Homer Edwin Young (born August 11, 1936), often called simply Ed Young, is senior pastor of the megachurch Second Baptist Church of

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. He is father to sons Ed Young, pastor of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas; Ben Young, associate pastor at Second Baptist Houston; and Cliff Young, director of Second Films and leader of the

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

folk/pop group Caedmon's Call.

Early life and education

Young was born on August 11, 1936 in Laurel in southeastern Mississippi to an impoverished family. He entered the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa as an engineering major. But halfway through his freshman year he answered the call of the ministry and enrolled at Mississippi College in

Clinton Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has frequently been used as a given ...

. He went on to the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

Career

"Young was elected president of the

Southern Baptist Convention The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination, and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States. The wor ...

in June of 1992 and again in June, 1993." He has a broadcast ministry called ''The Winning Walk'' that can be accessed internationally. He is the author to dozens of books including ''Healing Broken America'', ''Standing on the Promises'', ''Total Heart Health for Men'', ''Total Heart Health for Women'', ''The 10 Commandments of Parenting'', and ''The 10 Commandments of Marriage.'' , Dr. Young had sold "nearly 12,000 CDs and DVDs."

Ministership

Young started as a pastor in North Carolina, despite the wishes of his father. Moving to South Carolina, he pastored Taylors First Baptist Church (1968–1971) and First Baptist Church Columbia (1972–1978) before moving to

Second Baptist Church Houston Second Baptist Church Houston is a Baptist multi-site megachurch in Houston, Texas, US. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. History Second Baptist Church was founded in 1927 whe ...

. Under his leadership, Second Baptist grew from an average weekend attendance of 500 in 1978 to a membership of over 80,000 in 2019. Dr. Young was a pioneer of the multisite church, and in 1999, Second Baptist became one church in two locations. As of the spring of 2015 when the last campus was opened, Second Baptist Church occupies six campuses in the Houston metropolitan area and, , has an online campus where each week's sermon is livestreamed daily. Young assisted in the creation and organization of Houston's relief work following Tropical Storm Allison and Hurricanes

Katrina Katrina or Katrine may refer to: People * Katrina (given name) * Katrine (given name) Meteorology * List of storms named Katrina, a list of tropical cyclones designated as Katrina ** Hurricane Katrina, an exceptionally powerful Atlantic hurrican ...

, Rita,

Ike Ike or IKE may refer to: People * Ike (given name), a list of people with the name or nickname * Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969), Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II and President of the United States Surname ...

, and Harvey as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. Young along with Bishop James Dixon, Senior Pastor of Community of Faith Church, developed and launched ''Loving Kids'', a joint venture ministry designed to make a difference in Houston's Acres Homes subdivision by collaboratively adopting three local Houston elementary schools "to help support children by way of mentors, tutors and teacher assistants."

Controversy

Young has garnered some controversy by calling for progressive local politicians in Houston and Harris County to be voted out because of rising homicide rates during his sermons. Some have called for his churches tax exemption to be removed for the politically charged comments, but a law professor at the University of Houston Law Center said the comments were unlikely to result in such a penalty. Young has faced criticism both for his leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention with regard to prevention of sexual abuse in the churches and for the Second Baptist's handling of two sexual abuse claims against a contract-employed coordinator of music pageants, John Forse, in 1994 and against a former youth pastor, Chad Foster, in 2010. The Second Baptist church has settled two lawsuits filed by Foster's victims.

Personal life

On September 7, 2017, Young's wife, Jo Beth Young, died at the age of 80. Married for 58 years, the couple had three children and 11 grandchildren. In 1988, Young had angioplasty to open a clogged heart artery. In his 2005 book ''Total Heart Health for Men Workbook'', he wrote about methods of reducing the risk of heart problems as he was familiar with. In May 2010, he underwent triple coronary bypass surgery.

Works

* * * * * * * * * *

References

External links

''The Winning Walk'' official website

Second Baptist Church Houston official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Homer Edwin 1936 births Living people American television evangelists People from Laurel, Mississippi Southern Baptist ministers Southern Baptist Convention presidents Mississippi College alumni Baptists from Mississippi