Well-known Georgia pastor and televangelist Dr. Charles F. Stanley has died. Stanley served as pastor of First Baptist Church of Atlanta and ran a global evangelism media organization. He passed away peacefully at his Atlanta home Tuesday, the church said. He was 90 years old.
In a message shared on its website, First Baptist Atlanta said “We are forever grateful for his enduring legacy of faithful leadership and spiritual guidance as Senior Pastor of First Baptist of Atlanta for over 50 years.”
Charles Stanley’s road to Atlanta and immense Christian influence began in Dry Fork, Virginia, where he was born in 1932. He answered the call to ministry at the age of fourteen and committed to becoming a preacher like his father and grandfather. After graduating from the University of Richmond in 1956, he became an ordained minister and went on to attend Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The Rev. Stanley later earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in theology from Luther Rice Seminary.
Stanley pastored churches in North Carolina, Ohio, and Florida before becoming an associate pastor at First Baptist Atlanta in 1969. Two years later, the church made Stanley senior pastor. He was the 16th pastor at the historic church founded in 1848. First Baptist grew under Stanley’s leadership and is now one of metro Atlanta’s leading megachurches.
Beyond the pulpit
Dr. Stanley extended his ministry beyond the church through a global media organization called In Touch Ministries. In 1972, he launched a half-hour program called The Chapel Hour on two Atlanta television stations. In 1978, the Christian Broadcasting Network added the program to its fledgling lineup. Within a week, Stanley’s broadcast grew from 16,000 local Atlanta viewers to a nationwide audience. This led Stanley in 1982 to incorporate In Touch Ministries as a separate non-profit to carry his broadcasts.
Today, the program In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley reaches almost every major market in the United States, broadcasting to more than 115 million households domestically. Over 4,000 television, radio, and satellite networks and stations worldwide carry the program. Dr. Stanley’s sermons have been translated into 127 languages.
According to In Touch Ministries, Stanley was the country’s longest-serving pastor with a continuous weekly broadcast program. At the time of his death, he could be heard in every nation on Earth by radio, shortwave, or television broadcast.
Stanley was “a broadcasting legend,” said Troy Miller, president of the National Religious Broadcasters Association (NRB), an association of Christian broadcasters.
In 1988, the NRB inducted Stanley into its Hall of Fame. As an author, he wrote more than 60 books, including several New York Times bestsellers. He also served two terms as the president of the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1980s.
“No one can deny his worldwide influence,” said the Rev. James Merritt, pastor of Cross Pointe Church in Duluth. Merritt, like Stanley, is a former Southern Baptist Convention president. “He’s always been known as a man who preached the Word of God. His message was centralized around knowing and doing the will of God.”
Controversy
Despite his successes, the conservative Stanley faced controversy in his ministry and personal life.
While serving as SBC president from 1984 to 1986, he led the denomination during one of its most turbulent times. During the so-called “conservative resurgence,” theological conservatives swept moderates out of leadership positions. They moved the nation’s largest Protestant denomination further to the right on many cultural and political issues.
Southern Baptists elected Stanley as Convention president in 1984. His second election in 1985 was a watershed moment. Fellow evangelist Billy Graham bolstered Stanley’s bid to remain SBC president with a last-minute telegram of support.
“After Stanley’s election, the battle subsided, and eventually, the moderates moved on from the fight or away from the denomination,” said Ed Stetzer, executive director of Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College in Illinois.
Believing that divorce is a sin, some Southern Baptists condemned Stanley for his separation and divorce from his wife of more than 40 years, Anna Stanley. Others criticized Stanley for his conservative beliefs about marriage. He was against same-sex marriage and described homosexuality as “destructive behavior.”
Stepping down
Stanley stepped down as senior pastor at First Baptist in September 2020, around the time of his 88th birthday. The church named him pastor emeritus. Stanley told the congregation that he wasn’t retiring but rather dividing his time between the church and In Touch Ministries.
“We were right in the middle of COVID, and every time I prayed, I felt a conviction that God was going to open many doors for ‘In Touch’ and that my focus should be there,” the AJC quotes Stanley as saying in October 2022. But even at 90, Stanley continued to come into the office once a week to check in with the leadership team. He had not recorded a new full sermon since 2020, although he did record shorter messages.
“I’ve found that at any age, and especially when you are my age, you have to keep planning and having goals,” he said.
Memorial
On its website on April 18, In Touch Ministries expressed sadness at sharing the news of their beloved pastor’s death.
“We are forever indebted to him for his godly example, biblical teaching, and devotion to the gospel,” the ministry said, asking for prayers for his family.
Stanley is survived by his son Andy Stanley, founding and senior pastor of North Point Ministries; daughter Becky Stanley Brodersen; six grandchildren; and half-sister Susie Cox. His former wife, Anna Johnson Stanley, preceded him in death in 2014.
According to In Touch Ministries, Dr. Stanley’s family has requested that the memorial service honoring his life be a private, family-only gathering. However, those wishing to pay their respects may do so at the church.
Dr. Stanley will lie in repose at the church on Saturday, April 22, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The church is located at 4400 North Peachtree Road in Atlanta.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to In Touch Ministries
