Charles Stanley, Influential Pastor, Dies at 90
By Jennifer Calfas April 18, 2023 3:42 pm ET Charles Stanley, a prominent Atlanta-based pastor whose evangelical broadcasts reached audiences around the world, died Tuesday. He was 90 years old. Dr. Stanley served as a pastor at baptist churches in North Carolina, Ohio and Florida before he joined the First Baptist Church in Atlanta in 1969. There, he served as senior pastor for around 50 years, becoming pastor emeritus in 2020. His show “The Chapel Hour” launched on Atlanta stations in 1972. The Christian Broadcasting Network reached out to Dr. Stanley to expand the program to national audiences a few years later, renaming it “In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley
Charles Stanley, a prominent Atlanta-based pastor whose evangelical broadcasts reached audiences around the world, died Tuesday. He was 90 years old.
Dr. Stanley served as a pastor at baptist churches in North Carolina, Ohio and Florida before he joined the First Baptist Church in Atlanta in 1969. There, he served as senior pastor for around 50 years, becoming pastor emeritus in 2020.
His show “The Chapel Hour” launched on Atlanta stations in 1972. The Christian Broadcasting Network reached out to Dr. Stanley to expand the program to national audiences a few years later, renaming it “In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley.”
In 1982, he incorporated In Touch Ministries. The program today broadcasts to more than 115 million homes in the U.S., according to In Touch Ministries, and on thousands of television, radio and satellite stations around the world.
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Subscribe Now“Dr. Stanley lived a faithful life of obedience, dedicated to teaching others how to have an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ,” In Touch Ministries said Tuesday. “Now he is receiving the joy of his soul—seeing his Savior face-to-face.”
Dr. Stanley was born in September 1932 in Dry Fork, Va. He was raised by his mother following his father’s death due to a kidney condition when Dr. Stanley was nine months old. He studied at the University of Richmond in Richmond, Va., and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He also earned a master’s and doctorate in theology from Luther Rice Seminary in Georgia.
He was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention for two terms in the mid-1980s. He also wrote dozens of books. His reach extended into politics as well. Dr. Stanley was a member of the Moral Majority, part of a move by conservative Christian leaders to rally voters and shape culture and government policies. The group’s condemnation of abortion and gay rights, citing biblical values, would reverberate in national politics for years to come.
In 2015, Dr. Stanley and In Touch Ministries joined other ministries, pastors and speakers in filing an amicus brief in the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges case. The group argued the legalization of same-sex marriage would threaten the free-speech rights of those who disagree.
In 1988, National Religious Broadcasters inducted Dr. Stanley into its Hall of Fame, the group’s most prestigious award, according to the group. He earned a number of other awards from the organization, including its Chairman’s Award in 2020, and sat on its board of directors.
“Dr. Stanley leaves behind a lasting legacy as a torch-bearer and trailblazer of Gospel ministry and Christian broadcasting,” said Troy Miller, NRB’s president and chief executive.
Dr. Stanley and his wife Anna “Annie” Margaret Johnson married in 1955 and divorced in 2000, according to In Touch Ministries. She died in 2014. Dr. Stanley is survived by his son, Charles Andrew “Andy” Stanley, the founder of North Point Ministries and senior pastor at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga.; and his daughter, Rebecca “Becky” Louise Stanley.
Write to Jennifer Calfas at [email protected]
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