James Merritt: Biography, Cross Pointe Church, Family & Net Worth
James Gregory Merritt (born December 22, 1952) is an American Southern Baptist pastor, author, and broadcaster who has served as founding and senior pastor of Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, Georgia, since 2003. A former president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2000 to 2002, Merritt hosts the weekly television and radio ministry Touching Lives, broadcast across all 50 U.S. states and more than 120 countries. He has also become a nationally discussed figure for his public, and at times costly, expressions of support for his son Jonathan, a journalist who came out as gay.
[IMAGE: James Merritt preaching at Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, Georgia]
James Merritt at a Glance
| Personal | |
|---|---|
| Full name | James Gregory Merritt |
| Born | December 22, 1952, Gainesville, Georgia, USA |
| Age | 73 (as of 2026) |
| Nationality | American |
| Spouse | Teresa Merritt (married over 45 years) |
| Children | Three sons, including author and journalist Jonathan Merritt |
| Grandchildren | 5 |
| Education | |
| University | Stetson University, DeLand, Florida (B.B.A., 1974) |
| Seminary | The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky (M.Div., 1978; Ph.D. in Evangelism, 1982) |
| Ministry | |
| Title | Founding and Senior Pastor |
| Church | Cross Pointe Church, Duluth, Georgia |
| Since | 2003 |
| Denomination | Southern Baptist |
| SBC role | President, Southern Baptist Convention (2000 to 2002) |
| Broadcast ministry | Touching Lives, in all 50 states and 120+ countries |
| Career | |
| Books | Friends, Foes, and Fools; God’s Prescription for a Healthy Christian; 52 Weeks with Jesus; Character Still Counts; and others |
Early Life and Background
James Merritt was born on December 22, 1952, in Gainesville, Georgia, and raised in nearby Oakwood, Georgia. He has said he surrendered his life to Christ at age nine, an early conversion that set the direction for the rest of his life. At 21, he committed himself to full-time Christian ministry, a calling he pursued through Blackshear Place Baptist Church in Gainesville, where he was licensed to preach in January 1976 and ordained two months later at First Baptist Church of Smyrna, Georgia.
Education
Merritt earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, in 1974. He went on to complete a Master of Divinity in 1978 and a Doctor of Philosophy in Evangelism in 1982, both from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, one of the flagship seminaries of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Ministry Career: A Path Through Five Churches
Merritt’s early ministry took him through a series of pastorates across the South. From 1974 to 1976, he served as associate pastor and minister of youth at First Baptist Church of Smyrna, Georgia. He then pastored two churches in Kentucky, Macedonia Baptist in Vanzant from 1976 to 1979 and Buck Grove Baptist in Ekron from 1979 to 1983, followed by Highland Baptist Church in Laurel, Mississippi, from 1983 to 1985.
In 1985, Merritt returned to Georgia to lead First Baptist Church of Snellville, a congregation he pastored for nearly 18 years, growing it into a 12,000-member church in metro Atlanta, one of the larger Southern Baptist congregations in the region at the time.
Founding Cross Pointe Church
In 2003, Merritt left First Baptist Snellville to launch a new congregation, initially called Cross Pointe, the Church at Gwinnett Center, in Gwinnett County, Georgia. The church grew steadily under his leadership and was later renamed Cross Pointe Church, now based in Duluth, Georgia, where Merritt continues to serve as senior pastor more than two decades later.
Rise to Prominence: Southern Baptist Convention Presidency
Merritt was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention in June 2000, succeeding Paige Patterson and serving two terms through 2002. During his tenure, he held numerous other denominational leadership roles, including chairman of the SBC Executive Committee and president of the SBC Pastors’ Conference in Atlanta, positions that placed him at the center of Southern Baptist governance during a pivotal period for the denomination.
Merritt’s public profile grew well beyond denominational circles through his broadcast ministry, Touching Lives, and through national media appearances on 60 Minutes, ABC World News Tonight, Time magazine, The New York Times, and Hannity and Colmes, making him one of the more visible Southern Baptist voices in mainstream American media during the 2000s.
Books and Publications
Merritt has written numerous books over his career, most centered on practical Christian living, evangelism, and family faith. Notable titles include:
- Friends, Foes, and Fools: Fathers Can Teach Their Kids to Know the Difference
- God’s Prescription for a Healthy Christian
- How to Be a Winner and Influence Anybody
- 52 Weeks with Jesus: Fall in Love with the One Who Changed Everything
- 52 Weeks Through the Bible
- Character Still Counts: It Is Time to Restore Our Lasting Values
- How to Deal with How You Feel: Managing the Emotions That Make Life Unmanageable
- God, I’ve Got a Question: Biblical Truth for Our Deepest Concerns
- Exalting Jesus in 1 Corinthians, co-written with Daniel L. Akin as part of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series
His Touching Lives broadcast, distributed through TBN and other outlets, functions as an extension of that written body of work, reaching a weekly audience Merritt’s ministry says spans all 50 U.S. states and more than 120 countries.
Personal Life
Marriage and Children
James Merritt has been married to his wife, Teresa, for more than 45 years. The couple has three sons and five grandchildren. Their middle son, Jonathan Merritt, became a nationally recognized religion journalist and author, writing for outlets including Religion News Service, The Atlantic, and USA Today, and publishing books on Christian spirituality and language.
Jonathan Merritt: Being Outed and Coming Out
In July 2012, days before his 30th birthday, Jonathan Merritt was publicly outed as gay by Azariah Southworth, a blogger who said the two had been involved romantically in 2009. Jonathan responded at the time by describing “inappropriate texting” and “inappropriate actions” from his past and framing the disclosure through the lens of personal brokenness, a response consistent with the language many evangelicals used to discuss same-sex attraction in that era.
Nearly a decade later, on his 39th birthday in 2021, Jonathan wrote publicly and directly to his followers that he had been “publicly and painfully outed by a person who had earned my trust only to betray it,” and that processing the experience had required “many months and a boatload of therapy.” He described fully embracing his identity as a gay man at that point, a more direct and unambiguous statement than his earlier, more guarded 2012 response.
James Merritt’s public reaction to his son’s life has drawn attention from multiple directions within Southern Baptist life. In November 2021, Merritt shared a sermon Jonathan had preached, writing on social media, “I don’t agree with my loved son @JonathanMerritt on everything to be sure. But I encourage you to listen to his message.” The Conservative Baptist Network, a group pushing the SBC in a more conservative direction, publicly criticized Merritt for promoting what it called an “unrepentant sinner” as a trustworthy preaching voice. Merritt, then serving as a visiting professor of preaching at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, voluntarily resigned that position days later, telling seminary president Daniel Akin he did not want to become a “distraction to the school.” Akin, in turn, publicly praised Merritt’s “integrity, character, and love for the gospel.”
Theology and Ministry Philosophy
Merritt holds to conservative Southern Baptist doctrine, including biblical inerrancy and a traditional view of marriage and sexuality, positions that remained a documented part of his own preaching even as he continued publicly affirming his relationship with his son. His ministry philosophy centers heavily on personal evangelism and practical Christian living, themes reflected across nearly all of his books and his Touching Lives broadcasts.
Merritt has not publicly identified with the Calvinist label that divides some segments of the Southern Baptist Convention. His broader body of teaching, focused on evangelism, family discipleship, and character formation, reflects the denomination’s more traditional evangelical mainstream rather than the Reformed soteriology debates that have periodically divided SBC pastors.
Influence and Legacy
Merritt’s two terms as SBC president placed him among a relatively small group of pastors to lead the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, and his decades-long broadcast ministry through Touching Lives extended his reach into international audiences well beyond his own Georgia congregation. His son Jonathan’s public journey, and James Merritt’s own public response to it, has also made the Merritt family a frequently cited case study in ongoing conversations about how conservative evangelical parents navigate having an adult child come out as gay.
That dynamic drew renewed attention within the Southern Baptist Convention specifically, surfacing tensions between generational and theological factions within the denomination over how pastors should publicly respond to family members whose lives diverge from traditional SBC teaching on sexuality.
Criticism and Controversies
The defining controversy of Merritt’s recent public life centers on his November 2021 resignation from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. The Conservative Baptist Network argued that Merritt’s decision to publicly commend his gay son’s sermon represented a betrayal of the denomination’s teaching on sexuality, particularly given his role at a seminary funded through Southern Baptist Cooperative Program tithes. Merritt chose to step down from the visiting professor role rather than continue serving amid that criticism, while continuing to lead Cross Pointe Church and his broadcast ministry without interruption.
The episode drew a wide range of public reaction within Southern Baptist circles, from supporters who praised Merritt’s continued love for his son despite theological disagreement, to critics who argued his public support crossed a line for a denominational leader. Merritt has not publicly reversed his traditional position on sexuality, and the controversy centered specifically on the optics and appropriateness of his public support for Jonathan rather than any change in Merritt’s own stated doctrine.
Net Worth and Financial Information
No independently verified net worth figure exists for James Merritt. Some low-quality aggregator websites publish speculative estimates, but none are backed by public financial disclosure from Merritt, Cross Pointe Church, or Touching Lives. Flicxa does not present any of these figures as confirmed fact.
Awards and Recognition
- President, Southern Baptist Convention (2000 to 2002)
- Chairman, Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee
- President, Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference
- National media recognition through appearances on 60 Minutes, ABC World News Tonight, and Time magazine
Interesting Facts About James Merritt
- He surrendered his life to Christ at just nine years old and committed to full-time ministry by age 21
- He pastored five different churches across three states before founding Cross Pointe Church in 2003
- His Touching Lives broadcast reaches audiences in all 50 U.S. states and more than 120 countries each week
- He voluntarily resigned a seminary teaching post in 2021 rather than become what he called a “distraction” over his public support for his gay son
- A different, unrelated writer also named James Merritt is a longtime contributing editor to Field & Stream magazine and author of outdoor-themed books, a frequent source of search confusion online
Timeline of Key Events
- December 22, 1952: Born in Gainesville, Georgia
- 1961: Surrenders his life to Christ at age nine
- 1974: Graduates from Stetson University
- 1976: Ordained at First Baptist Church of Smyrna, Georgia
- 1978 and 1982: Earns a Master of Divinity and Ph.D. in Evangelism from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
- 1985: Becomes pastor of First Baptist Church of Snellville, Georgia
- June 2000: Elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention
- 2003: Leaves Snellville to found Cross Pointe Church in Gwinnett County, Georgia
- July 2012: Son Jonathan Merritt is publicly outed as gay
- November 2021: Publicly shares a sermon by Jonathan, drawing criticism from the Conservative Baptist Network
- November 2021: Resigns as visiting professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
- August 2021: Jonathan Merritt publicly and fully embraces his identity as a gay man on his 39th birthday
Frequently Asked Questions
What religion is Dr. James Merritt?
James Merritt is a Southern Baptist pastor and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States.
What denomination is Dr. James Merritt?
He is Southern Baptist, currently serving as founding and senior pastor of Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, Georgia.
Who is James Merritt’s wife?
His wife is Teresa Merritt. The couple has been married for more than 45 years and has three sons and five grandchildren.
How many children does James Merritt have?
James and Teresa Merritt have three sons, including author and religion journalist Jonathan Merritt.
Who outed Jonathan Merritt?
Blogger Azariah Southworth publicly disclosed Jonathan Merritt’s sexuality in July 2012, describing a prior romantic relationship between the two. Jonathan later, in 2021, publicly and fully affirmed his identity as a gay man on his own terms.
Is James Merritt a Calvinist?
Merritt has not publicly identified as a Calvinist. His preaching and books focus primarily on evangelism and practical Christian living rather than the Reformed theological debates found in some corners of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Where is pastor James Merritt?
Merritt continues to serve as founding and senior pastor of Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, Georgia, and hosts the Touching Lives broadcast ministry.
What is Dr. James Merritt’s net worth?
No independently verified net worth figure exists for James Merritt. No reliable public financial disclosure has been made available.
Final Word
James Merritt built one of the more recognizable ministries in Southern Baptist life, two terms as SBC president, a broadcast reaching well over a hundred countries, and a shelf of books on evangelism and character. But the story that has followed him most persistently in recent years is a personal one: a father publicly choosing his son over the criticism of fellow pastors, and paying a real professional cost for it.
Read Also
No other biography in our archive shares a close enough ministry, denominational, or historical connection with James Merritt to recommend here.
