Charles Stanley

Charles Frazier Stanley
President of the Southern Baptist Convention
In office June 1984 – June 1986
Preceded by	James T. Draper, Jr.
Succeeded by	Adrian Rogers
Born	September 25, 1932 Dry Fork, Pittsylvania County Virginia
Died	April 18, 2023 (aged 90) Atlanta, Georgia
Political party	Republican[1]
Spouse(s)	Anna Margaret Johnson Stanley (married 1955-1992, separated, divorced finalized 2000)
Children	Rebecca "Becky" Stanley Brodersen Charles Andrew "Andy" Stanley
Residence	Atlanta, Georgia
Occupation	Pastor-emeritus of First Baptist Church (Atlanta) President of In Touch Ministries Televangelist, theologian, author, photographer
Religion	Southern Baptist
Website	In Touch Ministries – Home

Charles Frazier Stanley (September 25, 1932 – April 17, 2023) was the pastor emeritus of the 15,000-member megachurch, the First Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. He left the full-time pastorate in 2020 after fifty-one years in the pulpit. In 1977, he founded In Touch Ministries, which he still headed as president. He preached regularly, and his sermons are carried via cable television.^[2]

From 1984 to 1986, he was the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. His Life Principles Bible has sold more than one million copies.^[3] In 1988, he was inducted into the National Religious Broadcasters Hall of Fame.^[4]

Stanley was born in Dry Fork (current population 4,200) in Pittsylvania County near Danville in south central Virginia.^[5] His father, also named Charles, died in 1933 nine months after Stanley's birth, and he was reared by a Christian mother, Rebecca, who worked at the Dan Mills textile mill for small wages and later remarried. In his early years, he ran newspaper routes to support himself. At the age of twelve, he became a born-again Christian a term coined by Jesus Christ in the Bible but shunned by some liberal Protestant denominations. He surrendered to the ministry at the age of fourteen He later expressed regret over neglecting his studies in public school.^[6]

Stanley obtained his bachelor's degree from the private liberal arts school, the University of Richmond in Richmond, the capital of Virginia. He then obtained a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. The private theologically conservative Luther Rice College and Seminary awarded Stanley both Master of Theology and Doctor of Ministry. The private institution was founded in 1962 in Jacksonville, Florida, and was relocated in 1991 to Lithonia in DeKalb County in suburban Atlanta.^[7]

Stanley married the former Anna Margaret Johnson (1931-2014), a native of North Carolina, who accompanied her husband in Christian activities in North Carolina, Ohio, and Florida, until he accepted the Atlanta pastorate in 1969. The couple separated in 1994, and their divorce was finalized in 2000. They had two children, Rebecca "Becky" Stanley Brodersen (born 1961) of Dallas, Texas, and the Reverend Charles Andrew "Andy" Stanley of the North Point Community Church in Alpharetta in northern Fulton County, Georgia.She was cremated.^[8] According to First Baptist Atlanta's bylaws, Stanley was allowed to continue his pastorate so long as he did not remarry.

After stints at churches in North Carolina, Ohio, and Florida, Stanley moved in 1969 from Florida to the First Baptist staff in downtown Atlanta. Two years later, he was named senior pastor. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp attended FBC to celebrate Stanley's milestone of service.^[9]

In 1972, he launched a half-hour religious television program, The Chapel Hour, the forerunner to his establishment in 1977 of In Touch Ministries with the mission of teaching, evangelism, and strengthening the church.^[10] The Christian Broadcasting Network began televising this show in 1978. The program has been translated in fifty languages. In the United States, "In Touch" is broadcast on approximately 2,600 radio stations, three hundred television outlets, and several satellite networks, such as the Trinity Broadcasting Network.^[11]

His sermons and other programming are available on the In Touch website. The ministry also publishes In Touch magazine. Stanley often focuses on finances, parenting, and emotion matters as well as theological Christianity. He stresses the inerrancy Scripture. Over the course of his ministry, Stanley has developed "30 Life Principles" that have guided his Christian life.^[12]He credits his grandfather, George Washington Stanley, with his command, “Obey God and leave all the consequences to Him.” In his book Courageous Faith: My Story from a Life of Obedience,^[13] Stanley writes, “Granddad told me, ‘Charles, if God tells you to run your head through a brick wall, you head for the wall, and when you get there, God will make a hole for it.^[14]

In addition to his work in Christian ministry, Stanley was an avid photographer, much of his work being mountain scenes. Many of his current photographs come from such distance locations as Alaska and Zanzibar and can be accessed on the In Touch website.^[15]

In 2017, Anthony George was brought into the line of succession at FBC as senior pastor whenever Stanley finally decided to step down at some point in the future.^[16]

Since the death in 2018 of the Southern Baptist evangelist Billy Graham in North Carolina, Stanley was probably the most recognized Christian pastor in the nation. He died at the age of ninety in the spring of 2023.