Former Southern Baptist President and megachurch pastor Ed Young has announced he’s stepping down from his role as Senior Pastor of Houston’s Second Baptist Church, a position he’s held for more than 46 years.
Young, 87, is one of the most prominent pastors in the SBC and in Christianity at large, growing his congregation from 280 people to over 78,000 spread across six campuses, making it one of the largest in the country.
He told members during this past Sunday service that while he was stepping down from this particular role, he would not cease serving the church. He plans on continuing preaching at different campuses if and when asked, and would be joining his wife Lisa, who he married in 2020 after his first wife passed away in 2017, on any ministry endeavors they could do together.
“I will be 88 years old this August. Two weeks ago, I thought I was in the red zone and maybe in the two-minute zone because I know I’m in the last quarter of my life. But Lisa and I have gone through all kinds of medical things, and amazingly. So I stand up here happy and reasonably healthy and ready to serve God.”
We’re not stepping down; we’re stepping up to use our primary spiritual gifts. I’m stepping up to maximize what God has given me and what God has given to my great wife, Lisa.”
Houston, who is the father of pastor Ed Young Jr. or Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, said that his other son Ben Young, one of the pastors at Second Baptist, would be taking over the senior leadership role.
Notably, Young has not mellowed out in age but rather has become increasingly outspoken about political issues that have gotten him in hot water with progressives, including calling President Biden “godless,” railing against the Democrats, decrying rampant and unrestrained immigration (and immigrants themselves, using particularly harsh invectives), and taking shots at the demonic transgender ideology.
