The people of Atlanta as well as many others lost a faith leader this week.
Dr. Charles Frazier Stanley, senior pastor at First Baptist Church Atlanta and the founder of In Touch Ministries, passed away at his home on April 18, 2023, in Atlanta, Georgia, as Fox News Digital reported earlier. He was 90.
For over five decades, the pastor, broadcaster and author served on the staff of First Baptist Atlanta, in 1971 becoming the 16th pastor at the historic church founded in 1848.
But as Rev. Franklin Graham told Fox News Digital on Friday, “People didn’t go to hear what Dr. Stanley had to say. They wanted to hear what God had to say.”
CHARLES STANLEY, ATLANTA PASTOR, TELEVANGELIST AND IN TOUCH MINISTRIES FOUNDER, DEAD AT 90
Under Stanley’s leadership, his church experienced tremendous growth — enough so that in 1997, the ministry moved from its Midtown Atlanta location to a former Avon property in Dunwoody to accommodate a diverse membership of over 15,000 people from the metro area, Fox5 in Atlanta reported this week.
Rev. Graham, who serves as president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association as well as of Samaritan’s Purse, told Fox News Digital on Friday that in 2009, he “had the privilege of preaching for Dr. Charles Stanley at First Baptist Church Atlanta, the church he pastored since the early 1970s.”
Graham noted, “When he asked me to speak for him — honestly, I was intimidated. Who could ever fill a pulpit like his?”
Graham also said the church had grown so large to the point where “thousands of people [were coming] to his church every Sunday to hear some of the greatest Bible teaching in the world.”
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He said that for years, people had to “stand in line just as you would at a movie theater or a sports event to get into his church.”
Rev. Graham stressed one important point, however, in remarks he shared with Fox News Digital via email: “People didn’t…
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