Charles Frazier Stanley (September 25, 1932 to April 18, 2023) was an American Southern Baptist pastor, author, and broadcaster who led First Baptist Church of Atlanta for nearly 50 years and founded In Touch Ministries, a global broadcasting outreach still heard in more than 100 languages today.
A two-time president of the Southern Baptist Convention and a New York Times bestselling author of more than 70 books, Stanley became one of the most recognized preachers of his generation, known for his motto “Obey God and leave all the consequences to him.”
He died on April 18, 2023, at age 90.
Charles Stanley at a Glance
| Personal | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Charles Frazier Stanley Jr. |
| Born | September 25, 1932, Dry Fork, Virginia, USA |
| Died | April 18, 2023, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (age 90) |
| Nationality | American |
| Spouse | Anna Johnson Stanley (m. 1955; div. 2000; d. 2014) |
| Children | Andy Stanley; Becky Stanley Brodersen |
| Grandchildren | 6 grandchildren; 3 great-grandchildren |
| Education | |
| University | University of Richmond (BA, 1956) |
| Seminary | Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div.); Luther Rice College and Seminary (ThM, DTh) |
| Ministry | |
| Title | Senior Pastor, then Pastor Emeritus |
| Church | First Baptist Church of Atlanta, Georgia |
| Tenure | 1971 to 2020 (senior pastor); Pastor Emeritus, 2020 to 2023 |
| Denomination | Southern Baptist |
| SBC role | President, Southern Baptist Convention (1984 to 1986) |
| Ministry founded | In Touch Ministries (1977) |
| Successor at First Baptist | Anthony George |
| Career | |
| Books | 70+ titles, multiple New York Times bestsellers |
| Broadcast reach | Over 100 languages, nearly 200 nations, 115+ million U.S. households at its peak |
Early Life and Background
Charles Frazier Stanley was born on September 25, 1932, in Dry Fork, a small rural community in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, the only child of Charley and Rebecca Stanley.
The country was in the grip of the Great Depression, and Stanley’s early years grew harder still when his father, a mill worker, died of kidney disease at age 29, just nine months after his son’s birth.
Stanley grew up on the outskirts of Danville, Virginia, raised largely by his mother during years marked by poverty and loss.
At age 14, Stanley said he felt a clear call to ministry and began preaching to anyone who would listen, a calling he later traced directly back to the loss of his father and the hardship of his childhood. That early sense of purpose set the direction for the rest of his life.
Education
Stanley earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Richmond in 1956 and was ordained that same year at Moffett Memorial Baptist Church in Danville, Virginia.
He went on to earn a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, followed by a Master of Theology and a Doctor of Ministry from Luther Rice College and Seminary.
Ministry Career and First Baptist Church of Atlanta
Stanley joined First Baptist Church of Atlanta as an associate pastor in 1969. In 1971, the congregation, founded in 1848, named him its 16th senior pastor since its founding. He would hold that role for nearly 50 years, one of the longest tenures of any major American megachurch pastor.
Under Stanley’s leadership, First Baptist Atlanta grew from roughly 5,000 members to more than 15,000, and the congregation grew diverse enough that in 1997 the church relocated from its original Midtown Atlanta location to a much larger campus on North Peachtree Road in Dunwoody. Stanley preached from that pulpit into his late 80s before finally stepping back.
Founding In Touch Ministries
In 1972, Stanley launched a half-hour local program called The Chapel Hour on two Atlanta television stations. The broadcast caught the attention of the Christian Broadcasting Network in 1978, and within a week of joining CBN’s new satellite distribution system, Stanley’s audience grew from 16,000 local Atlanta viewers to a nationwide one. He formally incorporated In Touch Ministries in 1982 and began radio syndication soon after.
At its peak, “In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley” reached more than 115 million households across the United States and expanded internationally to broadcast in over 100 languages across nearly 200 nations, making Stanley one of the most widely heard preachers in the world.
Rise to Prominence
Stanley was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1984 and reelected in 1985, placing him at the center of the denomination’s so-called “conservative resurgence,” a decade-long push that shifted the SBC’s leadership and seminaries toward a more theologically conservative direction.
In that role, Stanley supported measures opposing the ordination of women and helped appoint a slate of conservative leaders to key Southern Baptist boards.
Lifeway Research once ranked Stanley alongside Rick Warren as among the most influential pastors in America, a reflection of both his broadcast reach and his decades of denominational leadership.
Books and Publications
Stanley wrote more than 70 books over his career, several of which became New York Times bestsellers. His writing covered prayer, spiritual warfare, parenting, finances, relationships, and daily discipleship. Notable areas of his published work include:
- Books on prayer and spiritual warfare, central themes throughout his ministry
- Practical guides on parenting, marriage, and family finances
- The Life Principles Bible, built around his core teaching framework
- A Man’s Touch, which included personal reflections on his marriage to Anna
His sermons, distributed through In Touch Ministries, reached listeners well beyond anyone who ever read his books, making his broadcast ministry arguably his largest body of published work.
Personal Life
Marriage to Anna Johnson Stanley
Charles Stanley married Anna Margaret Johnson in 1955, after a church deacon introduced the two. They had two children, Andy and Becky, and remained married for nearly four decades before their relationship became public knowledge as troubled in the 1990s.
Anna filed for divorce in 1993, then amended her petition to request a formal separation instead and later dropped the case.
She filed again in 1995, saying publicly, “I am dismayed by my husband’s refusal to accept the critical state of our marriage.” The couple finally divorced on May 11, 2000, after 44 years of marriage.
Under First Baptist Atlanta’s unwritten policy at the time, divorced men were not permitted to serve as ministers or deacons, and Stanley had previously told his congregation he would resign if he ever divorced.
When the divorce became final, church leadership instead affirmed him as senior pastor, with administrator Gerald Spicer telling the congregation it was his “biblical, spiritual, and personal conviction that God has positioned Dr. Stanley in a place where his personal pain has validated his ability to minister to all of us.” The congregation rose in applause, and Stanley remained in the pulpit for another two decades.
According to First Baptist Atlanta’s bylaws, Stanley would have lost his position had he remarried, and he never did. Anna Stanley died on November 10, 2014, of pneumonia and related health issues at age 83, and a celebration service was held days later at North Point Community Church, the congregation founded by their son.
Children and Family Life
Charles and Anna’s divorce caused a years-long rupture in Stanley’s relationship with his son, Andy, who at the time worked at a First Baptist Atlanta satellite congregation.
Andy Stanley eventually left to found North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, which grew into one of the largest churches in America, and the father and son later reconciled.
Stanley’s daughter, Becky Stanley Brodersen, has remained largely out of the public eye, though her father mentioned her in sermons over the years.
At the time of his death, Stanley was survived by Andy, Becky, six grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and a half-sister, Susie Cox.
Theology and Ministry Philosophy
Stanley identified as a conservative evangelical within the Southern Baptist tradition, and his eschatology followed dispensationalist theology, a framework that reads biblical prophecy through a series of distinct periods in God’s dealings with humanity.
His preaching centered on a personal, obedient relationship with Jesus Christ, summed up in the life motto he learned from his grandfather and repeated throughout his ministry: “Obey God and leave all the consequences to him.”
That conviction shaped how Stanley handled his own public crisis. Rather than step down after his divorce, he treated the experience as something that deepened, rather than disqualified, his ability to minister to others walking through pain of their own.
Influence and Legacy
Stanley’s nearly 50-year tenure at First Baptist Atlanta and his decades running In Touch Ministries gave him one of the largest sustained broadcast audiences of any American pastor of his generation.
His leadership during the Southern Baptist Convention’s conservative resurgence in the 1980s left a lasting mark on the denomination’s theological direction for decades afterward.
His influence also passed directly to the next generation through his son, Andy Stanley, whose North Point Community Church became one of the most attended churches in the country, and through successor Anthony George, who continued to lead First Baptist Atlanta following Stanley’s 2020 retirement.
In 2021, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary created an endowed faculty position in his honor, the Charles F. Stanley Chair for the Advancement of Global Christianity.
Criticism and Controversies
Stanley’s public and lasting statements on divorce, and his own decision to remain in the pulpit after his own, drew both support and criticism within Southern Baptist circles, given First Baptist Atlanta’s unwritten policy at the time against divorced men serving as ministers or deacons.
Some conservative voices within the denomination framed his decision to stay as a departure from his own previously stated standard.
Stanley was also a vocal and consistent opponent of LGBTQ rights throughout his ministry, a position that drew organized protest, including a gay-rights march directed at First Baptist Atlanta, and controversy at points when honors extended to him were questioned or withdrawn over concerns unrelated Jewish community leaders raised about his broader theological views. He maintained his positions publicly and without significant reversal throughout his career.
Net Worth and Financial Information
No independently verified personal net worth figure exists for Charles Stanley. In Touch Ministries operated as a registered nonprofit religious broadcasting organization funded by donor support, and Stanley’s income came from his pastoral salary at First Baptist Atlanta along with royalties from his more than 70 published books.
Flicxa does not publish a speculative net worth figure given the absence of any verified personal financial disclosure.
Death
Charles Stanley died on April 18, 2023, at his home in Atlanta, Georgia, at age 90. In Touch Ministries confirmed his death in a statement posted that morning: “Dr. Stanley lived a faithful life of obedience, dedicated to teaching others how to have an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
Now he is receiving the joy of his soul, seeing his Savior face-to-face.” First Baptist Atlanta’s senior pastor, Anthony George, said Stanley died “peacefully” at home. No specific cause of death was disclosed publicly by the family or the ministry.
Stanley lay in repose at First Baptist Church of Atlanta on April 22, 2023, with the public invited to pay respects. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and the Atlanta City Council both issued formal statements honoring his decades of influence on the city and its faith community.
Awards and Recognition
- President, Southern Baptist Convention (1984 to 1986)
- New York Times bestselling author across multiple titles
- Charles F. Stanley Chair for the Advancement of Global Christianity, established at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2021
- In Touch Ministries broadcasts reached more than 100 languages and nearly 200 nations at the time of his death
Interesting Facts About Charles Stanley
- He lost his father to kidney disease when he was just nine months old, an early loss he later credited with shaping his call to ministry at age 14
- He served as the 16th senior pastor of First Baptist Atlanta since the church’s founding in 1848
- His broadcast ministry grew from 16,000 local Atlanta viewers to a national audience within a single week of joining CBN’s satellite network in 1978
- He remained unmarried for more than two decades after his divorce, in part due to First Baptist Atlanta’s bylaws on remarried pastors
- His son, Andy Stanley, went on to found North Point Community Church, one of the largest congregations in the United States
Timeline of Key Events
- September 25, 1932: Born in Dry Fork, Virginia
- 1946: Feels called to ministry at age 14 and begins preaching
- 1955: Marries Anna Johnson
- 1956: Graduates from the University of Richmond and is ordained
- 1969: Joins First Baptist Church of Atlanta as associate pastor
- 1971: Becomes senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Atlanta
- 1972: Launches The Chapel Hour, his first local television broadcast
- 1977: Founds In Touch Ministries
- 1982: Formally incorporates In Touch Ministries and begins radio syndication
- 1984 to 1986: Serves two terms as president of the Southern Baptist Convention
- 1993: Anna Stanley first files for divorce
- 1997: First Baptist Atlanta relocates to its Dunwoody campus
- May 11, 2000: Divorce from Anna is finalized after 44 years of marriage
- 2017: Names Anthony George as his future successor at First Baptist Atlanta
- November 10, 2014: Anna Stanley dies at age 83
- September 13, 2020: Retires as senior pastor, becomes Pastor Emeritus
- April 18, 2023: Dies at home in Atlanta at age 90
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened to Dr. Charles Stanley?
Charles Stanley died at his home in Atlanta on April 18, 2023, at age 90. He had retired as senior pastor of First Baptist Atlanta in 2020 but remained active with In Touch Ministries until his death.
What did Dr. Charles Stanley die from?
No specific cause of death was publicly disclosed by his family or In Touch Ministries. Reports indicated he died peacefully at home.
Did Charles Stanley’s wife leave him?
Anna Stanley filed for divorce from Charles Stanley in 1993 and again in 1995, citing an irretrievably broken marriage. The couple finalized their divorce in 2000 after 44 years together.
How many times was Charles Stanley married?
Once. Charles Stanley married Anna Johnson in 1955. Following their 2000 divorce, he never remarried, in part due to First Baptist Atlanta’s bylaws regarding remarried pastors.
Did Dr. Charles Stanley remarry?
No. Stanley remained unmarried for the rest of his life after his 2000 divorce from Anna.
How old was Charles Stanley’s wife when she passed away?
Anna Stanley was 83 years old when she died on November 10, 2014, of pneumonia and related health issues.
Who took over Charles Stanley’s church after he stepped down?
Anthony George, First Baptist Atlanta’s senior associate pastor, succeeded Stanley as senior pastor when Stanley transitioned to Pastor Emeritus in September 2020, three years before Stanley’s death.
What was Charles Stanley’s net worth?
No independently verified personal net worth figure exists for Charles Stanley. His income came from his pastoral salary and royalties from more than 70 published books.
Final Word
Charles Stanley spent nearly 50 years in the same Atlanta pulpit and turned a local half-hour broadcast into a ministry heard in nearly 200 nations.
He faced his own very public crisis, a divorce his church’s own rules said should have ended his career, and chose to keep preaching through it rather than step away, a decision that defined how he was remembered as much as any sermon he ever gave.
