Homer Edwin Young

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. He is father to sons Ed Young, pastor of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas; Ben Young, at Second Baptist Houston; and Cliff Young, director of Second Films and leader of the Christian 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. He went on to the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

, Young had sold "nearly 12,000 CDs and DVDs." to a membership of over 80,000 in 2019. Young was a pioneer of the multisite church, and in 1999, Second Baptist became one church in two locations.

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."

In 2024, he ended his term as leader of the church, and his son became the leader.

Controversy 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. Some have called for his church's 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.

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