Admin
(CP) Charles Frazier Stanley, the favored televangelist preacher, creator and founding father of In Touch Ministries who as soon as served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, died at age 90 on Tuesday morning.
His demise was confirmed in a statement Tuesday posted to Instagram by In Touch Ministries.
“Dr. Stanley lived a devoted lifetime of obedience, devoted to instructing others have an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. Now he’s receiving the enjoyment of his soul — seeing his Savior face-to-face,” learn the assertion.
“Please be a part of us in praying for the complete Stanley household. Updates relating to memorial preparations will likely be posted right here, at intouch.org, and at charlesstanley.com.”
Born Sept. 25, 1932, in Dry Fork, Pittsylvania County, Virginia, Stanley determined to pursue a non secular life partially due to the lack of his father at an early age.
Stanley earned a bachelor of arts diploma from the University of Richmond, a bachelor of divinity diploma at Southwestern Theological Seminary, and a grasp of theology and physician of theology at Luther Rice Seminary.
In 1969, Stanley joined the employees at First Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, and have become senior pastor in 1971, holding the place till his retirement in September 2020.
In 1972, Stanley started a neighborhood Atlanta tv program known as “The Chapel Hour,” which later grew to become “In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley.”
“Our mission is to steer individuals worldwide right into a rising relationship with Jesus Christ and to strengthen the native church,” famous In Touch Ministries’ Facebook page.
“Our packages are seen and heard all over the world on greater than 2,600 radio and tv shops in additional than 50 languages.”
For his intensive broadcast work, the National Religious Broadcasters inducted Stanley into its Hall of Fame in 2018 and gave him the NRB Chairman’s Award in March 2020.
During the Nineteen Eighties, Stanley served two one-year phrases as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the biggest Protestant denomination within the United States.
Stanley was a part of the SBC’s Conservative Resurgence, a motion that led to a rejection of the progressive theological developments that dominated different Protestant church buildings within the United States.
In 2010, Stanley was honored by his alma mater Southwestern as a distinguished alumnus at an annual luncheon, with Stanley telling those gathered to “do what God tells you to do subsequent.”
“I’ve one aim: Get the reality of the Gospel to as many individuals as doable, as shortly as doable, as merely as doable, within the energy of the Holy Spirit and to the glory of God,” mentioned Stanley.
Stanley wrote a number of Christian devotional works, together with A Man’s Touch, Handle With Prayer, Into His Presence, Waiting on God: Strength for Today and Hope for Tomorrow, Prayer: The Ultimate Conversation, and When the Enemy Strikes: The Keys to Winning Your Spiritual Battles.
In 1958, Stanley married Anna Stanley and the couple had two youngsters, Andy and Becky, earlier than divorcing in 2000 after a number of failed reconciliation makes an attempt.
Andy and Charles Stanley had a public falling out over the problem that lasted a number of years. At the identical time, different pastors believed that Charles Stanley ought to have resigned from his church place due to the divorce.
For his half, Andy Stanley went on to discovered his personal high-profile ministry, an influential megachurch known as North Point Community Church based mostly in Alpharetta, Georgia.
In September 2020, lower than two weeks earlier than his 88th birthday, Charles Stanley introduced that he was stepping down as senior pastor of First Baptist Church Atlanta, taking the position of pastor emeritus.
“I’ve many great recollections. But as a lot as I really like being your pastor, I do know in my coronary heart this season has come to an finish,” mentioned Stanley in his announcement.
Stanley was honored in October 2021 by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary once they created an endowed chair in his honor supported by way of a donor settlement between SWBTS and the In Touch Foundation, the charitable arm of Stanley’s In Touch Ministries.
Known because the Charles F. Stanley Chair for the Advancement of Global Christianity, the place was a part of the Roy J. Fish School of Evangelism and Missions at SWBTS.
SWBTS President Adam Greenway informed The Christian Post in an interview that he believed Stanley “could also be one in all our most distinguished seen alumni within the historical past of Southwestern Seminary.”
“He and his ministry have been searching for a approach to honor his legacy, certainty a worthy legacy of honoring, and so they noticed that Southwestern Seminary was a becoming establishment to accomplice with to do one thing that might be vital when it comes to their funding,” defined Greenway.
“And vital when it comes to a possibility to have Dr. Stanley’s title and his dedication to world missions and evangelism honored in perpetuity.”
In October 2022, Stanley was once more honored with an endowed faculty chair, this time being at Truett McConnell University, a Baptist liberal arts faculty in Cleveland, Georgia.
Anthony George, a trustee at TMU who succeeded Stanley as senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Atlanta in 2020, expressed his help for the choice.
“This present and the naming of this Chair of Theology couldn’t have honored anybody extra becoming,” said George. “His ministry has modeled the daring proclamation of Scripture so visibly, so virtually, so constantly, and so globally, and to today stands on a rock-solid theological basis.”
