Megachurch pastor Andy Stanley revealed his late father, Dr. Charles Stanley, unusual last words.
Andy Stanley and Charles Stanley
Georgia’s Northpoint Community Church Pastor Andy took to Twitter to pay tributes to his legendary father. He shared how the evangelical broadcaster and former pastor of First Baptist Church did something unusual on his last visit.
“These final few weeks with my dad have been precious beyond words,” he wrote. “At the end of every visit, he asked me to pray for him. Which, of course, I did. On my knees beside the big leather chair he was confined to for the past several months.”
“But as I was leaving his house this past Saturday night, he asked if he could pray for me. As if he knew,” Andy confessed. “Then, as was his habit, he said, ‘I couldn’t be prouder of you Andy.'”
Dr. Charles’ last words to Andy were “wonderful and weighty.”
“The source of a word determines its weight. Those were wonderfully weighty words. And his final words to me,” Andy said.
These final few weeks with my dad have been precious beyond words. At the end of every visit, he asked me to pray for him. Which of course I did. On my knees beside the big leather chair he was confined to for the past several months.
But as I was leaving his house this past… pic.twitter.com/2gQWeHgtFW
— Andy Stanley (@AndyStanley) April 19, 2023
Father And Son
The two revealed that they had many differences. “But my dad and I were both committed to maintaining our relationship despite our differences,” Andy said in an interview with the founder of In-Touch Ministries.
During their “difficult season,” Charles and Andy would meet in a restaurant in an attempt to reconcile things. “It was so difficult, honestly, we would meet together because we knew we should, and we would just sit there. It was hard for us to even talk.”
But Charles would express his determination to salvage their relationship. He told Andy, “Andy, we have both been around long enough to know what happens to fathers and sons who go through something like this. And I don’t want that to happen to us.”
And thankfully, Andy did not want that either.
“I’ll miss him every day until I see him again,” Andy said.
Header Image: Andy Stanley [@AndyStanley], Twitter, 20 Apr 2023, https://twitter.com/AndyStanley/status/1648732016890855425/photo/2
