The Time I Spent with Charles Stanley
By Jordan Easley
When I was 27 years old, I was serving as a youth minister at a great church in Dallas. My administrative assistant forwarded a call to me, one particular Tuesday morning, and when I answered the phone, she said these words: “Dr. Charles Stanley from Atlanta is on the phone and wants to speak with you.”
I love practical jokes and I knew in my heart that this was a setup for a great one. I, like many people around the world, grew up watching Dr. Stanley on television. I have vivid memories of my dad and I sitting in front of our old box television, watching him, and imitating his deep preaching voice.
So, at this moment, I picked up the phone, totally expecting to hear my dad, doing his best Dr. Stanley impression.
With the phone on my ear I said, “Hello. This is Jordan,” to which he replied… “Jordan! (in that deep booming, familiar voice) This is Charles Stanley.”
In that moment, I laughed out loud and said, “Nice try, Dad!” and then, I hung up the phone.
About 60 seconds later, my assistant rang back. This time she said, “On the line is Dr. Stanley’s assistant, and she’d like to speak with you.” When I answered and said, “Hello?” she responded by introducing herself and then went on to kindly say, “Don’t be embarrassed. This sort of thing happens all the time.”
Dr. Charles Stanley (L) with Jordan Easley. (FILE)
Long story short, that was the phone call that connected my life to the life of Dr. Charles Stanley. In the days following, my wife and I flew to Atlanta, met with Dr. Stanley and several people on his staff. The Lord used those meetings to connect our hearts with his heart for ministry in Atlanta and taking the gospel to people around the world.
Never in a million years would I have imagined how the Lord would use this new season of ministry to shape my life. To say I learned a lot from Dr. Stanley would be a massive understatement. I believe many of us could say the same.
Millions of people around the world were impacted by Dr. Stanley and learned from him over the course of his 60-plus years of ministry. We learned through his preaching and teaching. We learned through the books he wrote, and through the conferences in which he spoke. Many of us have taken his 30 Life Principles and made them a part of our everyday devotional time. Dr. Stanley challenged us throughout the years, and he shepherded us from afar.
I, like many, can say that God used Dr. Stanley’s resources to grow my walk and my faith, but it was the relationship we shared that impacted me in even greater ways.
I’ll never forget my first Monday of working for him. He walked into my office at 8:30 a.m. and welcomed me to the team. Then he proceeded to get on his knees, and he invited me to join him. I was caught off guard at that moment because I didn’t know what was happening, but as I was in the process of bending my knees, he began to pray a prayer over me. He prayed for my wife and kids, my transition to Atlanta and my future ministry. He prayed the kindest prayer I’ve ever heard, and then he concluded by saying, “Amen.”
I was blown away by this gesture, and honestly thought this would be a one-time thing. But you know what? Just about every Monday morning throughout that season of ministry, I spent time on my knees with Dr. Stanley, and as we prayed together, he essentially showed me that prayer was the secret ingredient and the foundation for everything he did.
For whatever reason, when I was a 27-year-old young man, Dr. Stanley took me under his wing and invested in me. He spent time with me, gave me access to rooms I had no business being in, and allowed me to join him in many ministry journeys across the globe. After a short while, he allowed me to begin preaching at First Baptist Atlanta. He said, “I believe if you can preach for me every fifth Sunday, that will allow me to extend my preaching ministry for several years.”
The only problem was I didn’t really know how to preach! I had been preaching to teenagers my entire ministry career, and now Dr. Stanley was inviting me to preach in his place, on that platform?!? (Talk about intimidating!)
What I realize now is that this was a crucial step in my development as a preacher. Dr. Stanley didn’t just throw me to the wolves on those particular Sunday mornings, but instead, he was intentional to shepherd me and coach me and he helped me to learn the process of preparation. We spent hours and days together each time I preached in his place, and he helped me formulate the message and prepare to preach it. And on the Monday morning following, he would wear me out (in a gracious and loving way) as he critiqued the message and coached me up in preparation for the next time.
When I think about the greatest lessons I learned from Dr. Stanley, of course it comes from content. Content like, “Obey God and leave all the consequences to Him” and “Fight all your battles on your knees and you’ll win every time.” Those words will forever ring in my ears. But beyond all the content, there was a relationship, and it was that relationship with Dr. Stanley, and the access God allowed me to have to him, that has forever changed my life.
I look at my experience with Dr. Stanley as a gift. But in my eyes, it’s a gift that comes with great stewardship responsibilities. Because of my experiences with him, I now want to shepherd the next generation of ministers with that same kind of intentionality and care. And after being exposed to the incredible, world-wide ministry of InTouch and seeing Dr. Stanley’s heart for reaching the world, I now have a desire to stand on his shoulders and do the same.
About a year ago, (just a handful of months before he graduated to glory) Dr. Stanley reached out to me, and invited me to partner with him in a new, innovative ministry called InTouch+. He said, “The world is cutting the cord on cable and people are now streaming their shows.” He said, “God told me to introduce my viewers to new voices, and I want you to be one of those voices.” He then went on to invite me to join him in bringing the Gospel to people on this new streaming network.
So, here we are once again. Even though Dr. Stanley is in Heaven with Jesus, his ministry lives on through the airwaves and his legacy lives on, through me (and many others like me). I’ll be forever grateful for Dr. Charles Stanley.
May God raise up a thousand more, just like him.
Jordan Easley currently serves as the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Cleveland—a 7,000 member congregation in East Tennessee. Jordan has a heart for the church, a passion for the Great Commission, and a burden for lost people. He wants to use his voice and his platform to share the gospel and mobilize believers to live on mission.
Learn more about Jordan here.