First Baptist Atlanta honors Charles Stanley: 'God put His calling upon his life, supernaturally'
First Baptist Atlanta Senior Pastor Anthony George reflected on the “anointing” God placed on the life of Charles Stanley and shared how the late pastor exemplified how God can use even the most broken of vessels for His glory.
Stanley, who died last week at 90, served as the senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Atlanta from 1971 to 2020, and founded the nonprofit organization In Touch Ministries, reaching millions with the Gospel.
On the Sunday following Stanley’s death, those gathered at First Baptist Church joined in singing some of Stanley’s favorite hymns, along with the modern praise song “Battle Belongs” by Phil Wickham.
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After a prayer thanking the Lord for Stanley’s life and ministry, George preached a sermon based on Jeremiah 1:4-10 to highlight the traits of those called and anointed by God.
“When you look at the people that were great giants of faith in the Bible, every one of them was handpicked by God,” he said. “Here, we're celebrating a man who was born to a poor couple in a rural intersection north of Danville, Virginia, Dr. Charles Stanley. He was born to a textile mill worker. His dad died when he was only 9 months old. He used to talk about his mother working in the bleachery of Dan River Mills … he used to look at his mother as a single mother and see her come home absolutely worn out and hoping he had been OK from the time he got home from school and she got off her shift at the textile mill.”
Stanley grew up in a “humble home,” George said, adding: “Nearly every kid he played with had a daddy, and he used to tell the stories about how there was a vacant lot beside his house, and the boys from his school would all play games and athletics in that field, and then inevitably, their dads would get off work and drive up and honk the horn. One at a time, those little boys would go jump in the car with their dad and he'd watched the taillights of their cars drive off and look up and say, ‘God, why don't I have a daddy to come honk the horn and let me get in the car?’ These are the kinds of things he talked about even in the twilight years of his life.”
God “looked down from Heaven and said, ‘I want him. I'm choosing him. He is going to be a broken vessel. He's going to be a vessel who realizes he needs a different kind of daddy, a daddy that he didn't have on Earth, I'll be a heavenly daddy to Him,’” George said.
“And God put His calling upon his life, supernaturally. The call came from God, and God's call comes to us too.”
George reflected on some of the challenges Stanley faced during his ministry: The famed ministry leader joined First Baptist Church of Atlanta in 1969 as associate pastor, but when he applied to be the senior pastor of the church, the committee initially rejected him.
Stanley was also famously punched in the face by a member of the church board after cautioning him about using a curse word.
“A consistent pattern in the lives of people God uses in great ways is that every single one of them, without exception, went through times of extreme brokenness behind the scenes,” George said.
“There were so many times when Pastor probably looked across his life and thought about all of the times that he was broken and emptied out,” he said.
“For instance, they didn't want him to be the pastor in 1971. There was a big effort. He was associate pastor and there were people that wanted to run him off because they were fearful he was going to get that pulpit. Well, you know what God told all those people? He's going to get that pulpit because he's my man. He got the pulpit.”
Stanley also faced opposition to his position as senior pastor of First Baptist in the 1990s when his marriage to Anna Johnson deteriorated. The church had not allowed divorced men to serve as deacons or ministers, per its bylaws.
When Stanley and his wife got divorced, “almost half the church wanted him ousted because his marriage fell apart,” George said.
“But he said, ‘I can't quit. God has called me to preach. So he didn't, he didn't quit. I'm not here to argue the merits of that. I'm just telling you when he was going through that time, behind the scenes, he was broken. He was being spilled out. And we could go on and on through other things that we know he's been through in public life. Remember this: God was not just working through him. He was working in him and on him.”
George also commended Stanley for his commitment to preaching biblical truth on hot-button issues like sexual immorality, even when it was unpopular.
“I'm going to tell you, I'm about tired of this kind of stuff where, when people are covering Dr. Stanley's legacy … they’ve got to throw in there, ‘He was very controversial for his views on sexuality.’ Let me tell you something that's not called controversy. That's called Holy Bible.”
“And now everything's up for grabs. Now everything is fluid. Now. We have a fixed Word of God, and we are called to believe it. We are called to share it. We are called to live it. We don't have that power in and of ourselves. We must depend on God for the power to obey Him,” he added.
George ended with a word of encouragement for the congregation: “If God has emptied you out, that's just part of the story. The rest of the story is God filled me up. And God wants to do that today.”
A legacy celebration for Stanley was held at the church Sunday evening. Prominent Pastors Tony Evans and Chuck Swindoll, as well as former President Donald Trump, were among those who paid their respects to the late pastor.
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
