Remembrance and Pursuit: 97-Year Old Minister Reflects on Decades of Ministry

Ed Berkey received his AG ministerial credentials in 1947. In the 77 years since, he has lived the life of a pastor, continually ministering. He currently hosts full gospel radio broadcast once a week, sharing from his home in Florida with a station in his long-time ministry location of Massachusetts.

What has driven and sustained Berkey in the challenging life of a minister, across so many decades and a dizzying array of cultural and global changes?

“My senior year of Bible school, I was privileged to experience a tremendous revival,” he says. “It went on for eight days. The scent of the Rose of Sharon was almost overwhelming, and the choirs of heaven were singing. I heard things I do not expect to hear again until I get to heaven — things that I have always remembered and pursued. It was a taste of the glory and power of God that set a high bar for my Pentecostal ministry.”

A Battle of the Soul

Raised by Christ-following parents, Berkey says he was not truly saved until March 18, 1940, when he was 13 years old.

He then began to seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit, at which point he sensed the Lord calling Him to full-time ministry. But upon entering high school, he says, that call was ‘pushed aside’ and his focus rested on other things.

As WWII raged, Berkey entered his freshman year at the University of Pittsburgh with a battle occurring in his own soul. He recalls that every day, the Holy Spirit would whisper to his spirit that he was not where he belonged.

In 1944 Berkey surrendered, agreeing to transfer to a Bible school, now known as the University of Valley Forge in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Classes had already begun, yet he was allowed to enter, completing his biblical education and graduating in 1947.

It took time for ministry doors to open for Berkey following graduation. He helped in his father’s business and engaged in evangelistic work.

Together with his wife Gladys, with whom he was married for 74 years prior to her death in 2022, Berkey founded a church in Huntington, Pennsylvania, in 1949.

“We had nine people, including two children,” he says. “And God wonderfully moved!”

The fledgling congregation initially met in homes, and then moved into a storefront. By the end of 1951, the church, now called Trinity Assembly of God, moved into its own building, and Berkey was again privileged to see revival. His work in radio also began at this time.

A Pastor to Pastors

In 1965, David W. Flower — son of early AG leaders J. Roswell and Alice Reynolds Flower, himself a respected pastor and leader — contacted Berkey. Having just been elected as Southern New England district superintendent, Flower was looking to fill his pulpit at Bethany Assembly of God in Springfield, Massachusetts.

“I was reluctant, but I visited,” Berkey says. Despite his reluctance, the Lord moved the Sunday Berkey visited Bethany, and eight people were saved.

After a series of events and ongoing direction and intervention from the Lord, Berkey did indeed become pastor of Bethany Assembly, a role he held for the next 25 years.

Of his predecessor he says, “Dave was a prince and a great man. He was marked with excellence. I have never seen anyone so gifted as a leader. I will ever be endeared, enriched and indebted to Dave Flower for the role he played in bringing me to Bethany. I was blessed yet trembling to follow him.”

Berkey created his own rich legacy at Bethany, including continuing (for all 25 years of his pastorate) the radio ministry Flower had conducted there and overseeing the church’s expansion and move to its current location in Agawam, Massachusetts.

He ministered globally, speaking in Europe and in Africa (he recalls speaking 17 times in the span of just three days).

In his 25th year of service at Bethany, Berkey was elected to the office of Southern New England district superintendent. For seven years he filled the role, serving as what he calls a “pastor to the pastors.” He formally retired in 1997, then composing “Tools for the Pastor’s Office,” a teaching manual for ministers that was eventually translated into five languages.

“The greatest years of my ministry were the ones spent pastoring,” he says. “Even after retiring I still missed the pastor/congregation relationship.”

“Pastor Berkey led a flagship church in our Network for many years, then moving to the superintendent role at a critical moment,” says Nick Fatato, superintendent of the Southern New England Ministry Network. “He served with a pastoral heart, clear vision, strong passion, and skilled hands. To this day, his mark remains on our Network.”

A Personal Prayer Commitment

Looking back on all aspects of his ministry, Berkey says that a commitment to prayer must be recognized as the reason for any success.

At a ministry institute in 1957, he heard Charles Blair advocate for preaching on prayer the first or last Sunday of each year, mobilizing even children to commit to a year of prayer. Berkey instituted that practice during his tenure at Bethany, in addition to multiple other regularly scheduled prayer meetings.

“There is no way to count how many hours of prayer this was,” Berkey says. “Up to thousands of hours. And God honored it.”

Additionally, Berkey committed to personally carry the names of all his congregants into the presence of God, inspired by the way Aaron the high priest carried the names of the 12 tribes of Israel into the Holy of Holies, inscribed on a breastplate over his heart.

“At Bethany, which was a much larger congregation, this took days,” he says. “But it sensitized me and made me more aware of their needs. Also, God helped me know more distinctly what their needs were.”

The Cup Given

Reflecting on his life of service, Berkey cites the apostle Paul, who in 2 Corinthians 9:16 writes, “…woe unto me if I do not preach the gospel!”

“This is the cup the Father has given me to drink,” Berkey says. “And I am thankful to Him that at this age I still have my memory and my voice for radio. I get around with a walker, but God helps me.”

He also cites Romans 1:16, in which Paul states that he is unashamed of the gospel, which is the “power of God unto salvation,” and 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 which Berkey says clearly delineates the gospel as being the message of Christ’s cross and empty tomb.

“It is not our eloquence, not our fervor. It is the preaching of the gospel,” he says. “Preaching the cross and the empty tomb must mark every message, even every radio message. When I began to make sure I was doing that in every message, even just in one sentence, we began to see people getting saved every week. I wasn’t a great preacher, but I preached a great gospel.”