Ed Litton: Biography, Age, Wife, Children, SBC Presidency & Redemption Church Ministry

Harry Edward “Ed” Litton Jr. (born July 17, 1959) is an American pastor and denominational leader based in Saraland, Alabama. He has led Redemption Church since 1994 and served as the 63rd president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2021 to 2022. Litton is known for his work on racial reconciliation, his long pastorate in the Mobile, Alabama area, and a plagiarism controversy that followed his election as SBC president.

[IMAGE: Ed Litton preaching at Redemption Church in Saraland, Alabama]

At a Glance

Early Life and Background

Ed Litton was born on July 17, 1959, at Holston Valley Community Hospital in Kingsport, Tennessee. His parents were Harry and Sue Litton.

His childhood wasn’t a churchgoing one. Litton has said his family struggled with his father’s alcoholism, and the household was often in crisis. A Southern Baptist pastor stepped in during that difficult season and led his father to faith in Christ. Litton has described the change in his home afterward as nothing short of a miracle, and that transformation set the direction for his own life and eventual calling to ministry.

Litton went on to study at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona, graduating in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts in Religion and Theatre. He later earned a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and a Doctor of Ministry from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

[IMAGE: Grand Canyon University campus, Phoenix, Arizona]

Ministry Career and Professional Journey

Early Ministry in Texas and Arizona

Litton’s ministry started with a season serving the college and career ministry at First Baptist Church in Euless, Texas. From there, he moved into denominational work, serving as associate evangelism director for the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention while under appointment as a North American Mission Board missionary.

In 1987, he and his first wife, Tammy, planted Mountain View Baptist Church in Tucson, Arizona. Litton served as founding pastor there for close to seven years, building the congregation from the ground up before sensing a new call.

Pastor of Redemption Church, Saraland, Alabama

In 1994, Litton became senior pastor of First Baptist Church of North Mobile in Saraland, Alabama. He has led the congregation for over three decades, longer than most pastors stay at a single church.

Under his leadership, the church grew steadily. Average worship attendance climbed from around 700 to over 1,100 within his first years, and the congregation baptized more than 140 people a year for a decade straight. In 2015, the church rebranded from First Baptist Church of North Mobile to Redemption Church, a change leadership said reflected the congregation’s growing focus on disciple-making and church planting, both locally and internationally. The church has since expanded to multiple campuses across the Mobile area.

[IMAGE: Redemption Church campus in Saraland, Alabama]

Litton also built a long record of denominational service. He served as first vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2001, sat as a trustee of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and served on the board of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was president of both the Arizona and Alabama Baptist pastors’ conferences before being nominated as president of the Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference in 2008.

Racial Reconciliation Work

For years before he was a national figure, Litton was known locally for his work bridging racial divides in Mobile. He was active in a coalition called the Pledge Group, which brought together leaders from different racial, religious, and vocational backgrounds to address the city’s racial divide. His friendship with pastor Fred Luter, the SBC’s first Black president, began through joint preaching for the SBC’s Racial Reconciliation Sunday and grew into a two-decade partnership around racial healing within the convention.

Rise to Prominence: SBC President

In January 2021, Fred Luter announced he would nominate Litton for president of the Southern Baptist Convention. At the time, Litton was a relatively unknown pastor compared to his rivals, Georgia pastor Mike Stone and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler.

On June 15, 2021, at the SBC Annual Meeting in Nashville, Litton was elected the convention’s 63rd president. He won a runoff against Mike Stone with 52 percent of the vote, a margin of just 556 votes out of more than 14,000 ballots cast. His election was seen by many observers as a rejection of the SBC’s hardline conservative wing during a period of internal conflict over race, sexual abuse handling, and gender roles.

“I want to be clear that my goal is to build bridges and not walls,” Litton told reporters after his election.

As president, Litton oversaw one of the most difficult chapters in recent SBC history. He called for a transparent, independent investigation into how the SBC Executive Committee had handled reports of sexual abuse within the convention, a probe that ultimately produced a damning report on decades of mishandled cases.

Personal Life

Marriage and Tragedy

Litton married Tammy in the early 1980s, and the couple had three children together: Josh, Tyler, and Kayla. In 2007, after 25 years of marriage, Tammy was killed in an automobile accident. Litton has spoken openly about walking back into the pulpit the Sunday after her death and telling his congregation, “The guy that was here before is gone, and he’s not coming back.”

In 2009, Litton married Kathy Ferguson, a pastor’s wife who had lost her own husband in a strikingly similar car accident in 2002. Kathy brought three children of her own into the marriage. She went on to serve as director of planter spouse development for the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, and was elected registration secretary at the SBC Annual Meeting in 2019.

Litton has spoken about how the shared experience of loss shaped their marriage. “We both have a profound sense of pain and suffering in our lives that has changed us,” he said after his election as SBC president, “and I think changed us for the better.”

Interests

Outside the pulpit, Litton is known among friends as an outdoorsman. He’s an avid fly fisherman and photographer, and has talked about capturing striking shots on trips to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

Controversy: The Plagiarism Allegations

Weeks after his election, Litton faced a serious controversy. In late June 2021, an anonymous YouTube video surfaced comparing a 2020 sermon Litton preached on Romans 1 to a 2019 sermon by J.D. Greear, the SBC’s immediate past president. The clips showed striking overlap in wording, illustrations, and structure.

Litton acknowledged using material from Greear’s sermon series and said he had Greear’s permission to do so. Greear publicly confirmed this, saying he’d told Litton to use “whatever bullets of mine worked in his gun.” But critics kept digging, and further comparisons surfaced involving other preachers’ material across a span of several years. Redemption Church removed roughly 140 older sermon videos from its website in response, saying people were combing through them “in an attempt to discredit and malign our pastor.”

The Conservative Baptist Network, a grassroots group representing thousands of SBC pastors, issued a public statement calling on Litton to resign, describing the pattern as “repeated plagiarism of multiple sources.” Litton did not step down. He later addressed the controversy directly during a chapel appearance at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, acknowledging he “should have been more careful” with sourcing while maintaining that permission from Greear meant the charge of plagiarism didn’t fit.

In March 2022, Litton announced he would not seek a second term as SBC president, breaking with decades of convention tradition where presidents typically serve two consecutive years. He completed his term in June 2022 and returned his full focus to Redemption Church.

Theology and Ministry Philosophy

Litton identifies as both politically and theologically conservative, though several news outlets have described him as ideologically moderate within the SBC’s internal spectrum. His ministry has consistently emphasized racial reconciliation, church planting, and what he calls “building bridges” across theological and cultural divides inside the denomination. During his presidency, he pushed back against fears that critical race theory was being taught in SBC seminaries, while also prioritizing the convention’s response to sexual abuse reform.

Influence and Legacy

Litton’s three-decade tenure at one congregation stands out in a denomination where pastoral turnover is common. Under his leadership, Redemption Church grew from roughly 700 in attendance to a multi-campus congregation of thousands, while consistently baptizing well over 100 people a year.

His SBC presidency is remembered as a turning point moment for the convention, marking a narrow victory for the denomination’s more moderate wing during a period of sharp internal conflict, and for setting in motion the sexual abuse investigation that reshaped SBC policy in the years that followed.

Net Worth and Financial Information

No verified figures exist for Ed Litton’s net worth or personal salary. Several low-quality sites have published vague or speculative claims about his finances, but none point to a documented source. Redemption Church, like most SBC congregations, does not publish individual pastoral compensation, so any specific dollar figure circulating online should be treated as unverified.

Interesting Facts

• Litton’s college degree is in Religion and Theatre, not a standard ministry track, and he has credited his theater background with shaping his preaching style.
• Both Litton and his second wife, Kathy, lost their first spouses in car accidents just five years apart.
• He is a longtime fly fisherman and has photographed wildlife, including a rare white buffalo.
• Redemption Church’s name change in 2015 was decided unanimously by a team of lay leaders, not imposed from the top down.
• Litton’s presidency broke a long-standing SBC tradition of presidents serving two consecutive one-year terms.

Timeline of Key Events

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Ed Litton?

Ed Litton is the senior pastor of Redemption Church in Saraland, Alabama, a position he’s held since 1994. He also served as the 63rd president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2021 to 2022.

What happened with Ed Litton and the plagiarism allegations?

In 2021, videos surfaced showing close similarities between Litton’s sermons and sermons preached by former SBC president J.D. Greear. Litton said he had Greear’s permission to use the material, but faced calls to resign after further comparisons emerged from earlier years of his preaching.

What happened to Ed Litton’s wife?

His first wife, Tammy, was killed in a car accident in 2007 after 25 years of marriage. He remarried in 2009 to Kathy Ferguson, who had lost her own husband in a similar accident in 2002.

Did Ed Litton serve a second term as SBC president?

No. In March 2022, Litton announced he would not seek re-election, ending his term as SBC president in June 2022 after a single year in office.

How long has Ed Litton been a pastor at Redemption Church?

Litton has served as senior pastor since 1994, making him one of the longest-tenured pastors currently leading a Southern Baptist megachurch.

Note: If you searched for “Ed Litton bikes” or “the Litton company,” you’re likely thinking of a different Ed Litton, a California framebuilder who ran Litton Cycles in Point Richmond and was known for hand-built lugged steel bicycles. He passed away in December 2024 following a bicycle accident. He is not connected to the pastor covered in this article.

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