| Birth Date: | August 11, 1936 |
| Birth Place: | Laurel, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Pastor |
| Term Start: | 1968 |
| Church: | Second Baptist Church Houston |
| Religion: | Southern Baptist |
| Spouse: | |
| Children: | 3, including Ed |
Homer Edwin Young (born August 11, 1936), often called simply Ed Young, is the former senior pastor of the megachurch Second Baptist Church of Houston, Texas.[1] He is father to sons Ed Young, pastor of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas;[2] Ben Young, associate pastor at Second Baptist Houston;[3] and Cliff Young, director of Second Films and leader of the Christian folk/pop group Caedmon's Call.[4] [5]
Young was born on August 11, 1936, in Laurel in southeastern Mississippi[6] to an impoverished family.[7] [8]
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. He went on to the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina.[6]
"Young was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention 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.[9]
, Young had sold "nearly 12,000 CDs and DVDs."
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.
Under his leadership, Second Baptist grew from an average weekend attendance of 500 in 1978[10] to a membership of over 80,000 in 2019.[11] 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, Rita, Ike, and Harvey as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.[12]
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."[13]
In 2024, he ended his term as leader of the church, and his son became the leader.[14]
Young has garnered some controversy for sermons that call for progressive local politicians in Houston and Harris County to be voted out due to rising homicide rates.[15] Some have called for his church's tax exemption to be removed for the politically charged comments,[16] but a law professor at the University of Houston Law Center said the comments were unlikely to result in such a penalty.[17]
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.[18] The Second Baptist church has settled two lawsuits filed by Foster's victims.[19] [20]
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.[21]
In 1988, Young had angioplasty to open a clogged heart artery.[22] 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.[23]