Charlotte pastor the Rev. JA Cuthbertson dies at age 91

PLEASANT HILL MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH

The Rev. J.A. Cuthbertson, who pastored Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church for 54 years, died April 1.

The Rev. J.A. Cuthbertson Sr., pastor at Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church for 54 years, died April 1 at his Charlotte home at age 91.

The home going celebration was held April 15 at Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist.

Rev. Cuthbertson, born June 16, 1934, in Matthews, was the son of Len Cuthbertson and Rosa Bell Harrison Cuthbertson. He graduated Second Ward High School and spent more than five decades leading Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist in the Cherry community. 

Raised Presbyterian and baptized at Pleasant Hill, Rev. Cuthbertson’s first pastoral assignment was at a church in Harmony, N.C., in 1965. He lived 52 miles away and commuted every Sunday.

“I could preach, but not pastor to those people,” he recalled in a 2011 interview with The Post. “When I got through with preaching on Sunday I was tired and wanted to go home. I couldn’t make the activities during the week because I was so far away.”

Then the opportunity arose to pastor at Pleasant Hill.

“I was in my 30s when I came to this church,” Rev. Cuthbertson recalled to The Post. “I came here in 1970.”

Throughout his tenure at Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist, Rev. Cuthbertson touched generations through preaching, teaching, counseling, and pastoral care. Known for sharing wisdom and counsel with parishioners and neighbors alike, he delivered more than 2,600 sermons, officiated hundreds of weddings, baptisms, and baby dedications.

“A lot of those babies up there now have their own babies,” Rev. Cuthbertson said in 2011. “I have so many photos that some of them are in a box and can’t fit on the wall.”

Rev. Cuthbertson’s Sundays were for pastoring; Saturdays for funerals and weddings, and weekdays for visiting the sick and shut-ins. Thursdays are his day off, which he spent tending to his garden.

The Rev. Lincoln Lee, pastor at Silver Mount Baptist Church before his death in 2019, recalled in 2011 that Rev. Cuthbertson’s attention to his congregation motivated him to do likewise.

“He is known for visiting the sick and shut-in,” Lee told The Post. “He goes to the hospital to check in on members, friends and family at least twice a week. I was weak in that aspect, but by hanging out with him I now visit the sick in shut-in also.”

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