Chuck Reinhold
January 7, 1939 – January 11, 2023
By Jeff Chesemore
When pushed by the inevitable challenges a life in ministry would present, Chuck Reinhold would thankfully proclaim, “But that pressed me against the Lord!” Chuck is now present with his dear Savior, the One he began every morning with since he was a teenager. Chuck’s daily discipline of reading and memorizing scripture (for nearly 70 years!) helped equip him as one of Young Life’s foremost pioneers. Chuck was by nature a “starter,” whether beginning new clubs, areas, training methods, or the work in a foreign country.
As was true with any accomplishment, Chuck, armed with a twinkle in his eyes and self-deprecating wit, would quickly deflect the praise to his Savior and say how thankful he was to have been used by Him.
Reflecting on his own teenage years, Chuck often said, “I’m glad Young Life didn’t stop before they came to my high school!” This is the quote the larger mission of Young Life associates with Chuck, but there were so many more. Consider this remembrance from Senior Regional Director of the Greater Northeast, Rick Rogan:
“In September of 2016, I sat in a meeting with a dozen other Young Life staff. About a handful of us are on staff and still on staff because of Chuck. Each day over our time together, someone in that room quoted what they learned from Chuck over twenty-five years ago. ‘There is nothing more important than your personal walk with Jesus Christ.’ ‘There are no shortcuts to spiritual leadership.’ ‘The Muslims don’t even think their bible is the Word of God and they memorized it, what about you?’ ‘People are more important than programs.’”
Chuck met the Lord on a Young Life weekend in Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania in 1956. After college, Chuck chose missions work in the wild African jungles over the Pittsburgh Steelers, who informed Chuck of their interest if he declared for the draft.
“In Ethiopia, I prayed every day, ‘Lord, what’s the most important thing I could do for you?’ The Lord spoke loud and clear to me that high schools were lost tribes and Young Life was a mission to them. I’m absolutely positive God took me to Ethiopia to help me see the lost tribe of teenagers, a tribe that has few missionaries.”
Chuck returned to the states and began his career with Young Life in 1962. His first assignment was in Baltimore, where he met his eventual wife (and ministry companion) of 55 years, Linda. Three years later he moved to Rochester, New York, where he began the work there, and then back to Prince Georges County Maryland in 1969 to start the work there as well as a brand new training program for incoming staff. He lovingly called the program “a graduate school for Christ” and set the bar high. The principles born out of this time left an indelible mark on the hundreds of staff who have sat under Chuck’s teaching.
By the age of 59, Chuck had spent 30 years on staff (another seven were spent serving at National Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C.). Feeling he owed the country of Ethiopia a debt of gratitude for all he received in his year after college, he and Linda moved across the Atlantic in 1998 to start Young Life there.
In the end, the couple stayed for more than seven years, and since returning to the states in 2005, the work in Ethiopia (and so much of the continent) has indeed flourished.
Young Life’s Old Dominion Regional Director, Joe Marks, shared this telling story:
“At Young Life’s Global Leadership Conference, I was in a room with several African staff. I was talking with one of them and found out he was from Ethiopia. I told him my Young Life leader was Chuck Reinhold and that he had helped start Young Life in Ethiopia. The man next to him, who was not from Ethiopia, held up his hands dramatically and said, ‘Oh no, Chuck Reinhold is the father of Young Life in all of Africa!’”
In 2019 Chuck’s family and friends helped him “tell” his story in the book, A Life Worth Living. The work addresses Chuck’s life of adventures and the many life and leadership principles he shared with kids and leaders all over the world. The title came from another of his favorite sayings: ‘In Christ we all have a life worth living!’”
Chuck followed Linda into glory one month to the day after her passing, Dec. 11, 2022. Their son Chuckie preceded them in death in 2007. Please keep their children Hollie and Josh and their families in your prayers. The family welcomes memories and photos; please send these to celebratechuckreinhold@gmail.com.
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