Charles Holland: A Lifetime of Faith and Service
One recent Sunday, four generations of Charles Holland’s family gathered for a service the 94-year-old retired pastor was leading. The service took place at The Ridglea Senior Living, a Fort Worth retirement community. About 30 people, including a dozen residents of the retirement community, joined the service, which Holland has been organizing for three and a half years. In unison, they sang, “On Christ, the solid rock, I stand / all other ground is sinking sand.”
Holland asked to pray for a woman who said her friend had been diagnosed with brain cancer. He gently clasped her hands. He asked God to bring her peace and assurance. “Where hearts are broken, heal them,” he prayed. Age has not eroded Holland’s lifelong commitment to pastoral care. Or to the truths and hope he finds in the Bible. For him, faith is not merely about preaching to others — which he still loves doing, even after seven decades — but about living a life of moral integrity and service to his community.
Early Life and Career
Holland was born in Atlanta and was raised by his mother and his grandparents, whom he lived with. He became a Christian at age 11 and felt God telling him that he had a gift for preaching when he was a teenager. He graduated from Mercer University, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Columbia Theological Seminary. He was ordained as a minister in 1952 and pastored churches in Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, North Carolina and Washington, D.C.
Retired pastor Charles Holland, 94, leads a weekly worship service at The Ridglea Senior Living retirement community, where he resides, for fellow residents on Aug. 23, 2025.
Steve Hamm / Special Contributor
Ministry at The Ridglea Senior Living
From 1995 to 2002, he pastored United Methodist churches in Fort Worth, including Polytechnic United Methodist Church. After retiring, he served as an interim pastor at a range of Texas churches that needed pastoral help for over 15 years. Holland has written several books, including Looking Ahead: A Personal Theology of Hope and Christianity for Tomorrow.
In 2021, Holland moved to The Ridglea with his wife of 68 years, Jeanette Holland, who needed a facility with specialized memory care services. Charles Holland said that within a month of moving to the facility, he’d spoken to the community’s manager about hosting on-site church services for the residents. The facility has 87 residents, according to community relations director Michela Francis. It offers assisted living and special accommodations for residents with dementia and boasts on-site physical therapy and a 24/7 caregiving team.
Charles and Jeanette
Charles and Jeanette Holland grew up together in the Center Hill neighborhood of Atlanta and attended the same church and high school. Jeanette was a schoolteacher for over 30 years. While she was a teacher, Charles drove her to work each morning. Two hours after he’d drop her off, he’d be back at her school with a cup of black coffee for her, just in time for her morning break.
Holland’s daughter Beth Sims said Charles showed Jeanette absolute, unconditional love. Amid the challenges of her mother’s illness, Sims said she saw her dad’s faith, patience and love for his wife grow. “He remained optimistic and stayed with her to the very end,” she said. “No matter what, my dad was there for her.”
Genevieve Mabry, great-granddaughter of Charles Holland, watches as her mother, Lacey Mabry, sings from a hymnal during a worship service lead by Holland, a retired pastor. The weekly worship services are held where he resides at The Ridglea Senior Living retirement community in Fort Worth.
Steve Hamm / Special Contributor
A Large Family, a Caring Smile
Holland has three children, nine grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. He takes pride in the fact that his children and grandchildren also cherish their faith. He has officiated his three daughters’ weddings and dedicated or baptized almost all of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Holland’s a lifelong student of the Bible, easily able to recall his favorite passages and explain them in clear, moving stories. When he talks to people, he often studies their faces, with an attentive, furrowed brow and caring smile.
