Minister at Age 100 Keeps On Preaching A newspaper article featuring the Reverend J. F. Aker, which reads,
"Minister at Age 100 Keeps on Preaching
‘I feel about as good as I did when I was 30.’
By Fred Hilton
Times Staff Writer
TROUTVILLE - In a little white church, the Rev. J. F. Aker stands tall in the pulpit and lets loose with a sermon like he’d been preaching for three-quarters of a century.
He has.
The Rev. J. F. Aker is 100 years old.
Saying Mr. Aker doesn’t look or act 100 is one of the world’s greatest understatements.
He strides up to the pulpit and delivers his sermon in a big, booming voice. He walks around the pulpit and waves his arms or gestures as he says 'I want you to get this.'
And he leans over and looks a member of the congregation in the eye as he makes a particular point, shaking his finger for emphasis.
His looks are equally deceiving: he stands tall; he has a full head of white hair; he sees and hears as well as people born when he was 80.
'I feel about as good as I did when I was 30,' Mr. Aker says, and be obviously means it.
Last week, he was leading a revival service at Cave Rock Baptist Church near Troutville. The turnout was big despite a thunderstorm, and the congregation didn’t miss a word.
Mr. Aker first led the congregation in 'How Great Thou Art.' His voice rocked the last-row pew.
He then launched into a sermon on the 'Book of Life' and quoted passage after passage from the Bible.
Mr. Aker’s sermon was delivered without notes. He doesn’t use them. He doesn’t have to.
Cave Rock Baptist Church isn’t new to Mr. Aker. He was once the pastor there and
back in 1921, he led a fundraising drive for new pews. 'I got the seats for that church from Hickory, N.C.'
His memory is amazing. 'That’s about all I’ve got left,' he says and laughs as heartily as he preaches.
He can remember exact names and dates from 60, 70 80 years ago. Often, he preaches to great-great-grandchildren of people he has preached to before.
Last week he was talking to a man and discovered that he knew the man’s grandfather. He described the man’s great-grandfather as if he’d seen him yesterday.
Mr. Aker was born 100 years ago in Smyth County and 'I was saved 78 years ago, on the 12th day of April.'
His father was a farmer and a preacher and Mr. Aker knew as a young man that he had a 'call' to be a minister. 'But I fought that call…I tried to get away from that call…I was like Jonah but I had a dry land whale,' he said.
When he was in his early 20s, Mr. Aker became ill. 'I promised the Lord that if I got well, I’d give Him full time.'
'I got off that sickbed,' he said, 'and from that day forth the Lord has had my service.'
Of the 13 preachers ordained at the same time as Mr. Acker, he’s the only one left alive. There were 14 brothers and sisters and in his family and only two survive - 'myself and my younger brother, who’s 86, going on 87.'
In his 100 years, Mr. Acker said, 'I never knowed the taste of tobacco or whisky.'
He’s never been a night owl either. He’s in bed by 10 or 11 p.m. and up as 5 or 6 a.m. The hours go back to his boyhood on the farm, he says.
During 87 years of preaching Mr. Aker says he’s seen '295,000 people come to the Lord.'
He’s had churches in Tennessee, South Carolina, and may parts of Virginia.
He settled 53 years ago in Radford, where he still lives with his second wife. She accompanies him in his full-time job as an evangelist and sings solos during the services.
There’s no time off for Mr. Aker. He keeps a full schedule of revival engagements, and the churches are usually packed when he speaks.
Before coming to Cave Rock Baptist Church, he led a revival in Orange. 'I’m engaged until September,' he says. He adds he might take a little vacation then.
He hasn’t forgotten the old days - the long weeks away from home, traveling to far-away revivals by train or by horseback.
Many times, Mr. Aker said, he’d be riding horseback across a river during the winter and 'My feet would freeze to the stirrups…you’d have to kick your feet free from the stirrups.'
He’s still got that saddle from the old days. He keeps it oiled and ready to use again.
'When I retire,' he says, 'I’m gonna get me a horse.'
He says the word 'retirement' but quickly adds that maybe he didn’t really mean it.
'I don’t guess I’ll never retire,' he says, 'I’ll just wear out.'
Official Record Book of Brick Union Lutheran Church The Brick Union Church Official Record Book, which transcribed records dated from the founding of the church on January 27, 1796, including records of congregants through April 1928. The record was published in 1977.
Cave Rock Baptist Church A collection of documents pertaining to Cave Rock Baptist Church in Troutville. Some of the people in photographs include: Loyd Elmer Parker, Bertha Mae Kelley Parker, Annie Pauline Kelley, and Callie Rogers Kelley.
Bonsack Baptist Church Directory 1978 The 1978 Directory of Bonsack Baptist Church.
Bonsack Baptist Church Directory 1988 Bonsack Baptist Church 1988 Directory. The church is located at 4845 Cloverdale Rd. Roanoke, Virginia 24019, and the pastor at the time was Dr. Robert G. Moore, III.
Glade Creek Lutheran Church Blue Ridge, Va A church record of the Glade Creek Lutheran Church dated 1977.
Galatia Presbyterian Church Register Part A A register of the Galatia Presbyterian Church, including names of congregants, officials, marriages, and financial records.
Galatia Presbyterian Church, Women of the Church Records, Part C A register of the Galatia Presbyterian Church focusing on the women of the church.