Charles Young

“My wife and I were victims of an armed robbery in a grocery store,” shares Charles Young, pastor of Living Hope Christian Fellowship, one of GCI’s congregations in the Atlanta, Georgia area.

“My wife once worked as a cashier at a major local grocery store. At the time she was six months pregnant. Masked gunmen entered the store before it was open to the public. I had just dropped Debbie off for work, and I was sitting in my car just about to return home. One of the gunmen approached me, showed me his gun and told me to get out of my car.

“I was told to enter the store through one of the side doors. When we entered, another gunman had me help him carry bags of money to another area of the store. (So technically, I took part in an armed robbery.) Then one of them led me to an area where there was a walk-in meat cooler. The door was opened. My wife and several of her co-workers had already been placed in the cooler. I was told to get in with them.

“For what seemed like an eternity I stood in that cooler, holding my wife. We didn’t know what was going to happen next. We all wondered if our lives would end there. But by God’s grace, after some time another employee arrived. As he was going about his duties he opened the cooler and we were able to escape. That experience showed us God’s amazing grace and faithfulness in a very real way. A few weeks later in a similar type of hold-up, some of the employees were shot and killed.”

Fortunately, Charles’ life hasn’t always been quite as dramatic. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he attended school all the way through college. “I am from a very large family, six brothers and five sisters. We are a very close family. We have annual family gatherings and most of my siblings live near each other.”

Charles was introduced to WCG/GCI through his mother. “She began listening to the radio broadcast and subscribing to the church’s literature in the early 60s. She wanted to join the church, but we didn’t live near a congregation at the time. So my mother had church with my siblings and me at home, using the church’s literature. My mom was my first pastor and she taught me and my siblings to love the Lord. I wanted to be a part of WCG because of what I was taught about God and the church at an early age.”

In the midst of this, Charles met and married Debbie. “I met my wife Debbie while we were in high school. I was a sophomore and she was a freshman. I don’t know if there is such a thing as love at first sight. If not, she was certainly someone that I wanted to spend a whole lot of time with. A year after we met, Debbie and I became high school sweethearts. We were married a year after she graduated from high school. During that time I was in college and I worked for an airline.

Charles and Debby have now been married for 39 years and have two sons, Robert and Michael and five grandchildren. It was after the birth of their two sons that Charles and Debbie started attending church regularly. “The first church service that I attended was the Chicago south-side congregation.” Then in 1982, after a job transfer to Atlanta, Georgia, Charles and Debbie started attending the Atlanta congregation. “Within a couple of years the Atlanta church gave birth to three other churches in the area.”

Charles was ordained a deacon and became a pastor in 1997. “I was given the opportunity to serve as a bi-vocational pastor after completing the ministerial training in Pasadena.” He and Debbie share the ministry together. “My wife is my best friend and greatest prayer warrior. She helps chiefly by praying for me daily. She goes on every visit with me and has since day one. Being an excellent cook, Debbie often prepares meals for our members and non-members as a ministry. Debbie is one of our primary worship leaders and on occasion gives messages. My wife is my biggest cheerleader, counselor and confidant.”

What Charles enjoys most about being a pastor is helping people. “It’s truly amazing to see how God is able to touch people through my life. If I can help people see Jesus Christ through my words and works, to me that’s pretty awesome.” And what he enjoys most about being part of GCI is “the sense of being a part of a large extended family. I’m from a large family and being a part of GCI is like being a part of a huge worldwide family. That sense of family is experienced every time we have church services, district meetings and especially when we have our international conferences.”

Charles shared that his most memorable moment as a pastor was when the congregation “marched into our new church building for our first worship service. We have been blessed with the opportunity to build our own church building. During its construction there were many obstacles we had to overcome. The county, the contractors, the bank, all provided challenges that we had to deal with. At one juncture, it seemed like the church project just wasn’t going to be completed. But God prevailed.

“The day we were finally able to hold our first worship service, the whole church, beginning with our oldest member down to the youngest, all marched into our new building while praising God for the good things he has done.”

Charles gives credit to Al Barr for being a mentor. “Pastor Barr baptized me back in 1979. He was my pastor in two different congregations and my first District Superintendent when I became a pastor. Now he is a retired pastor and member of my congregation. I still look to him for advice and counsel.”

When asked about his passion, Charles gave a similar answer to why he loves to pastor: “Simply helping people come to know and experience the amazing grace and the indescribable love of our Great God.”

When does he feel closest to God? “Solitude is when I feel closest to God. When I’m alone in our church sanctuary kneeling in prayer at the altar, or just sitting alone silently in his presence, that’s when I feel closest to God.”