Ed Young (Fellowship Church)

Ed Young (Edwin Barry Young, born 16 March 1961) is the founding and senior pastor of Fellowship Church. With four campuses in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and one in Miami, Florida, Fellowship is one of the most attended churches in North America and was listed as the 3rd Most Influential Church in America according to a 2007 survey

Young is the oldest son of Homer Edwin Young, senior pastor of Second Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. He played basketball at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida before receiving his bachelor’s degree from Houston Baptist University and his Masters of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

Pastor

While attending Florida State University on a basketball scholarship, Ed saw firsthand the need for a church that would reach out to those who had not yet been introduced to Christ in ways that they could understand. Upon graduating college, Ed worked as an associate pastor at Second Baptist Church in Houston, Texas – at the time one of the largest churches in America.

Three years later, in February 1990, Ed began a small upstart church in the Dallas/Fort Worth area with a core group of 150 members. Since that time, Fellowship Church has grown to an average weekly attendance of over 20,000 people.

In 2003, the church began expanding beyond its central campus. Today, there are five Fellowship Church locations throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex and one in Miami, Florida.

Fellowship is a pioneer church driven by Ed’s belief and passion for churches to reach everyone, no matter what their background, with methods that everyone can understand. Today, that way of doing church has become the template and model for thousands of churches worldwide as they seek those new ways to reach out to their communities.

Fellowship Church

Fellowship has grown exponentially since its inception in 1990. After starting out in a rented office complex, moving to an arts center and then meeting in a public high school in Irving, Texas, Fellowship Church moved to its current 141-acre campus in Grapevine, Texas in the heart of the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
In 2003 Fellowship Church opened two satellite locations in the Plano and Fort Worth areas, with a third satellite opening in downtown Dallas just two years later. Fellowship Church’s latest satellite campus in Miami opened in May 2006.

Young is known for the "Sex challenge", in which he urged the married couples in his congregation to have sex 7 days in a row. He appeared on the January 26, 2009 episode of The Colbert Report to talk about this challenge. Later that year he participated in a live debate with Noel Biderman, founder of Ashley Madison (which encourages couples to engage in affairs), which was broadcast on Nightline.

Television

Ed Young hosts a weekly television program shown on networks including E! Channel, Daystar and ABC Family. The televsion program is the first of its kind ever aired on the E! Channel.

Creative Pastors

One of Ed’s deepest passions is equipping train young leaders with the tools necessary to be successful. Out of that desire to help, Ed developed Creative Pastors in 2004.

With a library of more than 2,500 resources available, Creative Pastors has become a staple for many organizations as they seek new ways to communicate their message. Each month, an average of 525 new accounts are created, totaling over 21,500 to date.

Conference Speaker

When Ed began Fellowship Church, he was determined to address issues that most leaders shied away from, and he began asking questions that leaders everywhere were seeking answers to. Those questions were the beginning of C3—the Creative Church Conference (www.C3Conference.com).

Each year, Ed Young and Fellowship Church host more than 2,000 pastors, leaders and teachers from around the world at C3, where they learn how they can effectively implement creativity in their own ministries.

Ed has also taken the message of C3 on the road over the years and hosted dozens of abbreviated, regional conferences across the country. And beginning in 2010, C3 will expand to host a full-scale conference on the east coast and west coast, as well as its annual international conference in Dallas/Fort Worth.

Because of his willingness to talk about the topics other leaders are often afraid to tackle, Ed is regularly asked to speak at other conferences and churches around the world, as well as several colleges and universities.

C3 Global

Beginning in 2010, Ed launched another adventure in church leadership – C3 Global.

C3 Global is a community of church leaders, pastors and lay leaders who work together, learn from and equip one another. Through C3 Global, pastors from around the world connect with one another and partner together with them through resources, conferences and behind-the-scenes looks at ministry in action.

Media Attention

Over the past twenty years, Ed Young and Fellowship Church have attracted a large amount of media attention—from local newspapers to internationally televised news programs.

Recently, Ed’s “7 Days of Sex Challenge,” which he issued to the married couples of Fellowship, attracted the attention of the worldwide media. Ed was contacted by more than 25 different media and news outlets, and he made appearances on several.

Ed attracted national media attention by debating the subject of adultery on ABC’s Nightline (September 24, 2009) when Ed debated the topic of adultery with AshleyMadison.com founder Noel Biderman on the ABC special, "Born to Cheat?.

In February 2010, an investigative story based on unnamed sources (said to be former Fellowship employees) reported Young is living a much more lavish lifestyle than his church members and the public knew. Young denied the allegations the following weekend in front of the church.

Bibliography

• Beauty Full ISBN 978-1-934146-46-0
• Outrageous, Contagious Joy ISBN 972-0-425-21185-4
• The Creative Leader ISBN 978-0-8054-3177-3
• The Creative Marriage ISBN 978-0-9725813-0-1
• You! ISBN 978-1-58229-446-9
• Kid CEO ISBN 978-0-446-69177-2
• In the Zone ISBN 978-0-872581-38-7]
• Know Fear ISBN 978-0-8054-2572-7
• Rating Your Dating While Waiting For Mating ISBN 9-780972-581318
• High Definition Living ISBN 978-1-58229-290-8
• Can We Do That? ISBN 978-1-58229-238-0

External links

• Ed Young Ministries