10 notable Christian ministry leaders, influencers who died in 2023
Charles Stanley – April 18, 2023
Charles Frazier Stanley, the popular preacher, author and founder of In Touch Ministries who formerly served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, died at age 90.
In addition to his well-known radio and TV programming, Stanley served as lead pastor of First Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1971 until his retirement in 2020.
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Stanley also wrote several Christian devotional works, including 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.
Georgia megachurch Pastor Andy Stanley, the son of Charles Stanley who had a falling out with his father for various reasons before the two reconciled a few years ago, said in a statement that he will “miss him every day until I see him again.”
“These final few weeks with my dad have been precious beyond words. At the end of every visit, he asked me to pray for him. Which, of course, I did. On my knees beside the big leather chair he was confined to for the past several months,” stated Andy Stanley.
“But as I was leaving his house this past Saturday night, he asked if he could pray for me. As if he knew. Then, as was his habit, he said, ‘I couldn’t be prouder of you, Andy.’ The source of a word determines its weight. Those were wonderfully weighty words. And his final words to me.”
