David and Michelle Pearce, Timothy and Diane Pearce, and Mary Kay and Joseph Wilhelm. He is also survived by his grand children Brian, Mandy, Seth (Anne), Sean, Tabitha, Mary Grace, and great-grandchild Saylor
Knowing and loving God was Charles’ greatest privilege, and being known and loved is God’s greatest pleasure. If Charles was here today, he would ask you; May I share with you how I came to know I have eternal life and how you can know it too?
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
In His book, “Power of the Pew Warmer”, his heart is to know that each reader will be encouraged to embrace their unique purpose within the local church. I pray that you will utilize yourself in order to be an effective force for Christ, and that your legacy will be your power as a pew warmer whose warmth radiates through both your personal family and your church home.
